Tom Bartholomew has won a race for Inver Grove Heights mayor in a tight contest with Brenda Dietrich. Bartholomew pulled in 458 more votes than Dietrich.

With mayor George Tourville’s two-year term expiring this year, the two new candidates Bartholomew and Dietrich competed for the Inver Grove Heights spot. Both Dietrich and Bartholomew were Inver Grove Heights city council members whose terms were set to expire in December 2020.

The council will also have two other new members. John Murphy and Susan Gliva polled with about the same number of votes in another close race for Inver Grove Heights city council. Murphy had 26.45 percent of the vote and Gliva polled at 26.28 percent. Incumbent Kara Perry followed with 23.43 percent and Annette Maggi with 23.15 percent of the vote.

All results are unofficial until they are certified by local boards of elections. This year, many counties may have a backlog of absentee ballots to count, so complete results could be delayed. Also, state officials plan to count all ballots postmarked by Election Day but received later. Those have yet to be counted, and they may be subject to a court challenge.

Bartholomew, a 37-year-old resident of Inver Grove Heights, was a past member and chairperson of the Inver Grove Heights Planning Commission for nine years. He also served the last eight years on the city council.

Dietrich is a local business owner, high school mentor and past chairman of the board at the Chamber of Commerce.

Murphy is a current member and past president of the West St. Paul-Mendota Heights Rotary Club and served as a Guardian ad Litem in Dakota County. He has advocated for transparent government and convenient parks and trail access.

Gliva served on the Inver Grove Heights Schools Board of Education, with a focus on finance, policy and personnel committees. She also owns a small business and is a River Heights Chamber of Commerce member.

Read the 2020 Inver Grove Heights voter’s guide here.

An Inver Grove Heights man has been indicted on two counts of first-degree murder in connection with a South St. Paul shooting in April that left one man dead and another injured.

According to the criminal complaint, Marcelino Santiago Lopez, 19, allegedly shot Brandon Jose Nieves, 20, of South St. Paul with a shotgun in a dispute over a girlfriend that started online.

Lopez was indicted Friday by a Dakota County grand jury on one count each of first- and second-degree murder. He was also indicted on one count each of first- and second-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault for the non-fatal shooting of a 16-year-old male from Georgia that occurred at the same time and location.

“Our sympathy is extended to family and friends of Brandon Nieves for their great loss,” said Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom. “We are thankful for the recovery of the 16-year-old victim who was in critical condition and required emergency surgery after this incident to save his life.”

About 1:30 p.m. April 2, South St. Paul police responded to a report of gunfire when they found Nieves and the 16-year-old lying in the street. Nieves, who had been shot in the head, was pronounced dead at the scene. The minor had been shot in the chest.

Lopez told police he had come to fight Nieves because Nieves was in a romantic relationship with his former girlfriend. According to the criminal complaint, Lopez had threatened to kill Nieves several times over social media.

Lopez told police that when Nieves arrived, he had brought other friends with him. Lopez said he grabbed his shotgun and shot at two of them before driving away.

A short time later, Lopez called police to turn himself in.

Lopez is in the Dakota County jail with bail set at $1.5 million without conditions. His first appearance will take place next week in Hastings.

The Dakota County Sheriff’s Office, the West St. Paul Police Department, the Inver Grove Heights Police Department and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension assisted with the investigation.

One by one, city halls are closing to the public.

St. Paul and Minneapolis have not announced city-hall closings, but a number in the suburbs have.

A Friday spot-check shows that the city halls of North St. Paul, Lake Elmo, Inver Grove Heights and Stillwater are closed. By Monday, the city halls of Oakdale, Lakeville and Shoreview will be shuttered.

Roseville’s city hall is closed, but other programs and facilities are open to the public.

Eagan’s city hall remains open, but all park facilities have been closed including the Community Center and Civic Arena.

Cities are closing facilities in the wake of a shut-down order by Gov. Walz. Effective Nov. 20,  bars, restaurants, fitness centers and entertainment venues must close for four weeks.

The shut-down order did not apply directly to most city facilities, but many cities are closing them anyway, as the COVID pandemic surges in Minnesota.

As of Friday, suburbs that have not yet announced closings include Cottage Grove, Maplewood, South St. Paul and White Bear Lake.

Public access to municipal facilities is changing almost day-to-day, and officials recommend checking on city websites before visiting.

Vance Grannis Jr., an Eagan attorney who was the first mayor of Inver Grove Heights, where he helped preserve more than 100 acres of his land through a conservation easement, died Tuesday at age 83.

A $3.9 million deal finalized between Dakota County and the Grannis family in 2017 put 109 acres of their land into the county’s Farmland and Natural Areas Program, meaning it is off-limits to developers and will be restored to native species of plants and wildlife.

The property, which is south of Minnesota 55 and stretches from South Robert Trail on the west to Barnes Avenue on the east, includes the largest lake within the Marcott chain of lakes and high-quality woodlands, wetlands, grasslands and agricultural land.

Nearly eight years in the making, the easement agreement allows county residents to use the property through programs and classes offered by Darvan Acres Outdoor Skills and Environmental Center, a nonprofit Grannis established in 2011. The nature center will continue under his family’s guidance, said son Vaughn Grannis.

“Vance was a very strong conservationist and wanted to protect his land and leave a legacy, and he worked hard at that,” said George Tourville, the city’s mayor. “And when it came to be, I was very happy for him because he worked hard to get that done.”

Grannis grew up in South St. Paul and spent his summers on the family’s land, which his grandfather owned.

“His grandfather had a dairy farm out here, and my dad just fell in love with nature and this place,” said daughter, Debbie Grannis. “When he got married, he wanted to build a house out here, so he did.”

This past June, Vance and his wife, Darlene, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on the land surrounded by friends and family. “It was a great day,” his daughter said.

