Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota · Page B5

h THURSDAY, JULY 13, 2006 • STAR TRIBUNE • TWIN CITIES • B5 NELS NORQUIST • Brainerd Dispatch via Associated Press Jon Hovey, co-chairman of the Bean Hole Days in Pequot Lakes, Minn., used a paddle Wednesday to stir a large pot of baked beans, which according to festival’s website were cooked over a wood fire for a day. Watching Hovey was Dave Hallbeck, left, owner of Sibley Station in Pequot Lakes. Hallbeck was crowned King Bean before the beans were served to about 2,500 people. Minnesota’s bean town Train victim, 19, is an apparent suicide A 19-year-old woman from Lexington was killed early Wednesday in an apparent suicide when her car was hit by a train in Oak Grove, said the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office. Witnesses saw the woman’s car parked by the tracks around 5 a.m. and then saw it pull onto the track after the warning lights flashed and crossing arm started coming down, said Sheriff’s Capt. Bob Aldrich. He said the woman’s name would be released after her family is notified. The train hit the car on the driver’s side and pushed it down the tracks several hundred yards, killing the driver, Aldrich said. He said the crash happened at Main Street and Viking Boulevard, which was closed for several hours as emergency crews worked at the site. JIM ADAMS Man sought in sexual assault of bus rider Minneapolis police are looking for a man who sexually assaulted a woman in an alley and then fired a gun at her on June 18. The woman rode a Metro Transit bus from south Minneapolis to north Minneapolis where she was followed off the bus by an unknown man, said Lt. Medaria Arradondo. The man forced her into an alley in the 2900 block of Newton Avenue N., assaulted her twice, fired a gun and fled, Arradondo said. It was unclear whether the man intended to hurt her or simply scare her with the gun. The suspect is described as a black man in his mid-20s and 5 feet, 8 inches tall. He had a goa- tee and braids in his hair. “The Minneapolis Police Department considers this individual to be very dangerous,” Arradondo said. There is no indication that the suspect is linked to similar incidents, he said. Surveillance tape from the bus is being reviewed. Anyone with information can call police at 612-692-TIPS. CHAO XIONG For home delivery, 612.673.7999 public safety Rape-killing remains unsolved By JIM ADAMS jadams@startribune.com Twenty yearsafter a Chisholm, Minn., woman was raped and strangled in her bedroom, investigators are asking for the public’s help in finding the person who killed her. Nancy Jane Daugherty, 38, was found dead on July 16, 1986, in her home. The mother of two was an aide in a nursing home and volunteered as an emergency medical technician for the local ambulance service. “They are working very hard with the evidence. We hope somebody will come forward with something,” said Daugherty’s daughter, Gina Haggard, who appeared with- her brother and family members at a news conference Wednesday in Chisholm. Indeed, a DNA profile derived from fluids found on Daugherty’s body has been used to clear more than 100 suspects over the years, said Chisholm Police Chief Scott Erickson. He was a patrol officer when she was slain and has worked on the case. The cold case unit of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) joined the investigation five years ago, after which a $50,000 reward was offered and is still available to anyone with information leading to a conviction. Police believe that the DNA profile will identify the killer, who, they think, knew Daugherty and may still be in Minnesota. They also have an unidentified hand print found in Daugherty’s home that could match the killer’s. The case was complicated, Erickson said. Many fingerprints were found in the home because Daugherty hosted a high school graduation party for her daughter shortly before her death. Daugherty was a happy woman with many friends, said Haggard, who is married with two children. “She liked the ambulance service and helping people,” she said. “She planned to go to school that summer to be a paramedic.” Police found no signs of forced entry at Daugherty’s home, but neighborhood teenagers heard the woman quarreling in her back yard with someone about 3 a.m. the night she died, Erickson said. He said she had two friends over earlier that night and then went to a bar with one of them, a man, who brought her home at about 1 a.m. The man, who was eliminated as a suspect, said he returned the next morning to help Daugherty