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St. Paul Pioneer Press - 06/15/2021 Page : A12
<br />June 15, 2021 9:26 am (GMT -5:00) Powered by TECNAVIA
<br />one of the traffic lanes, send-ing that car flying.“There was one line of bar-riers and then a second bar-rier,and he sped up. He spedup. He went even faster asheapproached us.Yo u couldhear it …start going evenfaster as he got close to us,”Hooker said. He told Minne-sota Public Radio News, “thecarwent through the air andit hit a yo ung woman.”Another witness, BrettWilliams, said Knajdek wa sthrown into a stop light.Her mother, Deb Ke nney,asked for praye rs for thedriver’s family.“The emotion we need tohaveright now is we need tobe grateful that Deona wa shere and she shared it allwith us,”Ke nney said,according to KARE-11.“Shewouldn’t want us to be angryatthat man. She wo uld havelet it go in a minute, andsaid, ‘What could we havedonefor him? What wouldhavemade a difference forhim?’ ”She added: “She was hereon her own accord, shechose to do this.She wantedto make that impact.”Ke nney said she hopes peo-ple don’t stop protestingbecause of her daughter’sdeath, but she said demon-strators should make surethey are staying safe.Other injuries and deathshavebeen reported invo lv-ing vehicles at protestsacross the U.S. as peoplehaveincreasingly taken tostreets to press their griev-ances. In Minneapolis,marching onto freeways hasbecome a common tactic inrecentyears. Last year, asemitrailer rolled into acrowd marching on a closedMinneapolis freeway follow-ing George Floyd ’s death.Noonewas seriously injured.
<br />In response to such pro-
<br />tests, Republican politiciansin several states, includingOklahoma, Florida and Iowa,have sought legal immunityfor drivers who hit protest-ers.There had been ongoingprotests in Uptown,about2½ miles south of down-town, since the June 3shooting of Wi nston BoogieSmith Jr., a 32-year-oldfather of three,by membersof a federal U.S. MarshalsService task force.TheUptown area includes a mixof trendy restaurants, shopsand theaters popular withthe city’s younger profes-sionals, many of whom liveinapartments and condo-miniums in the area.The city of Minneapolishas been on edge sinceFloyd’s death under an offi-cer’s knee and the morerecentfatal police shootingof another Black man,Daunte Wr ight, in a nearbysuburb.Smith wa s killed earlierthis month.According toauthorities, members of theU.S. Marshals Fugitive Ta skForcewere trying to arrestSmith on a warrant for alleg-edly being a felon in posses-sion of a gun.The MarshalsService said in a statementthat Smith,who wa s in aparkedvehicle, didn’t com-ply with law enforcementand “produced a handgunresultingin task force mem-bers firing upon the sub-ject.”State inve stigatorssaidevidence showed hefired the gun from inside hisvehicle.Smith died at the scene. A27-ye ar-old woman who wasa passenger in Smith’s vehi-cle said she never saw a gunon Smith or in the ve hicle,her attorneys said last week— contradicting authorities’account about Smith’s
<br />actions.
<br />nesses told police that dem-onstrators began strikinghim.The driver wa s takeninto custody and was beingtreatedfor injuries at a hos-pital.Au thorities have notreleased his name or thenames of the three peoplewhowere injured.The brother of the wo manwho died identified her asDeona M. Knajdek.GarrettKnajdek told the Star Tri-bune his sister would havecelebratedher 32nd birthdayonWednesday. He said shehad 11- and 13-year-olddaughtersandwas activelyinvolved in issues surround-ing social justice.“She constantly (was) sac-rificing herself for everyonearound her,” he said, “nomatter the cost, obviously.”Police said the driver’smotivewas not immediatelyknown,but that a prelimi-nary investigation indicateddrugs or alcohol may havebeen a contributing factor.A35-ye ar-old St.Paul man wa sbooked into the HennepinCountyJailearly Monday onsuspicion of criminal ve hicu-lar homicide, driving after alicensewas canceled andprovidingfalse informationtopolice.The man,whohasn’t been formallycharged, has multiple con-victions for driving whileimpaired, according toonline court records.A witness told MinnesotaPublic Radio that the SUVwas going very fast andappeared to accelerate as itgot closer to demonstratorswho had blocked off a street.D.J. Hooker said the driver
<br />struck a car parked across
<br />CONTINUED FROM 1A>Protestcrash
<br />almost nightly.
<br />“I know we’ve put a lot of
<br />pressure on everyone
<br />involved to get to this point,”
<br />said Tolbert, noting his wa rd,
<br />which spans Mac-Groveland
<br />and Highland Park, has been
<br />especially hard-hit by the
<br />beetle damage. “It allows for-
<br />estry to go back to focusing
<br />on the things that they did
<br />prior to the ash borer taking
<br />over forestry’s lives. …They
<br />are one of the best groups in
<br />the entire city.They are ada-
<br />mant professionals.They go
<br />into forestry because they
<br />love trees and they love
<br />nature … and they’ve had to
<br />take down trees for the last
<br />decade.”