After graduating from South St. Paul High School, Grannis followed the footsteps of his grandfather and father and became an attorney. He earned a law degree from the University of Minnesota and in 1960 began working at the family’s South St. Paul law firm, Grannis & Grannis, which was founded in 1908 and located along Concord Street.

In the early ’60s, as a young lawyer, Grannis worked with Sen. Paul Thuet Jr. and Rep. Walter Klaus to help defeat a plan in the state Legislature to combine Inver Grove Heights, Burnsville, Eagan, Apple Valley, Lakeville and Rosemount into one large village in Dakota County.

In February 1965, state lawmakers passed companion bills merging Inver Grove Village and Inver Grove Township.

At the urging of Grannis, one bill required residents from both communities to agree to the plan through a vote. They did just that in March 1965, and soon “Heights” was added to “Inver Grove.” Grannis became the new city’s first mayor, serving through 1968.

The firm Grannis & Grannis later merged with Hauge, Eide, Anderson & Keller and subsequently became Grannis & Hauge, based in Eagan.

Over his six-decade-long law career, Grannis was a general practice attorney but also a city attorney for Burnsville and a few other Dakota County cities, his son said. He was practicing law part time up until his death.

Grannis also worked part time as a municipal law judge and volunteered for over 25 years as a police reserve officer in Inver Grove Heights.

Grannis was diagnosed with a blood infection in July and likely of died of sepsis, his daughter said. He died at home with his family and dog, Bergen, by his side.

A Celebration of Life will be held sometime in 2021, his son said.

In addition to his daughter and son, survivors include wife, Darlene; son Chip Granger; three grandchildren; three step-grandchildren; and two step-great-grandchildren.

A video of an Inver Grove Heights squirrel that got drunk off fermented pears is blowing up on the Internet.

In the video Katy Morlok posted on her YouTube channel Saturday, the tipsy squirrel is seen standing in front a feeder on its hind legs and leaning back slowly as if in a drunken stupor. Twice the rodent catches itself before falling off a perch.

“The old pears I left out for the squirrels had apparently fermented,” Morlok wrote in a description with the one-minute long video. “Whoops!”

Morlok, who titled the video “Drunk squirrel, because…2020,” said that the squirrel, which she’s named “Lil Red,” returned to the feeder the next morning and appeared fine.

The video has been viewed on Morlok’s page more than 138,000 times, and the story has been covered nationally and even globally by media such as The Guardian and Daily Mail.

YouTube comments have been mostly positive and sarcastic, with many people saying they can relate to the squirrel.

“Been there, done that,” one YouTube user commented.

“Wait — do we look that silly when we’re loaded?” another asked.

This isn’t Morlok’s first video of an animal that has gone viral. Morlok has a mini pig named Hamlet and videos of the family pet have racked up more than 15 million views on YouTube. A 2011 video of the squealing pig being coaxed down a flight of stairs with oatmeal has been seen more than 7 million times.

The Inver Grove Heights City Council has concluded the city’s human resources manager did not violate the state’s data practices law, but did decide to give her a written reprimand over claims that she did not fully cooperate with an investigation.

The city council voted 4-1 Tuesday on a resolution to impose the written reprimand and reject findings in an investigative report that concluded Janet Shefchik violated the state’s data practices law when she shared and discussed an employee’s email with City Council Member Brenda Dietrich last year.

The allegation that Shefchik broke the law by leaking the email surfaced in July after a complaint was filed against her. Who filed the complaint has not been made public, but Shefchik points her finger at City Administrator Joe Lynch and said the inquiry is his way of retaliation against her for cooperating with an investigation against him in 2018 and 2019.

Several council members said they believed Shefchik giving and discussing an email with Dietrich did not rise to a data breach, which could have led to a possible suspension or termination. But they were concerned about her actions during the early part of the investigation.

This past October, city officials reached out to the state’s Department of Administration asking whether the leaked email would classify as a data breach. The office chose not to issue an advisory opinion on the matter.

“I’m highly skeptical of it, and I’ve been very public about that,” Council Member Tom Bartholemew said Tuesday of a possible data breach. “I’m just not seeing it. I’m not following it. What really concerns me, however, are the actions of the employee during the investigation. I’m concerned about the less-than-truthful comments during the investigation, and it appears to almost be an attempt to impede the investigation, if you read the report.”

On Wednesday, Bartholemew said he could not comment about what he was referring to because the report is not yet considered public.

Contacted Wednesday, Shefchik said she was still unclear about why some on the council feel she was not truthful or cooperative. “It’s not true,” she said.

Shefchik reiterated at Tuesday’s meeting what she’s said before: Dietrich reached out to her and asked to meet over staffing. They met at a restaurant outside the city.

“I think that they think it was something that I set up,” Shefchik said Wednesday, adding that she does not recall ever giving Dietrich a copy of the email.

Shefchik said Lynch gave her a copy of the email one day at City Hall and that the email author’s boss also somehow ended up with a copy. She said it was critical of her, as well as Lynch and other employees, so she brought it up to Dietrich during their meeting.

Dietrich eventually presented the email during a job performance review of Lynch in the fall of 2019. Ultimately, the email was not included as part of Lynch’s performance evaluation, but it did raise the question of how she got it.

Shefchik has been Inver Grove’s head of human resources since 2014 and a resident of the city for 32 years.

Inver Grove Heights is parting ways with its city administrator, Joe Lynch.

Lynch has been in charge of leading the city since 2006 but in 2019 was suspended for violating a respectful workplace policy. He is now under investigation on an accusation of fifth-degree assault.

The assault investigation relates to a two-year-old interaction between Lynch and former City Clerk Michelle Tesser and began when she filed a complaint this month, sources said Wednesday. In August 2018, Tesser filed a complaint that contained several allegations against Lynch, and he was ultimately suspended for three days without pay after a law firm found that he insulted her and made an offensive comment about her dress.