pack to move to the Twin Cities for paramedic training, Erickson said. But when he arrived at about 9 a.m., the curtains were drawn and doors locked, which was unusual for Daugherty, the chief said. After returning later to find nobody home and calling friends to find Daugherty, the man called police at about 3 p.m. Police found her strangled in her bed, Erickson said. Anyone with information about the case can call the Chisholm Police Department at 218-254-7916 or the BCA at 651-793-7000 . Jim Adams • 612-673-7658 7 Nancy Dougherty was found dead in her Chisholm, Minn., home on July 16. But it was July 16, 20 years ago. Police are still looking for her killer and asking for help. Charges filed in wine raid tied to tasting parties A Massachusetts home wine-tasting business that has made more than $1 million in Minnesota during the past two years was charged Wednesday in Minneapolis with a gross misdemeanor of selling liquor without a license. Geerlings & Wade, which markets the wine parties through the Traveling Vineyard, also was charged with a misdemeanor involving pric- ing. The charges were filed by the city attorney’s office. The investigation, which was done by the state’s alcohol and gambling enforcement division, said the Traveling Vineyard puts on wine-tasting parties with their consultants that end with customers having the opportunity to buy bottles of wine. Those prepackaged and prepaid orders were sent to Surdyk’s liquor store in Min- neapolis. The orders were then shipped to the customers. An attorney for the Traveling Vineyard said this action should qualify the state’s requirement to have the wine sold through a licensed retail outlet. Because Surdyk’s has nothing to do with setting the wine’s price and it doesn’t sell the wine for Geerlings & Wade, the activity is illegal, according to the criminal complaint. On Tuesday, law enforcement agents confiscated about 40 cases of wine from Surdyk’s. The store wasn’t the focus of the state’s investigation. State officials said they have repeatedly warned the Traveling Vineyard to cease business in Minnesota. DAVID CHANEN Sjodin jury selection could last rest of month By CHUCK HAGA crhaga@startribune.com FARGO, N.D. — Yes, she could be unbiased, the prospective juror said as she was questioned Wednesday by attorneys in the Dru Sjodin kidnapping and murder trial. As the daughter of a highway patrol officer, she was brought up that way. “My dad gave my mom a speeding ticket,” she said, drawing laughter from others in the courtroom. U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson smiled and acknowledged that law officers on North Dakota roads can be diligent. When he drives to Rugby, N.D., where he was raised, “I always seem to get stopped for speeding around New Rockford,” the judge said. “I think they’re laying for me. It’s a good thing I only go back about once a year.” The jury candidate was ex- cused for other reasons, but not before further burnishing her father’s reputation as a stickler for the law. “He got into trouble a few times for arresting people who were above him, a higher power,” she said. Erickson has ordered that the name of people in the jury pool not be made public. As jury selection continued Wednesday in U.S. District Court, five people were added to the pool, for a total so far of 14 potential jurors. Seventy possible jurors will be chosen before the final panel is named. Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. of Crookston, Minn., is accused of kidnapping and killing the University of North Dakota student in November 2003. Attorneys suggested the trial may not last as long as the 10 to 12 weeks that had been predicted. U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley said his best estimate now is five or six weeks of trial following jury selection. Seating a jury could take the rest of the month. An evidentiary hearing concerning a DNA sample, which was scheduled for Friday, has been postponed until July 28. Chuck Haga • 612-673-4514 7 As the jury pool grew to 14 in the high-profile murder trial, the judge and one potential juror exchanged stories about the diligence of North Dakota’s finest. MORE ON THE TRIAL Previous stories about the Dru Sjodin case and the trial are available at www.startribune.com/sjodin . ByCHAO XIONG and MARGARET ZACK Star Tribune staff writers Nearly 70 percent of the most serious drug cases handled in Hennepin County Drug Court through mid-June resulted in probation instead of the prison time suggested by state guidelines. According to data from the