Star Tribune
Ramsey County Juvenile Detention Center worker hit youth, investigation finds
A Ramsey County Juvenile Detention Center worker hit a young person under their watch several times, leaving their face swollen and bruised, according to a state investigation into a second case of physical abuse at the facility within a year.
The incident occurred in February, but the Department of Human Services recently published its investigation findings, determining yet again that “serious maltreatment” had occurred at the center.
The clash started when a staff person told young people in the juvenile detention center to go to their bedrooms and one person who was on the phone continued their call, according to DHS’s report.
A staff member tried to take away the phone and the youth cursed and slapped the worker, the report states. The employee responded by hitting the young person in the face and head several times with their fists, leaving them with a swollen eye and visibly bruised head, investigators found.
Ramsey County immediately suspended the worker, who had “no further contact” with the victim, the investigative report states.
DHS took things a step further. They disqualified the staff person from any job involving direct contact or access to people receiving services from agencies or programs that require a DHS background study. That includes juvenile detention centers and various other settings, like child care and adult day care centers.
The investigative report does not name the employee, but notes the person started working at the facility in 2016 and had been trained on policies and procedures, including receiving a “policy review refresher” early this year. Staff are supposed to use the minimum amount of force necessary in responding to perceived threats and never use force as punishment, according to the facility’s use of force policy.
The abuse was captured on video and audio recordings, and an investigator interviewed those involved and witnesses. Their report says a couple other staff members quickly moved between the two, but the employee continued to swing at the youth “at times reaching over and around” the other staff members before realizing what they had done and leaving.
The staff person said they “reacted” and were unsure why they hit the young person, but “everything happened very quickly,” the report states.
The Department of Corrections licenses the detention center and a spokesman for the department said they were “made aware by the facility immediately that the staff person was removed from the building and was being placed [on] administrative leave until the conclusion of the investigation. The DOC concluded our licensing investigation and determined no licensing violations occurred.”
In a statement through spokesperson Rose Lindsay, Ramsey County said it cannot comment due to the confidential nature of human resource matters.
“Ramsey County is committed to maintaining a respectful and safe environment for employees and those in our care,” the county said. “We take all maltreatment allegations seriously and will fully cooperate with any related investigations by our licensing authorities.”
Second incident in a year
It is the second time DHS has issued a serious maltreatment finding for the Ramsey County facility within the calendar year. In both cases, DHS found the employee, not the facility, was responsible for the incident.
In October, the department found a staff member maltreated a juvenile by grabbing and forcing them to the floor, behavior a supervisor had called “way outside” the facility’s use-of-force policy.
Following an exchange of words, the staffer grabbed the juvenile’s T-shirt at the neck and forced them to the floor, getting on top of the young person and pushing them into the floor multiple times. The juvenile’s head bounced up and down, hitting the floor twice, according to the DHS memo.
The juvenile was found unresponsive numerous times in the following days, sometimes with blood nearby. The employee was terminated.
The Ramsey County detention facility can hold 44 juveniles who are waiting for court appearances.
DHS publicly lists maltreatment investigation memorandums for four out of 15 Minnesota facilities licensed to provide children’s residential detention services. The documents remain online for four years after they are posted.
Ramsey County’s was the only facility with two such investigation memorandums, while Hennepin County, Northwestern Minnesota Juvenile Center in Bemidji, and Prairie Lakes Youth Programs Captain’s Academy in Willmar, had one.
Star Tribune
Man sentenced to more than 30 years in murder of fellow resident at West St. Paul group home
A 43-year-old man was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison Friday for stabbing to death a fellow resident at a state-operated mental health group home in West St. Paul.
John C. Adams II was found guilty in September in Dakota County District Court of intentional second-degree murder in the death of David Rahn, 68, in 2020. Adams will get credit for 1,777 days already served on his 367-month sentence, and was ordered to pay $2,088 in restitution.
According to the criminal complaint, Adams stabbed Rahn dozens of times in the early morning of Feb. 17, 2020, at the home in the 1500 block of Christensen Avenue. After a staff member heard Rahn scream for help and called 911, police found Rahn unresponsive on the floor of his bedroom with stab wounds to his face, neck and back. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and his death was ruled a homicide.
Adams at first claimed self-defense and later said Rahn had stabbed himself. But the medical examiner found evidence that the victim had tried to fend off the attack. Police found a bloody kitchen knife and a pair of blood-soaked gloves inside bags left at a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses across the street.
Adams was convicted of third-degree assault in 2001 in Hennepin County for smashing a glass in a woman’s face in downtown Minneapolis. The court found him to be “a clear danger to the safety of others” and mentally incompetent to stand trial. His sentence was set aside in exchange for him being put under Security Hospital supervision for at least three years.
In October 2018, Adams was granted provisional discharge from the Security Hospital to the home on Christensen Avenue, but that discharge was revoked less than nine months later for violations of the discharge conditions.
The home of one of three group home operated by the state Department of Human Services for people civilly committed for a mental illness and then discharged from a DHS treatment facility.
Staff writer Paul Walsh contributed to this story.
Health insurer UCare has reached an agreement with HealthPartners clinics, which will allow thousands of patients to continue seeing the same doctors without switching health plans next year.
The two companies announced the agreement Friday evening. The terms are effective immediately.
“As mission-driven organizations, UCare and HealthPartners share a commitment to improving health outcomes for our community, and the organizations’ ongoing collaboration reflects that shared goal,” a joint statement said.
The clinics had been out of network for several years, but UCare had waived rules that would have blocked patients from making appointments. UCare said it would start enforcing the network rules Jan. 1.
Star Tribune
Man charged in Brooklyn Park homicide had connection to 2022 Mall of America fatal shooting
A 19-year-old Coon Rapids man, who played a role in a 2022 fatal shooting at the Mall of America, is facing murder charges in connection with an apparent targeted shooting earlier this month in Brooklyn Park.
Citing witnesses, surveillance footage and cell phone data, prosecutors say that Marquan D. Tucker waited in a parking lot Dec. 7 before opening fire on two people when they exited a business in the 8000 block of Brooklyn Boulevard.
The two victims returned fire, though one was wounded and the other, Ramone R. Blue, 23, of Stewartville, Minn., was killed. The complaint, filed Friday, offers no motive for the shooting.
The shooting happened about seven months after Tucker was discharged from court monitoring related to the 2022 fatal shooting of 19-year-old Johntae Hudson in a department store at the Mall of America, according to court records.
Tucker was charged with third-degree riot in the case and was adjudicated as delinquent, or found guilty, court records said. He was one of three teens who confronted or chased Hudson into the store where the shooting happened. The two teens who carried guns received long prison sentences.
Tucker was being held Friday at the Hennepin County jail. It wasn’t clear if he yet had an attorney.
According to the criminal complaint:
Surveillance video shows a black BMW pull into the parking lot in Brooklyn Park around 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 7. As the two victims exit a business, a man leaves the passenger seat of the BMW, hides behind another car and fires about 16 shots. The gunman then flees in the BMW.