In an interview Wednesday, Lynch said that Tesser’s latest claim is “patently false, and there’s no merit whatsoever to it.” He said he cannot comment further, including whether the claim was looked into back in 2018.

The Savage Police Department is the agency investigating the claim, sources said.

As the top worker for a city of approximately 36,200 residents, Lynch oversees 155 full-time employees, including six department heads, and numerous part-time employees. His salary this year totals nearly $163,000.

MUTUAL PARTING OF WAYS

Lynch through his attorney approached city officials this month to gauge a mutual parting of ways. At a Dec. 22 meeting, the city council by a unanimous vote authorized the city attorney’s office to negotiate a separation agreement with Lynch and gave their specific guidelines of terms and requirements they wanted to see in it.

On Tuesday night, the city council on a 4-1 vote agreed to the separation agreement and a transition period that keeps Lynch on the job for 60 days and possibly another 30 more. It also allows the city council to shorten the length of time he is on the job.

At the Dec. 22 meeting, City Attorney Kori Land called the ongoing employment unusual.

“Sometimes that can be a bit bumpy,” she said. “Once you try and sever the relationship, it makes it awkward.”

Council Member Brenda Dietrich cast the lone “no” vote Tuesday. Dietrich, who has been a vocal critic of Lynch since she joined the council in 2019, said her decision was based on the “culture” at City Hall and allegations against him and that she doesn’t “believe it’s in the best interest to have him stay on for 30, 60 or 90 days, certainly.”

Following the 2018 investigation and other claims of a toxic environment at City Hall, consultants were brought in to try and get to the bottom of the ongoing issues and correct them.

LYNCH OUTLINES FACTORS

Lynch told the council Dec. 22 that his decision to leave was based on several factors, including that starting next month the city will have a new mayor and two new city council members; the COVID-19 pandemic; and “given the year that we’ve had with a number of other items and issues.”

An investigation was launched this summer into whether the city’s human resources manager, Janet Shefchik, violated the state’s data practices law when she shared and discussed an employee’s email with Dietrich last year. On Dec. 7, the city council agreed that there was not a violation but did decide to give her a written reprimand over claims that she did not fully cooperate with the investigation.

The allegation that Shefchik broke the law by leaking the email surfaced in July after a complaint was filed against her. Who filed the complaint has not been made public, but Shefchik pointed her finger at Lynch and said the inquiry was his way of retaliation against her for cooperating with the 2018 respectful workplace allegations levied against him.

Tesser, who filed a discrimination complaint with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights over how she was treated by Lynch, left the city in July 2019 through a separation agreement that included an $89,600 payout for “non wages.” She also agreed to withdraw the complaint.

Lynch told the council that he would like to stay on the job for 90 days — instead of 60 days that is spelled out in his contract — because he believes he could help the city through a transition period of a new city administrator coming on board. He also noted that the parks and recreation director recently left for a job in Apple Valley and that the public works director put in his retirement notice this month.

When asked Wednesday in an interview why he wants out of his job, Lynch said: “Given the environment that’s been perpetuated and the lack of standards being upheld by the council leadership, those are not in alignment with my values and my professional ethics.” Lynch declined to expand on what he meant by a lack of standards.

The criminal investigation did not play a part in his decision to ask to leave his job, Lynch said.

WHAT’S IN THE DEAL

The separation agreement approved Tuesday includes the standard mutual release of claims and an indemnification provision, which requires cities by state law to compensate former employees for legal fees in defending themselves in a civil suit over a claim that allegedly took place while they were employed with the city — and if they are found not guilty.

Any legal expenses under a civil suit are not covered by the League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust because Lynch is under a contract, Land said.

Meanwhile, Lynch will not be allowed to hire, fire or discipline employees without the consideration of the city council.

The separation agreement is not considered public until it has been approved and signed and the 15-day rescission period is over.

Lynch on Wednesday said that he believes that he has done a good job during his 14 years with the city and that he “has acted within the scope and authority as my position as city administrator to help improve the community and city of Inver Grove Heights.”

“I think I’ve done it with professional integrity and ethics, and I think that I’ve treated all people fairly and decently,” he continued. “I know there are many people on staff and within the community who know my character, my personality and my person and they know that I’m not what’s been alleged, and they support me.”

Lynch, 61, who lives in St. Paul, added that he has not decided what he is going to do next career-wise.

A greenhouse fire at Gertens Garden Center and Nursery Sunday night sent firefighters from four departments to the Inver Grove Heights business in an effort to contain the damage, which ultimately was limited to the one structure.

Inver Grove Heights firefighters who were paged to the family-owned garden center at 5500 Blaine Ave. at 6:38 p.m. arrived to find a large greenhouse going up in flames. Limited access to the structure, a large wood chip pile inside, long hose lays and ice all created difficulties for firefighters, Fire Chief Judy Thill said.

There was no major damage to nearby buildings, including the main garden center store. Gertens opened for business as scheduled Monday.

The initial fire call Sunday night was upgraded to a second alarm for more help at the scene, then a third alarm to bring help to cover the city for other emergency calls, according to Thill.

INVER GROVE HEIGHTS: Greenhouse fire at Gertens, big response from local FD’s. This is a 30 old min pic but they are still on scene. pic.twitter.com/691y7rsIoL

— Markie Kelly (@MarcTwinCities) January 18, 2021

Damage was contained to a portion of the greenhouse, as well as equipment and plants inside, Thill said.

The cause of the fire is unknown and is being investigated.

There were no injuries.

Located on 95 acres south of Interstate 494 and east of U.S. 52, Gertens is one of the largest single-location garden centers in the state. This year marks its 100th anniversary.

“While this isn’t quite the way we thought we would begin our 100th year in business, we are thankful to have such great customers and a wonderful community to serve, even during times like these,” Gertens said in a statement.

The fire did not spread beyond the one greenhouse “thanks to quick action by brave local firefighters and first responders.”