<br />Hahm said his department
<br />is applying to the federal gov-
<br />ernment for additional fund-
<br />ing from a federal jobs pro-
<br />gram and hopes to employ
<br />yo ung people in the replant-
<br />ing wo rk.The city ordinance
<br />authorizing the bond part-
<br />nershipwiththe Port Au thor-
<br />ity is sponsored by all seve n
<br />council members and likely
<br />will be approved Ju ne 23.
<br />Frederick Melo can be
<br />reached at 651-228-2172 and
<br />fmelo@pioneerpress.com, or on
<br />Tw itter at @FrederickMelo.
<br />council on We dnesday.
<br />“Stumping, planting and
<br />trimming backlogs will be
<br />addressed in that same peri-
<br />od.”
<br />As city foresters catch up
<br />on emerald ash borer-related
<br />work, they will eventually be
<br />able to return to their previ-
<br />ous tree-trimming schedule
<br />and revisit other forestry
<br />work unrelated to the beetle,
<br />Hahm said.Those 15-year
<br />tree-trimming cycles had pre-
<br />viously flown out the win-
<br />dow,so to speak, leaving the
<br />city responding to reports of
<br />fallen tree limbs and other
<br />tree damage on a complaint
<br />basis only.
<br />The Port Au thority will sell
<br />the bonds by early 2022 and
<br />pay them off using its ow n
<br />tax levy.
<br />The city first discovered
<br />emerald ash borers in the St.
<br />Anthony Park neighborhood
<br />in 2009.By 2014, the city was
<br />spending roughly $1 million
<br />annually to remove and
<br />replace about a thousand ash
<br />CONTINUED FROM 1A
<br />>Ashborer
<br />fight
<br />Ke lley commenced more
<br />than 300 lawsuits, the majori-
<br />ty of which were so-called
<br />“claw-backs,” or bankruptcy
<br />adve rsary proceedings, to
<br />recover other profits and
<br />employe e bonuses receive d
<br />by Petters’ earliest inve stors
<br />or executive s.
<br />“Unraveling the scheme
<br />was complicated by the com-
<br />plexity and scope of the Pet-
<br />ters fraud,” he wrote in the
<br />motion filed We dnesday.
<br />“While most Ponzi schemes
<br />invo lve a single individual or
<br />business at the epicenter of
<br />the scheme,Thomas Petters
<br />and his associates employe d
<br />scores of corporations,sub-
<br />sidiaries, affiliates and spe-
<br />cial-purpose entities to per-
<br />petrate their fraud. In all,
<br />more than 150 such entities
<br />were involved. … On seve ral
<br />occasions, gove rnment attor-
<br />neys likened the required
<br />asset tracing process as simi-
<br />lar to trying to untangle a
<br />bowl of spaghetti.”
<br />The court’s docket “con-
<br />firms the breadth of the
<br />task,” according to the
<br />motion, currently containing
<br />3,230 entries.
<br />The total amount distribut-
<br />ed to date — $722,150,400 —
<br />includes creditor settlement
<br />and distributions; lender set-
<br />tlement distributions; pay-
<br />ments to bankruptcy estates
<br />and funds forfeited by the
<br />U.S. government for distribu-
<br />tion to victims,Ke lley
<br />said.“It wasateameffort,”he
<br />said.
<br />The Petters case broke
<br />ground when it came to case
<br />law dealing with Ponzi
<br />schemes, according to Ke lley.
<br />“In 2008,Ponzi schemes like
<br />this had never been uncov-
<br />ered before.This wa s pre-Ma-
<br />doff,” he said, referring to
<br />Bernie Madoff,who in March
<br />2009 pleaded guilty to the big-
<br />gest inve stment fraud — $65
<br />billion — in U.S. history. “We
<br />went to the Eighth Circuit
<br />Court of Appeals, and we
<br />went to the Minnesota Court
<br />of Appeals.We went to the
<br />highest court of the land in
<br />England in cases that came
<br />out of the Caribbean, and
<br />each time there was unset-
<br />tled law about what exactly
<br />the rules were for recove ry. A
<br />lot of those rules were made
<br />by the lawyers who were rep-
<br />resenting me.”
<br />Ac cording to the motion,
<br />the fees and costs of the
<br />receive rship — including Ke l-
<br />ley’s fees, his attorneys’ fees,
<br />accounting fees and other
<br />fees and costs — have not
<br />been paid since Ju ne 30, 2020.
<br />Ke lley said he has filed a sep-
<br />arate motion seeking fees
<br />andcosts foroutstandingpro-
<br />fessional services provided.
<br />Mary Divine can be reached at
<br />mdivine@pioneerpress.com, or on
<br />Tw itter at @MaryEDivine.
<br />that was at timesbumpy,butI
<br />am quite pleased with the col-
<br />lective returnof $722million.”
<br />Petters, 63,formerly of
<br />Wa yzata,was indicted in
<br />2008 on multiple counts of
<br />mail fraud, wire fraud, mon-
<br />ey laundering and conspira-
<br />cy for operating a Ponzi
<br />scheme. A year later, a feder-
<br />al jury found him guilty on
<br />all counts and he was sen-
<br />tenced by U.S. District Ju dge
<br />Richard Kyle to 50 years in
<br />prison.
