MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A suspected drunk driver allegedly told a Fridley police officer to take her to jail when the officer asked her to do a field sobriety test.

Mauresha White, 23, has been charged with driving while impaired.

She was pulled over because she was driving her vehicle without any lights on, just before midnight last Saturday, according to a criminal report.

The officer smelled “a strong odor of alcohol”, and asked to take a standard field sobriety test.

At that time, White allegedly turned away from the officer, placed her hands behind her back, and requested to be taken to jail.

The officer read the Minnesota Breath Test Advisory ten times, including the breath test portion twenty times, but the criminal report says White sat in silence and refused to answer the questions.

White has three prior convictions for driving while impaired, and her license had been cancelled prior to the incident.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A police officer in western Wisconsin was hospitalized this week for fentanyl exposure following a drug bust.

The Rice Lake Police Department says that K9 officer Josh Eckes and his partner, Cuff, were given emergency medical attention after they responded Tuesday to a traffic stop that turned into a drug seizure.

Officials say that when another officer was handling a canister containing fentanyl, powder leaked from the canister and fell on Eckes, who was downwind of the officer.

An ambulance brought Eckes to a local hospital, where he was treated with Narcan. He was hospitalized for six hours.

On Facebook, Eckes wrote that while he was in the hospital, his mind was on the health of his four-legged partner.

“My concern the entire time I was in the hospital was my dog, texting my partners, calling, asking them to make sure he was still OK. Luckily he received no effects of this drug,” Eckes wrote.

Officials say Eckes and Cuff are recovering at home and are expected to return to duty soon.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Newly-released dash camera video from the Hudson Police Department shows a different vantage point of the wrong-way pursuit that ended in a crash in Wisconsin Wednesday.

The chase started in Newport after the U.S. Marshals Service tried to arrest 51-year-old fugitive Jeffrey Graves. The chase ended near Hudson, Wisconsin, when officers used a PIT maneuver on Graves’s truck, causing him to crash into an unoccupied vehicle. He is in critical condition at Regions Hospital in St. Paul.

It started when authorities tried to arrest Graves, who was charged Thursday with first-degree criminal sexual conduct, felony kidnapping and first-degree burglary.

Charging documents say on the early morning of November 3, Groves broke into an elderly woman’s home where he had worked before as a handyman. He then repeatedly raped and assaulted her over the course of several hours, all while under the influence of methamphetamine. He stole $400 in cash from inside her residence before driving her to two ATM machines, where he stole another $800 in cash from her.

Dash cam footage from the wrong-way police chase of Jeffrey Graves (credit: Hudson Police Department)

During the police pursuit Wednesday, the main bed of Graves’s pickup truck detached from the rest of the smoking vehicle after he crashed into an empty car on the side of road. Authorities put down stop sticks in Hudson, which the suspect then drove over before continuing on. At one point, the driver zoomed past WCCO photojournalist Lewis Karpel on Highway 36 near Minneapolis. Karpel said cars were moving out of the way, not knowing why the driver was going the wrong direction.

“I had probably three seconds worth of ‘He’s coming at me!’ And then he’s past me,” Karpel said. “When I saw the helicopter video and you saw the cab split away from the frame of the vehicle, you really realize the weight of the situation.”

The suspect has four felony warrants out for his arrest in Ramsey County. He’s accused of violating a protection order and receiving stolen property, among other things. He also has a lengthy criminal record that includes convictions for domestic assault and a number of driving offenses.

He faces up to 70 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

HIBBING, Minn. (AP) — A Hibbing man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the killing of a man in the woods of northern Minnesota.

Twenty-one-year-old Anthony Howson was sentenced Thursday. WDIO-TV reports Howson declined to say anything at sentencing. He will receive credit for time spent in jail.

READ MORE: Teen Given Chance At Parole In Iron Range Slaying

Deshon Bonnell and Anthony Howson (credit: St. Louis Co. Sheriff’s Office)

Authorities say 33-year-old Joshua Lavalley of Aurora was shot twice in the face and his body left on a snowmobile trail last January.

Nineteen-year-old Deshon Bonnell was sentenced last month to life in prison for killing Lavalley. The shooting happened after Lavelley allegedly made unwanted sexual advances toward Bonnell’s girlfriend, Bailey French. Howson says Bonnell and French led Lavalley blindfolded into the woods where Bonnell shot him.