Firefighters from the South Metro, Mendota Heights and Rosemount fire departments helped battle the blaze.

Authorities are investigating the death of a man was found dead in an Inver Grove Heights snow bank Monday morning.

At around 8 a.m., Inver Grove Heights police were called to a neighborhood in the 1300 block of West 60th Street on a report of a suspicious incident. The man was found lying in a snow bank on the south side of the road, Police Chief Melissa Chiodo said in a prepared statement.

The unidentified man was unresponsive and deceased, she said.

The area where the man was found is just east of Interstate 494 near the city’s border with Sunfish Lake.

The road is currently closed due to the active scene.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Investigation is assisting Inver Grove Heights police with the investigation.

Chiodo said additional details will be released to the public as the investigation plays out.

City spokeswoman Amy Looze said it is too early in the investigation to say if the death is considered suspicious or health-related.

Police are asking anyone with information regarding the death investigation to call the crime tip line at 651-450-2530 and leave a message.

A Sunday night drug deal led to the death of the seller, who was shot in the head by the buyer and left in a snowbank in Inver Grove Heights, according to charges filed Thursday in Dakota County District Court.

The buyer then fled in the seller’s SUV and was arrested after crashing it during a chase involving Minneapolis police, the charges state.

Gabriel Alfonso Sanchez Cruz, 42, of Minneapolis, was charged with second-degree murder in connection with the killing of Bryant Jon Lutgens, of Burnsville, who was found dead on Monday, his 39th birthday. Cruz is being held at Dakota County jail in Hastings and will make his first court appearance Friday.

According to the criminal complaint:

Around 8 a.m. Monday, investigators were called to a neighborhood in the 1300 block of West 60th Street just east of Interstate 494 on a report of someone dead in a snowbank. Lutgens’ body was on the south side of the road with a gunshot wound to the head. He did not have identification or a cell phone and no vehicle was nearby.

Investigators learned that Lutgens had gone to see a friend in Bloomington around 10 p.m. Sunday, leaving in the rented Jeep. The friend did not see him again that night and she did not receive a response the next day when she called him to wish him a happy birthday.

On Wednesday, investigators contacted the car rental company and learned that a tracking system put the vehicle in Minneapolis. Police officers located and attempted to stop the vehicle in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. Cruz, who was driving, led them a short pursuit before crashing. Cruz and two other occupants fled on foot but were arrested.

A 9-mm semiautomatic handgun that was thrown from the SUV during the pursuit was recovered by police. It was later determined to be the same caliber as the one used to kill Lutgens.

Also on Wednesday, a witness came forward to say that she was an acquaintance of Cruz and said Lutgens had dropped her off at Cruz’s apartment around 9 p.m. Sunday. Cruz was not home at the time, but he gave her the OK to go into his apartment. He asked her if she knew if Lutgens had any methamphetamine. She said she thought he did, and Cruz spoke to Lutgens over the phone.

The witness reported that around 11:45 p.m., Cruz returned to his apartment with another person in his own vehicle. She described Cruz as acting “off” and said he was talking very fast. When she asked Cruz what was wrong, he said he shot Lutgens.

Cruz said he pulled out a gun and was going to rob Lutgens, but the two struggled over Lutgens’ backpack. Lutgens fell backward into a snowbank. Cruz said he then walked up to the Lutgens, shot him in the head, took his belongings and left.

“We will do all we can to obtain justice for the violent death of Bryant Lutgens who tragically died one day before his 39th birthday,” Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said in a written statement. “Our sympathy is extended to his family and friends for their great loss.”

A police investigation over a misdemeanor fifth-degree assault allegation against the city administrator of Inver Grove Heights is complete and will be referred to a hired law firm to decide whether to charge him.

The Savage Police Department has finished its investigation involving City Administrator Joe Lynch and sent it to Inver Grove Heights officials. On Monday, the city council unanimously approved a contract with Apple Valley firm Dougherty, Molenda, Solfest, Hills & Bauer to review the case and consider bringing a formal charge against Lynch, who has been the city administrator since 2006 but in 2019 was suspended for violating a respectful workplace policy.

The assault investigation relates to a two-year-old interaction between Lynch and then-City Clerk Michelle Tesser and began when she filed a complaint this past December. In August 2018, Tesser filed a complaint that contained several allegations against Lynch, and he was ultimately suspended for three days without pay after a law firm found that he insulted her and made an offensive comment about her dress.

In a Dec. 30 interview with the Pioneer Press, Lynch said that Tesser’s latest claim is “patently false, and there’s no merit whatsoever to it.”

The night before, the city council approved a separation agreement and a transition period that keeps Lynch on the job for 60 days and possibly another 30 more. Under terms of the agreement, Lynch, whose 2020 salary totaled nearly $163,000, will receive six months of pay and be compensated for his unused accrued vacation time.

The criminal investigation did not play a part in his decision to ask to leave his job, Lynch told the Pioneer Press.

As the top worker for a city of approximately 36,200 residents, Lynch oversees 155 full-time employees, including six department heads, and numerous part-time employees.

State law requires that petty misdemeanors or misdemeanors be prosecuted by the attorney of the city where the alleged violation occurred. But because the South St. Paul-based law firm LeVander, Gillen & Miller provides both civil and criminal prosecution services for the city, the case against Lynch was hired out for review to avoid a conflict of interest.

The contract approved Monday also will cover other prosecution services that may arise in the future against city employees. The firm will charge the city $120 an hour for an attorney, $90 for a prosecution assistant/paralegal, as well as for things that might be needed such as filing fees, costs of creating exhibits, expert witness fees and court reporter fees.

A second man has been arrested in connection with the Jan. 31 shooting death of Bryant Lutgens, whose body was discovered in an Inver Grove Heights snowbank last week.

Kyle Michael Reagan, 31, of Minneapolis was booked into the Dakota County Jail on Tuesday on suspicion of aiding an offender (accomplice after the fact), which is a felony. A court appearance that was scheduled for Wednesday was reset until Thursday.

