crimes and courts

Police should have never entered an alleged drug dealer's Woodbury home based on the information they had, an attorney argued in court last week. Brian Karalus, the attorney representing Frank Santovi Jr., issued a pre-trial motion to suppress information about drugs taken from Santovi's...

A Woodbury man faces two felony charges after allegedly beating his girlfriend so severely that she was left with deep cuts and couldn't determine what month it was once authorities arrived. Thomas Schoenthaler, 31, was charged May 29 with one count of third-degree assault and one...

The City of Afton and GJ&M Develomplment Inc. returned to court Jan. 13 at the Minnesota Court of Appeals. GJ&M's lawyers filed an appeal in April 2010 requesting a new jury trial. GJ&M, a development group, alleges the city, a former mayor and a former city administrator acted...

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson on Thursday sued 3M Company over past chemical contamination of ground water in the eastern Twin Cities. Swanson's office wants the company to pay for environmental damage caused by decades of pollution in the Washington County area. "3M polluted...

This afternoon, the Afton City Council is meeting with their city attorney, in closed session, to review and discuss a proposed settlement presented to them by GJ&M Development Inc. Neither the city's, nor GJ&M's attorneys, would comment on the proposed settlement. Gordy Jarvis,...

Woodbury Public Safety director Lee Vague held a noon news briefing in the Royal Oaks neighborhood to address the details surrounding a domestic violence incident on Feb. 22 in which one was shot, and two were taken to the hospital with injuries.

According to the Washington County Sheriff's Office, the following people were booked into the Washington County Jail between 7 a.m. Friday and 7 a.m. Monday: Michael P. Bystrom, 55, of Woodbury, on a fourth-degree DWI charge. Richard J. Cinker, 33, of Woodbury, on a fourth-degree...

A Duluth man with a history of burglary to satisfy a self-professed sexual fetish for slashing large rubber exercise balls has been at it again, according to a complaint made public on Thursday. Christopher Neil Bjerkness, 31, is accused of breaking into the St. Mary's/Duluth Clinic...