county attorney’s office, 34 first-degree drug cases were resolved between January and June 16, and 23 defendants received probation, which could include time in the county workhouse. The county attorney’s office objected to 22 of the departures from sentencing guidelines, according to a memo from a county prosecutor. The rate of first-degree defendants getting probation instead of prison time — 67 percent — is the highest since Drug Court started in 1997, according to the memo. Defendants were given prison time in 11 first-degree cases. “It’s unacceptable,” said Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar. “We believe that they should serve a lengthier sentence instead of going to the workhouse and that they should be behind bars.” Police and prosecutors have long objected to Drug Court, saying serious offenders get off too easily. The court was started as an experiment in 1997 to see if more immediate consequences, faster help and more intensive supervision could help reduce drug crimes. “This is called a problem- solving court,” said Gary Larson, the presiding Drug Court judge. Exact figures comparing probation to prison time for previous years were unavailable Wednesday evening. But Klobuchar said that five years ago the numbers were reversed, with two-thirds of first-degree offenders getting prison time. There are approximately 300 first- and second-degree drug cases in Drug Court a year, according to her office. That’s out of about 1,600 cases in that court. Klobuchar said her office is pushing judges to hear first- and second-degree drug cases outside of Drug Court, because they involve drug traffickers who are often violent. Echoing Klobuchar, Drug Enforcement Agency Special Agent Kent Bailey said Drug Court is not designed to deal with traffickers, but rather first-time offenders and petty drug users. “It’s failing,” Bailey said regarding Drug Court’s handling of first-degree cases. “It’s wrong.” Hennepin County Drug Court Judge Allen Oleisky said Wednesday that the number of probationary sentences has gone up because of the court’s philosophy of treatment and workhouse time instead of prison. Larson said, “We do depart. We put people on intensive probation.” People do time in the workhouse; are on intensive probation; receive treatment; are tested for drugs twice a week, and are seen once a week by probation officers. Larson said Drug Court also sends defendants to get their GED and has a job school for these who need training. The individual who is sent to prison is not likely to receive treatment and will come out as an addicted felon un- able to get a job, he said. The past anecdotal evidence shows good compliance by those who go through Drug Court, and they don’t re- offend while they’re on probation, Larson said. National statistics show that recidivism is lower in Drug Court than when the traditional prison sentence is imposed, he said. However, Bailey said first- degree defendants are traffickers moving large amounts of drugs and they probably don’t use the drugs. Therefore, they do not benefit from rehabilitation, he said. In one case outlined in the county prosecutor’s memo, Martin Medero had 247 grams of cocaine and admitted to picking up another kilogram of the drug. Police found more cocaine, a scale and $2,500 at his residence. According to the memo, Larson gave the defendant probation. “That guy got away scot free,” Bailey said. “That’s not right. A kilogram of cocaine for sure meets the federal threshold for five years imprisonment. To get probation, he realizes there’s no deterrent.” cxiong@startribune.com • 612-673-4391 mzack@startribune.com • 612-673-4435 Prosecutors criticize Drug Court 7 New data on the most serious drug cases are cited as evidence that those charged with drug crimes aren’t receiving appropriately tough sentences in Drug Court. Nancy Jane Doughterty www.lampertexteriors.com Lampert Exteriors Since 1887 Call Now or Visit Our Roseville Showroom 2786 N. Fairview Ave. 651-695-3680 MN License #20103953 821827 Quality Replacement: •Windows •Sliding Entry Doors •Patio Doors •Soffi t •Fascia •Roofi ng •Seamless •Gutters SPRING/SUMMER Vinyl Siding $ 750 Off Vinyl Siding Installed FREE House Wrap with Full House Job FREE ESTIMATES Quality made certain . Satisfaction guaranteed . ™ DONATE YOUR VEHICLE www.autotechnical.com to Auto Technical Inc. Our Student Mentor Training Needs Repairables to Work On. The Tubman Alliance Women’s Shelters depends on ATI to help families achieve self-suffi ciency. 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