Second-degree murder charges were filed Thursday against another Minneapolis man, 42-year-old Gabriel Alfonso Sanchez Cruz, who prosecutors say shot Lutgens in the head during a botched drug deal.

A witness told investigators that Cruz later confessed to her that he killed Lutgens during an attempt to rob him, according to the criminal complaint against him.

The same witness reported that Cruz returned home after the shooting with another person in his vehicle.

Nick Ferraro contributed to this report.

A  Minneapolis man is accused of being an accomplice in the Jan. 31 shooting death of Bryant Lutgens, whose body was discovered in an Inver Grove Heights snowbank last week.

Dakota County prosecutors have charged Kyle Michael Reagan, 31, with aiding an offender (accomplice after the fact), which carries up to 20 years in prison.

Second-degree murder charges were filed Feb. 4 against another Minneapolis man, 42-year-old Gabriel Alfonso Sanchez Cruz, who prosecutors say shot Lutgens in the head during a botched drug deal. Lutgens was found dead the next day, his 39th birthday.

Reagan was at the scene when Cruz pulled the trigger and helped him take Lutgens belongings from his car and carry them into Cruz’s apartment, according to the charge against him.

Reagan was charged by summons on Feb. 5 and was arrested Tuesday and booked into Dakota County jail, where he is being held without a bail after refusing to appear before a judge on the charge, according to the jail.

Reagan was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday, but refused. He also declined to appear at rescheduled hearings on Thursday and Friday. It is now scheduled for Tuesday.

According to the criminal complaint:

A witness said that Cruz had set up a meeting to buy methamphetamine from Lutgens.

A second witness told investigators that around 11:45 p.m., Cruz returned to his apartment with Reagan. She described Cruz as acting “off” and said he was talking very fast. When she asked Cruz what was wrong, he said he shot Lutgens.

According to the second witness, Cruz said he pulled out a gun and was going to rob Lutgens, but the two struggled over Lutgens’ backpack. Lutgens fell backward into a snowbank. Cruz said he then walked up to the Lutgens, shot him in the head, took his belongings and left.

An autopsy confirmed that Lutgens died of a single gunshot wound to the head.

In a follow-up interview, the second witness told investigators more details about her interaction with Cruz and Reagan that night. She said Cruz called her between 11:30 p.m. and midnight and asked her to meet him in the apartment’s parking lot. Cruz was outside his car and Reagan was in the driver’s seat, she said, and when Cruz opened up the back of his vehicle, she saw items that belonged to Lutgens.

She said Cruz and Reagan asked her to help them carry Lutgens’ belongings into the apartment, but that she refused. She said she saw both of them bring the items into Cruz’s bedroom.

She then confronted Cruz and Reagan about what happened. They said Lutgens met them in the planned spot and got into the backseat with his backpack. Cruz pointed a gun at Lutgens and told him he wouldn’t get hurt if he handed over the drugs and money. Cruz ordered Lutgens out of the vehicle and they struggled over the backpack before the killing.

Cruz and Reagan got into Lutgens’ vehicle and “ditched it” a few blocks from Cruz’s apartment after taking several items from it.

An Inver Grove Heights motorist who struck and killed a grandmother and then left the crash scene was sentenced Wednesday to 90 days in jail and 30 days of electronic home monitoring.

The 2019 crash along 80th Street near the intersection of Blaine Avenue in Inver Grove Heights killed 55-year-old Haimanot Gezahegne Gebremedhin, a wife, mother of four and grandmother of two who was struck while walking home from the city’s community center.

This past October, Breyona Sadi Cotton, 32, pleaded guilty in Dakota County District Court to felony leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death (driver did not cause). A charge of failing to notify police of a collision resulting in death (driver did not cause) was dismissed.

As part of Wednesday’s sentencing, Judge Timothy McManus also ordered Cotton to pay restitution; the amount has yet to be determined.

About 19 hours after the crash, Cotton turned herself in to police and told investigators she believed she hit a deer, according to a criminal complaint. She said she only went to police after seeing a social media post about the crash and realizing that she had been in the area.

According to the complaint:

About 5:40 p.m. on Jan. 5, 2019, an Inver Grove Heights police officer doing routine radar patrol in the Simley High School parking lot was flagged down by motorists who said they had just seen what appeared to be a dead woman in an intersection a few blocks west of the school.

Gebremedhin was found unconscious on the north side of 80th Street with injuries consistent with being struck by a vehicle. She died at the scene.

About 12:45 p.m. the next day, Cotton and her attorney went to the police station. Cotton told police that after she left a nearby McDonald’s drive-through, she turned west onto 80th Street and saw two police cars in a high school parking lot. She said she checked her speed and was traveling 40 mph.

She said she had a green light when approaching Blaine Avenue and that “out of nowhere,” she heard a collision and thought she had struck a deer.

She said that after the collision, she turned right onto Blaine Avenue and stopped, but didn’t see or hear anything and did not get out of her car, since she believed she hit a deer. She drove home.

An accident-reconstruction report by the Minnesota State Patrol concluded that Gebremedhin’s legs struck the front bumper of Cotton’s car, forcing her entire body onto the hood, and that her head struck the lower portion of the windshield.

The report also concluded that Gebremedhin should have been visible to Cotton and that “any reasonable investigation into the collision would have revealed the victim’s body,” the complaint states.

Before the crash, Gebremedhin and her husband had been working out at the community center. She decided to leave early and was walking home alone when she was hit about four blocks east of the community center.

After the collision, her husband called her cellphone, looking for her, police said. An officer answered and told him what had happened. He was picked up and taken to the crash scene.

According to Minnesota court records, Cotton was convicted of gross misdemeanor driving while impaired (refuse to submit to chemical test) in November 2010 in Washington County District Court. She was convicted of driving without a license in 2006.