French also is charged in the case. Her case is pending.

(© Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A Minneapolis family is speaking publicly for the first time after their children nearly died while out getting ice cream.

In September, Cecilia (Cece) and Jacob Speranzella were crossing Lake Street when a car hit them. Officers say the driver admitted to doing drugs, stealing a car, then driving away when the teenagers desperately needed help.

“We were wondering what was taking them so long,” said their father, Joe Speranzella. “It doesn’t take that long to walk up to Lake Street.”

READ MORE: Long Recovery Ahead For Cecilia And Jacob Speranzella, Teen Siblings Struck By Carjacker

Cece and Jacob’s parents tried to text them, but it was an officer who responded.

“He came to our door and said, ‘There’s been an accident, your kids have been hit by a car, you need to come with me,’ so we jumped straight in his car and went to HCMC,” Joe said.

Mitzi Speranzella is Cece and Jacob’s mother.

“When I went to see Jacob, he had blood [all over] his face, all over his ears, all over his head, he was just covered in blood,” Mitzi said. “I wanted to clean him up, so I got a towel and I started to clean him.”

Cecilia and Jacob Speranzella (credit: The Speranzella Family)

The inseparable siblings were divided by a hallway in the ICU. Jacob broke his back, and Cece was unresponsive with a major brain injury. She says it’s all a blur.

“I don’t really remember much. It’s like my brain kind of guarded me from remembering anything at all,” Cece said.

“You know, I would say to her, ‘You’re gonna be OK, baby, you’re going to be fine,’ and I’m just glad that that’s turned out to be true,” Joe said.

After weeks in a coma, Cece is home and intensive rehab — and so is her brother.

“Every morning I wake up and I’m so thankful for my kids,” Mitzi said. “My children are gifts from God to us.”

The family is deeply grateful and deeply confused as to why someone would cause such pain.

“I just want him to know that like there’s two kids that you could have just taken off of this planet, just taken completely away from their family,” Cece said.

But Cece and Jacob are still here and still together.

“It’s never gonna be the same as it was before, but with the challenges that they have, I’m hoping that, you know, they have a happy life,” Mitzi said.

Jacob was at home resting during Thursday’s interview, but he is getting stronger, hoping to get on his bike again one day.

Cece wants to go back to college where she, coincidentally, wants to study crime scene investigation.

The family wants to thank everyone for their prayers. The teens have had miraculous recoveries and they have wonderful attitudes.

Prosecutors say Steven Ross admitted to using crack, marijuana and consuming alcohol before September’s crash. He’s expected in court in December. If convicted, he could face more than two decades behind bars.

LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors have accused a Minnesota man of using a Porsche as a battering ram to get his Nissan Altima out of an Onalaska impound lot.

The La Crosse Tribune reports that Benjamin Gjere of Lanesboro was charged Thursday with operating a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent, property damage, theft and bail jumping.

According to investigators, Gjere’s 2019 Altima was impounded Nov. 6 after he was pulled over.

Surveillance video shows Gjere and an unidentified accomplice on the lot Sunday.

An unlocked 2012 Porsche with the keys inside was parked behind the Altima. The video shows the Porsche crashing through the lot’s fence and a fence of a nearby house. The video shows the Altima driving through the holes in the fences.

Gjere was pulled over in Winona County, Minn., about an hour later.

(© Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — City leaders revealed Friday the number of untested rape kits in the department’s backlog is nearly 10 times what was originally reported.

Since last year, state law has mandated untested kits be sent in for analysis and a 2015 audit revealed 194 of those in Minneapolis. This summer, the Minneapolis Police Department Sex Crimes Unit discovered that figure wasn’t right.

“They discovered that number was actually inaccurate. Right now, what I am reporting today, is that number is around 1,700,” Chief Medaria Arradondo said.

The city is now pledging to have every one of those kits tested to ensure this never happens again.

“There’s a lot of value in that and we owe it to victims,” MPD Deputy Chief Erick Fors said.

Earlier this year, the MPD discovered an unjustifiable mistake made in 2015.

