Mike Longaecker
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Mike Longaecker is the regional public safety reporter for RiverTown Multimedia. His coverage area spans St. Croix and Pierce counties. Longaecker served from 2011-2015 as editor of the Woodbury Bulletin. A University of Wisconsin-River Falls graduate, Longaecker previously reported for the Red Wing Republican Eagle and for the Forum Communications Minnesota Capitol Bureau. You can follow him on Twitter at @Longaecker
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The Royals remained unbeaten after a home win Thursday over Suburban East Conference opponent Cretin-Derham Hall. Woodbury junior forward Jordan Graham scored the winning goal, giving the Royals a 3-2 win and improving their record to 4-0 overall and 1-0-1 in the SEC. The Raiders drew first blood with a goal at 5:31 in the first period. Woodbury evened the score later in the period when senior Evan Erickson put the puck past Cretin goalie Alex Bailey.
A Minneapolis woman may be adjusting her privacy settings after police used Facebook to locate her in a Woodbury theft case. The woman, 25-year-old Samantha M. Petersen, was sentenced last month on a felony fraud conviction in Washington County District Court. Judge John Hoffman sentenced Petersen to 106 days in jail and five years on probation. The conviction stemmed from a December 2010 case involving thefts from vehicles at the Woodbury Life Time Fitness Center. According to a criminal complaint, police were called Dec.
A Wisconsin man made police work easy last month for a Woodbury officer. After being pulled over on Interstate 94, the man got out of his car, put his hands above his head and said, "I'm gonna make your job easy," according to a criminal complaint. Without provocation from the officer, the man said "the car is stolen." The suspect, Wisconsin Rapids resident Bee Khang, was charged Nov. 18 in Washington County with one count of motor vehicle theft, a felony. He was released from jail on $1,000 bail. According to the complaint: The Woodbury officer received a report Nov.
Joshua Hanson doesn't have a pillow to sleep on. When he and the other members of his Marine Corps unit bed down at night in Afghanistan, they improvise by stuffing loose clothes in a pillowcase. They don't complain. But Hanson's mother, Woodbury resident Luli Flores-Hanson, knows the members of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines could be sleeping more comfortably. In an effort to make the soldiers' lives a little less primitive, she has organized a locally based care-package drive.
A Thanksgiving Day break-in at two Woodbury businesses was the latest in a string of business burglaries that police suspect are related. Woodbury police Commander Jay Alberio said the recent break-ins - at Kay Jewelers, Yang's Chinese Restaurant, and most recently at Haskell's Liquor Store and Jordan Meats - were likely perpetrated by members of the same group. "They're likely connected," Alberio said. The most recent burglaries occurred just before 7 a.m. Nov. 24, when police were called to a burglary alarm at Haskell's.
A Woodbury woman was elected last weekend to the highest state post for Minnesota Republicans - at least temporarily. Kelly Fenton will lead the Minnesota Republican Party as its deputy chairwoman while the party waits to select its new chairperson. Outgoing Chairman Tony Sutton announced Friday, Dec. 2, that he was resigning his post - just one day before the party convened its central committee meeting. During the meeting, Fenton was elected to the deputy chair post on the second round of voting by party activists.
Would it have been Braedon Hyland's wish to see Saturday's Woodbury-East Ridge game end in a tie? Coaches on both sides of the 2-2 draw thought so. "A tie was meant to be," said Royals boys hockey coach Wes Bolin. "It was probably the impact that Braedon had on the game. A tie was what he probably had in mind." Raptors coach Doug Long agreed. "It seems fitting, yeah," he said. The game began with a tribute to Hyland, an East Ridge senior who died Oct. 14 from injuries sustained in an Afton automobile crash.
A 21-year-old Afton man accused of possessing child pornography was sentenced this month to three months in jail. The sentence, issued by Washington County District Court Judge Susan Miles, also requires the accused, Leif Iverson, to spend five years on probation. Iverson's terms of probation are extensive, and include no unsupervised contact with children and strict limitations for computers or the Internet. Iverson pleaded guilty in August to one count of possessing a pornographic work, a felony.
A Woodbury man is suspected of keeping more than $700,000 in bail bonds after he was fired by his employer. According to a Woodbury police report, local authorities were contacted Nov. 25 by officials from the Detroit, Mich., based firm You Walk Bail Bond Agency. The agency stated the man, whose name was not released, had been the local agent for You Walk Bail Bond Agency and had been issued $741,940 worth of bonds in May.
A suspiciously low selling price for a used Cadillac triggered a chain of events that ultimately led to the arrest of a Twin Cities man. The suspect, 39-year-old Timothe Bolle, is accused of stealing his former employer's vehicle and attempting to sell it through the website Craigslist.com. His attempt was foiled in Woodbury after a would-be buyer puzzled by the unusually low asking price investigated the vehicle and learned it had been stolen. Washington County prosecutors charged Bolle, of Hopkins, with one count of receiving stolen property, a felony. The incident began unfolding Oct.