In the before times, before he nearly died four times from the novel coronavirus, before he spent 54 days hooked up to a ventilator, Greg Beaudoin loved to go fishing, walk his dog and hang out with his kids.

Now, almost a year since he tested positive for COVID-19, Beaudoin of Inver Grove Heights suffers permanent deficits from two strokes caused by the virus. He is blind in his left eye. He has difficulty walking, and his cognitive skills have slowed. He feels constant tingling in his hands and feet. His voice, once a lovely baritone, is now whisper-soft, one of the lingering side effects of spending almost two months with a breathing tube down his throat.

The man who loved reading Nelson DeMille, watching documentaries and cheering on the Minnesota Wild faces a laundry list of unknowns: Will he ever get to drive again? Will he be able to take his granddaughters tubing? Will he get to run the trails near his house with Bode, his beloved border collie and Australian shepherd mix? Will he be able to take his wife, Sue, on that anniversary trip to Niagara Falls this fall?

It was a year ago when the first Minnesota case of COVID-19 was confirmed. Since then, about 470,000 cases and more than 6,300 deaths in the state have been linked to the virus. More than 26,000 people have needed hospital care. For many, the effects can be a slight discomfort. For others, like Greg Beaudoin, the virus can leave them struggling to breathe in the hospital for weeks or months — and might haunt them for years to come.

Beaudoin, 59, believes he contracted COVID-19 in early April 2020 while working as a respiratory therapist at a long-term care facility in New Hope.

Working with patients on ventilators, his exposure risk was high. And as an asthmatic, Beaudoin knew he had to be extra careful.

Supplies of personal protective equipment were limited at the time, however, and when Beaudoin’s only face mask ripped one day, there wasn’t another one available to him.

“But a couple of people were in dire need, so I went in to help,” he said.

Four days later, Beaudoin started experiencing shortness of breath, fever and fatigue.

‘IT WASN’T OK AT ALL’

“It just escalated,” said his wife, Sue Beaudoin. “Being a respiratory therapist, he knew his oxygen levels were dropping and that he needed to go in.”

Sue Beaudoin drove her husband to Woodwinds Hospital in Woodbury, where he was tested for the novel coronavirus. Three days later, on April 12, his results came back positive. It was Easter Sunday.

“He started feeling a little bit better, and his levels were up from being on oxygen, too,” she said. “The hospital staff thought it was OK for him to leave, so he came home — but it wasn’t OK. It wasn’t OK at all.”

Greg Beaudoin’s condition worsened almost as soon as he got home. Sue Beaudoin called 911, and he was taken by ambulance to St. Joseph’s Hospital in St. Paul.

After struggling to breathe all night, Beaudoin was intubated early the next morning and then transferred to Bethesda M Health Fairview Hospital in St. Paul, which had been converted into a specialty care facility for COVID-19 patients.

He would not return home until July 24 — 102 days later.

PARALYZED AND SEDATED

Because of restrictions on visitors at Bethesda, Sue Beaudoin and the couple’s three children, Sarah, Bryan and Nick, couldn’t see him in person.

“I cannot tell you how many times I called, and they told me that they did not know whether Greg would survive,” said Sue Beaudoin, who also contracted the coronavirus but recovered after a few weeks. “He was paralyzed, sedated and on a ventilator the entire time.”

Doctors had Greg Beaudoin spend half of each day lying face-down — a position called proning — for improved oxygenation, she said.

At 6 p.m. every day, nurses would set up an iPad near him so Sue, Sarah, Bryan and Nick could FaceTime with him.

“We never missed a night,” Sue Beaudoin said. “I just talked to him about the dog, and I told him how much I loved him and whether or not I had spoken to his dad and what the weather was like. Just mundane things, just so he could hear my voice.”

Greg Beaudoin has no memory of those calls.

“He has some pretty wicked, weird memories,” Sue Beaudoin said. “He remembers not being able to breathe and, in his mind, trying to tell someone that he couldn’t breathe.”

THE VIRUS ATTACKS

Greg Beaudoin spent 54 days hooked up to a ventilator at Bethesda. The coronavirus attacked his gallbladder, causing his blood pressure to spike. Scans later showed he had suffered two strokes. The first one, an occipital stroke, affected his vision; the second one, in his parietal lobe, caused permanent blindness in his left eye and affected his cognitive skills and his ability to move on his left side. He also suffered from double pneumonia.

He was in a medically induced coma from April 13 until the end of May. He underwent multiple medical procedures and surgeries in May and June. One was to deal with the infection in his gallbladder. Another was to remove fluid from his lungs. Yet another, called a thoracotomy, was to scrape his lungs because the fluid inside was so thick with infection.

Each day, Sue Beaudoin kept detailed notes in a blue spiral notebook listing her husband’s ventilator settings, body temperature, secretions, sedation levels and hemoglobin levels.

Greg Beaudoin, who worked as a respiratory therapist at local hospitals before moving into patient education and chronic pulmonary disease management, said he didn’t realize how dire his condition had been until he saw how high his ventilator settings had been.

“I know what those numbers mean,” he said. “When I saw them, I knew it was bad. I knew it was very bad.”

When the thoracic surgeon came to visit Beaudoin after his last lung surgery, “he looked right at me and held my gaze for a long time,” Greg Beaudoin said. “I asked him if everything was OK, because I thought something might have gone wrong. He said, ‘You should count your blessings, because most every other person would not have survived this.’ ”

FINALLY SOME PROGRESS

His lungs eventually started improving, but doctors “were scared to take the breathing tube out of his mouth because it had been in there so long,” Sue Beaudoin said. “They were worried everything was going to close up on him, and he wouldn’t be able to breathe.”

They operated again — a tracheotomy — so they could pull the tube out safely.

“They were so worried about airborne transmission that they didn’t want to do it,” she said. “Finally, a surgeon came forward and said, ‘I will do it.’ It was not even 36 hours later, and Greg was totally off the ventilator.”