<br />He is an inmate at the feder-
<br />al prison in Leavenworth,
<br />Ka n.; his release date is May
<br />13, 2051, according to the U.S.
<br />Bureau of Prisons.
<br />At the time of Petters’ sen-
<br />tencing,Ky le said he didn’t
<br />believe Petters, the one-time
<br />owner of Polaroid and Sun
<br />Country Airlines,was
<br />unaware of the fraud. Petters,
<br />he said, “was captain of the
<br />ship.”
<br />Others wrapped up in the
<br />enterprise also were convict-
<br />ed.As part of their sentences,
<br />Petters and others were
<br />ordered to forfeit assets
<br />gained through the Ponzi
<br />scheme, including bank and
<br />investment accounts,vehi-
<br />cles and real estate.
<br />CONTINUED FROM 1A
<br />>Pe tters’
<br />money
<br />trees and treat another 300
<br />trees with pesticides. All oth-
<br />er non-critical work is effec-
<br />tive ly on hold. Last year, the
<br />city had about 2,000 non-ash
<br />tree stumps in the public
<br />right-away, a backlog that
<br />officials predicted would only
<br />get wo rse.
<br />NEW SAPLINGS
<br />St.Paul City Council mem-
<br />ber Chris Tolbert said his
<br />block lost all of its trees
<br />about five years ago, elimi-
<br />nating all shade,but it finally
<br />got new saplings in recent
<br />months as part of a residen-
<br />tial street vitality project. In
<br />the recent heat wave, he
<br />watered his bouleva rd tree
<br />MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF
<br />NATURAL RESOURCES VIA AP
<br />The emerald ash borer was
<br />discovered in St.Pa ul in
<br />2009. The city spends
<br />$1 million annually removing
<br />about 1,000 ash trees.
<br />By Michael BalsamoAssociatedPressWASHINGTON — Afor-mer government contractorwhowas given the longestfederal prison sentenceimposedfor leaks to thenewsmedia has beenreleased from prison tohome confinement, a personfamiliar with the matter toldtheAssociated Press onMonday.RealityWinner, 29, has
<br />been moved to home con-
<br />finement and remains in the
<br />custody of the federal
<br />Bureau of Prisons, the per-
<br />son said.The person could
<br />not discuss the matter pub-
<br />licly andspoke to the AP on
<br />condition of anonymity.
<br />She pleaded guilty in 2018
<br />to a single count of transmit-
<br />ting national security infor-
<br />mation.Winnerwas sen-
<br />tenced to five years and
<br />three months in prison,
<br />which prosecutors saidatthe timewas the longestever imposedfor leakinggovernment information tothe newsmedia.Her releasewas hailed as acausefor celebration afteradvocates hadspentyearsfightingfor her release or apardon. Her lawyer, AlisonGrinter Allen, said in astate-ment thatWinner and herfamily areworking to “healthe trauma of incarcerationand build back theyearslost.”She said they are “relievedand hopeful” after herrelease from prison.Theformer AirForcetranslatorworked as a con-tractorataNational Securi-tyAgency office inAugusta,Ga.,when she printed a clas-sified report and left the
<br />building with ittucked into
<br />her pantyhose.Winner told
<br />the FBI she mailed the docu-
<br />ment to an online newsout-
<br />let.
<br />Authorities never identi-
<br />fied the newsorganization.
<br />But theJustice Department
<br />announcedWinner’sJune
<br />2017 arrest the same day
<br />The Intercept reported on a
<br />secret NSA document. It
<br />detailed Russian govern-
<br />ment efforts to penetrate a
<br />Florida-based supplier ofvoting software and theaccounts of election officialsahead of the 2016 presiden-tial election.The NSA reportwas dated May 5, the sameas the document Wi nnerhad leaked.Atthe time of her sentenc-ing,Wi nner was give n creditfor more than a year shespent in jail while the casewas pending in U.S. DistrictCourt. She was sent to homeconfinement just a fewmonths ahead of her releasedate of Nov.23, according tothe Bureau of Prisons.“My actions were a cruelbetrayal of my nation’s trustin me,”Wi nner told thejudgeather sentencing inAugust, 2018.Previously,Wi nner hadunsuccessfully tried to
<br />shorten her sentence by
<br />seekingapardonfromPresi-
<br />dent Donald Trump —
<br />whom she had once mocked
<br />on social media as a “soul-
<br />less ginger orangutan” —
<br />and by arguing she had
<br />health conditions that made
<br />her more vulnerable to
<br />COVID-19 infection. Her sis-
<br />ter said last Ju ly that Wi n-
<br />ner tested positive for the
<br />coronavirus but didn’t show
<br />symptoms.
<br />Contractorin leak caseout of prisonWinner’s5-yearprisonsentencewaslongestforleakinggovernmentinfotomediaMICHAELHOLAHAN / THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLERealityWinnerwalks into thefederalcourthouse inAugusta, Ga., on June 26, 2018.Winner,29, who pleaded guilty in 2018totransmitting national security information, has beenreleased from prisontohomeconfinement.
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