October 2011 Archives

A Minneapolis man will not be charged after he shot a robber in a Cub Foods parking lot on Oct. 20, according to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman.

The man, who will not be named for safety purposes, saw the robber, later identified as 23-year-old Darren Evanovich, "pistol-whip a woman and take her purse," according the the Star Tribune. The man drove up to Evanovich and asked for him to give the purse back.

When Evanovich told the man to "mind his own business" and pointed a gun at the witness, he shot Evanovich and killed him, according to the criminal complaint.

The witness, who had a permit to own the gun, said he acted in self-defense; however, Evanovich's mother seemed to think the outcome of the situation should have been different, according to the Star Tribune. "They're not going to press charges against the man who killed my son? Are you all serious?" she said.

KARE 11 reports that the Good Samaritan will have to prove that he wasn't the aggressor, that he felt threatened and that he had no other choice but to shoot. Although the witness has not been arrested, the case will be passed on to the Hennepin County Attorney's Office after the investigation is complete.

An Albert Lea couple was charged Thursday in Freeborn County District for allegedly manufacturing counterfeit bills.

According to the Star Tribune, Heather Cameron, 34, pleaded guilty on Thursday and her husband Travis Cameron, 31, pleaded guilty on Monday. The two are part of a group of eight that makes, distributes and passes the bills in South Minneapolis.

To create the counterfeit bills, the couple allegedly used an oven cleaner to wash $5 bills and then they digitally scanned an image of a $100, and then printed the image on the washed bill, the Albert Lea Tribune reports

On May 31 Heather was arrested after paying with a counterfeit bill at a Wal-Mart in Owatonna and admitted in a statement to the police that she made the bill, according the Albert Lea Tribune.

Currently, the couple were ordered unconditional bails of $100,000 each by Freeborn County District Court Judge Steve Schwab, and the couple will appear in court July 5, the Albert Lea Tribune reports.

A St. Paul teacher was sentenced on Oct. 27 to 90 days in The Ramsey County jail after he ran over a 2-year-old girl with his car in a parking lot.

According to the Star Tribune, Hamjatta Fofana, 53, was under the influence and had a blood alcohol content of .32 percent when the police found him in his apartment nearby.

The criminal complaint stated that Fofana drove away and that "the father ran to the driver's door and pulled on the Honda's emergency brake, and the mother pulled the girl from under the car."

The Star Tribune reports that Fofana, who has been a second-language teacher at a St. Paul public school since 1993 remains on paid administrative leave, said St. Paul schools spokeswoman Toya Stewart Downey.

Fofana was charged with criminal vehicular operation and driving while intoxicated and he pleaded guilty to criminal vehicular operation, the Pioneer Press reports.

Two Russian self-made entrepreneurs who were once close friends as well as business partners are now intertwined in a $6.5 billion lawsuit.

Boris Berezovsky, 65, and Roman Abramovich, 45, created a gas and oil conglomerate called Sibneft, along with another partner who was not named. But when Abramovich sold the company in a multi-billion dollar deal in 2005, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin suggested to Abramovich that he push Berezovsky out, the Star Tribune reported.

Berezovsky was forced to leave the country and start a new life abroad, the Guardian reported. Berezosky's lawyers claimed that Abramovich "intimidated" him to sell his shares for much less than they were worth; thus, leaving Berezosky with a loss of over $6 billion, the Star Tribune reported.

In court on Oct. 3 Berezovsky's lawyer, Laurence Rabinowitz, said, "Mr. Abramovich at that point demonstrated that he was a man to whom wealth and influence mattered more than friendship and loyalty."

However, Abramovich saw things differently: "This is wealth that I have generated through hard work ... I am not part of his family ... and I have no obligation, legal or moral, to fund his lifestyle or attempt to indulge his fantastic demands."

A new theory of how Michael Jackson died was introduced Friday to the jury in the trial of Jackson's physician, who is accused of involuntary manslaughter.

Dr. Steven Shafer concluded that Dr. Conrad Murray, the defendant, left a drip of the anesthesia propofol run through Jackson's bloodstream for three hours, which led to the pop star's death, the Chicago Tribune reported.

However, Paul White, a leading anesthesiologist, said Shafer's theory is inconclusive since the autopsy showed minimal amount of the drug in Jackson's urine, the Chicago Tribune reported.

When the defense continues on Monday, the New York Times thinks the focus will be on Jackson's dependence on drugs and explain how the singer was addicted to a painkiller called Demerol. They will try to convince the jury that it was Jackson who injected the drug that killed him.

However, the prosecution's experts still hold Murray accountable for Jackson's death. When David Walgren, the deputy district attorney, asked sleep specialist Dr. Nader Kamangar if Murray played a direct role in Jackson's death, he replied, "This is correct."