The next week, on the afternoon of June 4, staff at Bethesda clapped and cheered as Beaudoin was wheeled out of the COVID specialty care facility; a charge nurse captured the moment on video for his family.

He was transferred to St. Joseph’s Hospital’s long-term acute care unit. It was there, later that afternoon, that he got to see Sue for the first time in two months.

“It’s a really foggy memory,” he said. “I couldn’t see through my milky eyes, and I couldn’t understand much, but some person with a soft voice came up and held my hand gently. She took my hands and said, ‘Greg, my name is Sue, and I’m your wife.’ I remember processing, ‘I have a wife, and that’s a good thing.’ I turned my head a little bit, and I could see a little bit of her profile, and I remember thinking, ‘And she’s pretty.’ That’s the truth.”

Said Sue Beaudoin: “He was still delirious.”

Sue Beaudoin, who works as a care-transitions assistant for Fairview, was working at the time as the ICU coordinator at St. Joseph’s. Her desk was one floor up from her husband’s room. Although she was granted a special dispensation to see him for an hour on June 4, she was not allowed to see him again for another two weeks.

“It was against hospital-visiting policy at that time, so I had to follow the rules,” she said.

LONG ROAD TO RECOVERY

After almost a month at St. Joseph’s, Greg Beaudoin was transferred to the Fairview Acute Rehabilitation Center in Minneapolis on July 9.

Two weeks and a day later, he headed home.

For more than a month after he got home, he could not use his hands. He experienced fatigue, insomnia and nerve pain in hands, arms and feet.

“When I got home, I couldn’t see, I couldn’t hear, I couldn’t think,” he said. “I couldn’t tie my shoes. I couldn’t get dressed. I couldn’t eat food off a plate — it would go right off. It was really hard. I cannot thank Sue enough. She has had to do everything for me.”

He sees four therapists each week: an occupational therapist and a speech therapist in Woodbury, a pulmonary rehabilitation therapist in Minneapolis and a low-vision therapist in Burnsville.

Each week, he’s assigned logic problems as homework. Higher-level thinking skills — doing math problems involving division, for example — are extremely difficult now.

“It’s been hard,” he said. “I used to be the guy who would work and take care of multiple ICUs of patients on ventilators and look at their lung mechanics and give recommendations to physicians on how to better change the ventilator to help the patient. Now, I get tripped up on fourth- or fifth-grade reading.”

He said he also experienced post-traumatic stress disorder and depression after learning that he would not be able to return to work.

A CLINIC TO HELP SURVIVORS

Fairview pulmonologists and critical-care physicians Nicole Roeder and Sakina Naqvi created the ICU Survivorship Clinic last summer to address the physical, mental and emotional challenges of patients after extended stays in a hospital ICU. It has helped, Greg Beaudoin said.

“When they leave the hospital, they don’t just plug back into their normal life like nothing happened,” Roeder said. The clinic has treated more than 60 patients. Some were in the ICU for 20 days, she said; others, for more than 90.

In addition to experiencing physical weakness, fatigue and breathing issues, patients may experience PTSD, anxiety, depression, cognitive issues and memory loss.

Most of the virtual clinic’s current patients are COVID-19 survivors like Beaudoin, Roeder said. “We see many patients like him experiencing residual effects,” she said.

“One of the things with COVID that has humbled us as physicians and providers is how unpredictable it is. I can’t really identify a pattern of, this person is going to do very well, this person isn’t.”

Especially challenging is not being able to tell patients “when or if they are going to be 100 percent improved,” she said.

A MAN FOREVER CHANGED

Beaudoin knows he will never completely recover.

One strange side effect of COVID was the loss of most of his thin, blonde-brown hair — a reaction to the physiological and emotional stress brought on by the virus.

When his hair grew back, it came in “100 percent thicker and almost black,” Sue Beaudoin said. “When the body has to fight something like that and is working so hard to keep him alive, everything else gets put on the back burner.”

Before COVID, Greg Beaudoin took Bode out trail running every night at a park near their house. While Beaudoin was gone, Bode either stayed in Greg’s bedroom or lay by the side door waiting for him, Sue Beaudoin said.

Beaudoin gets teary when he talks about how much Sarah, Bryan and Nick have done for him over the past year. Nick, who works as a physician assistant, sat in on every call with the doctors. Sarah pushed to have her father twice treated with convalescent plasma, blood plasma taken from patients who had recovered from COVID, and started a GoFundMe fundraising site. Bryan mowed the yard, brought suppers and redid the couple’s patio so Beaudoin could sit outside with Bode.

“We could not have done it without them,” he said. “They have been such a source of comfort and strength.”

Another source of comfort and strength has been his faith. The Beaudoins attend Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Inver Grove Heights. His favorite Bible verse is Jeremiah 29:11: “ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ ”

“Pastor Leesa (Soderlind) has just said, ‘You are blessed to be here,’ ” Greg Beaudoin said. “I take it that it was meant to happen, and that is why I survived. God must have a higher purpose for me.”

THE GOOD IN LIFE

Sue Beaudoin is terrified her husband will be re-infected; he is not scheduled to be vaccinated until the end of the month.

She said she gets upset when she sees people congregating who are not practicing physical distancing or wearing masks. And don’t get her started on people who say they won’t get vaccinated.

“Why, when you have this available, why wouldn’t you do it?” she said. “Just do it, and help mankind to get over this. Think about your loved ones. Do it for them. If you don’t want to for the stranger on the street corner, at least do it for your 80-year-old grandmother.”

Said Greg Beaudoin: “If you don’t think this virus can take you out forever, faster than you know, you are wrong. It can get to you without you knowing it, and it can take you out.”

As he sat in the sun in his back yard on a recent weekday afternoon, he said it is a miracle he survived.

“I’m happy to be out here talking to you,” he said. “And I have my wife here, and my dog at my feet. Life is good.”

HOW TO HELP

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Greg and Sue Beaudoin cover ongoing medical expenses. To donate, go to https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-beaudoin-family

Legislation was introduced this week at the state Capitol that would study the viability of building an amateur sports and training center in the south metro.

Bills in the House and Senate ask that $100,000 be appropriated from the general fund for the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission to study the development of the U.S. Amateur Sports and Training Center in Dakota County in partnership with the cities of Eagan and Inver Grove Heights. The measures were sent to committees to be reviewed.

A 2022 study would address potential users, sites and costs of construction based on needs identified in the study. It must also address ongoing operational costs and determine if revenue sources would be able to fund the center without regard to any debt service for capital improvements.

The sports commission oversees the National Sports Center in Blaine, the largest amateur sports center in the world that was built by the state in 1990 and now includes 52 outdoor multi-use fields and eight sheets of indoor ice.

Southbound U.S. 52 between Plato Boulevard in St. Paul and Interstate 494 in Inver Grove Heights will be closed this weekend — beginning at 9 p.m. Friday — so crews can resurface the road, the Minnesota Department of Transportation said.

All lanes are scheduled to reopen at 5 a.m. Monday.

Motorists should follow the signed detour using eastbound Interstate 94, southbound U.S. 61 and westbound I-494 to U.S 52, MnDOT said.

Beginning at 6 a.m. Monday, the ramp from northbound U.S. 52 to Butler Avenue will close for approximately seven days.

The lane and ramp closures are the third of seven weekend directional closures on U.S. 52.

A 31-year-old St. Paul man died after crashing his motorcycle Thursday night in Inver Grove Heights.

Kou Yang was headed north on Highway 3 around 7 p.m. and lost control of his 2015 Yamaha Motorcycle on a curve at 82nd Street, the Minnesota State Patrol said. Yang was thrown from the motorcycle and hit a road sign. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Yang was wearing a helmet, the state patrol said.

A Dakota County-led study is recommending that a South St. Paul library be built on city-owned land, a proposal that has the support of the city council but also comes in at $2 million more than what was hoped.

The question now is whether the plan will fly with the county board of commissioners, who has to agree with the city’s request to join the county library system and also pay for the estimated $8.26 million building pegged for Seventh and Marie avenues.

South St. Paul Public Library is one of only four city-owned and -operated libraries of 115 libraries in the metro area; the others are in Bayport, Stillwater and Columbia Heights.

The idea of the South St. Paul folding into the county library system has come up from time to time over the years because of space and needs issues with the city’s existing library, which was built in 1927. However, it always went nowhere, mostly because some residents and city officials feared the city would lose the charming colonial-style brick building, as well as the small-town service.

Talk of a merger popped up again in 2019, prompting the city to formally request the county to join them in studying the idea. The county board said no, that they did not want to address the operation of the library without a long-term plan for a building.

That changed late last year, when the county board agreed to move ahead with a programming study. It began in January and looked at the viability and costs associated with three options: a cruciform-type building on city-owned property at Seventh and Marie avenues; a double-entranced building on school district-owned property at Sixth and Marie avenues; or renovate and expand the existing library.

STARTING WITH A BASE

The general consensus of the study project team, which includes county staff and the city’s library director, is that a building of 16,100 square feet would be ideal for the community, City Administrator Joel Hanson said Tuesday. That base size falls in line with the county’s libraries in Inver Grove Heights, Hastings and Farmington.

But Hanson noted Tuesday that, when using that base size, the study showed that all three of the options landed well above the county’s $6 million targeted budget for site, construction and soft costs.

Despite the higher price tag, the recommended $8.26 million option is the lowest cost of the three choices.

For the school district-owned site, the total project cost came in at $8.93 million, while the cost of renovating and expanding the city’s current library was estimated at $11.46 million.

The county board is scheduled to meet on June 8 to discuss the study’s findings, Hanson said.

At a joint work session Monday night, city council members got their first look at the study’s findings and informally agreed to support the county’s base model library of 16,100 square feet on the city-owned site, Mayor Jimmy Francis said Tuesday.

“We support their base model, we don’t support less,” Francis said. “Yes, that costs more money than they had anticipated, but it’s no different than any other library that’s been built. It’s just that the costs have changed due to the environment, time.”

MERGER AHEAD

At next week’s meeting, city council members are scheduled to consider approving a resolution in support of the city’s merger with the county system and the recommended site.

Because of the higher estimated costs, the project team looked into what the $6 million budget would buy and determined a new building would be smaller than the current 11,840-square-foot library.

A complete gut and remodel of the current library — with no expansion — was also studied at the county’s targeted budget. However, according to Hanson, it resulted in a “substantial sacrifice of desired public spaces and collections with no large meeting room.”

Mayor Francis acknowledged Tuesday how some residents remain attached to the old library and the idea of renovating it. But he also said the city council “feels, collectively, that we deserve to have a brand new state-of-the art library, and that we would make a great partner for the county.”

Under the concept plan for a new library, new spaces not in the existing library include: more collections space for teens; a large community room at the front entry; a mix of smaller conference and meeting rooms; and a quiet reading room and multifunctional program space.

A six-mile stretch of northbound U.S. 52 will be closed this weekend for resurfacing.

According to the Minnesota Department of Transportation, all lanes will be closed from 9 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Monday between Interstates 494 and 94.

Motorists should follow the signed detour using eastbound Interstate 494 to north U.S. 61 to Interstate 94.

The ramp from northbound U.S. 52 to Butler Avenue will reopen at 6 a.m. Monday. The ramp to and from southbound U.S. 52 to Concord Street will close at 6 a.m. Monday and remain closed through May 24.

Nearby residences and businesses will experience noise, including overnight, during this work, MnDOT said.

The lane and ramp closures are part of an $8.2 million project to resurface U.S. 52 between Interstate 494 in Inver Grove Heights and Concord Street in St. Paul.