Under our new sexual assault policy, all unrestricted kits must be and will be tested within 60 days of receipt. Period. This will not happen again. https://t.co/0JPAQAoUBN pic.twitter.com/ooJ5IFRB5A

— Jacob Frey (@Jacob_Frey) November 15, 2019

“We will move heaven and earth to honor the courage in pursuit of justice,” Mayor Jacob Frey said.

WCCO-TV Reporter Mary McGuire asked Police Chief Medaria Arradondo about how this miscalculation could have happened.

“I’m trying to get those answers. As I stand before you today, I don’t have the ‘why’”, Arradondo said.

Survivor advocate Abby Honold says she has been hearing about the issue of untested kits for years.

“While it doesn’t surprise me, of course, it is very frustrating,” Honold said. “It’s a sinking, awful feeling knowing that people are going to be getting those phone calls. They are going to have to deal with the fact of knowing, all these years later, that their kit was never tested … that they never had a chance in the first place.”

Related: The Push To Examine All Of Minnesota’s Untested Rape Kits

Since this error was discovered, approximately 60 of the backlogged rape kits have been sent to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for testing.

The Minneapolis Police Department estimates it could be up to two years before all of the 1,700 have analysis completed. The current average processing time for the BCA for testing kits is 90 days. Once testing is completed, the kit is returned to the agency that submitted it.

Retired Minneapolis Police Lieutenant Mike Sauro was in charge of the sex crimes unit in 2015 and personally supervised the study of the untested kits. He refutes the 1,700 number given by the department and doesn’t believe it is accurate.

Under the department’s new sexual assault policy, all unrestricted kits must be and will be tested within 60 days of receipt.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Some businesses that were vandalized in south Minneapolis are getting a boost from the community.

On Friday, $30,000 was being given to the business leaders, in response to vandalism caused in the Seward neighborhood.

Shop owners say repairs and increased security cost thousands of dollars.

Investigators used surveillance video to track down the man seen hurling something at one of the businesses.

Harlin St. John has pleaded not guilty to charges of hate crimes and property damage. A trial is scheduled to begin on Dec. 9.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Kenneth Lilly has been sentenced to 86 months in prison for opening fire on a school bus driver in the middle of a February snow storm on Interstate 35W.

Investigators say the bus scraped Lilly’s car as it was trying to merge onto the interstate in Minneapolis on the afternoon of February 5. Minnesota Department of Transportation cameras show Lilly getting out of his vehicle and approaching the bus while they were stopped in traffic.

Lilly claims the bus hit him while he was walking in front of it, so he fired five shots into the windshield. One bullet grazed the bus driver’s head, and another hit his arm. A little girl was on the bus, but she was not hit.

“I overreacted to a situation that I believed inaccurately was a threat to my life,” Lilly said. “I acted in a hyper-vigilant manner.”

Lilly apologized to the bus driver, 78-year-old Thomas Benson, and also apologized to the 7-year-old girl who was a passenger on the bus.

Kenneth Lilly (credit: Hennepin County Jail)

Lilly pleaded guilty to the charges against him back in August.

On Friday, Benson said that he agreed with the sentence, and said he was glad the court rejected Lilly’s “imperfect self-defense” claim.

What follows is his statement in its entirety:

Thank you your honor for allowing me the time to make this statement. Due to the defendant’s inability to control his emotions, I was struck by three bullets. One hit and split my left ear in half and I had to have surgery to repair it. Unfortunately, I am completely deaf in that ear as a result and now when I have problems with my hearing aid in the right ear, sometimes I can’t hear at all. This causes me to feel unbalanced at times and isolated from others.

Another bullet tore off the tip of my left finger, traveled up by arm and lodged in my bicep. I endured another surgery to have that bullet removed and another bullet went through my left shoulder. I am left handed and these two bullets caused nerve damage which destroyed approximately 15% usage of this hand. I find myself randomly dropping things and experience numbness and tingling.

The psychological effects are just as bad. The longest moments of my life are when I was calling the child’s name to see if she was okay and there was no answer. Two additional bullets had been fired and I couldn’t get up due to shock and pain, to check on her. My daughters and grandchildren suffered emotionally from this as well, and want to send the message to Mr. Lilly that they hope he understands his actions caused a whole family a lot of anxiety, tears, and pain.

I used to leave my windows and curtains open but now have had periods when I am afraid to do that and for quite some time was afraid every time I had to leave my house that I would open the door and find the shooter standing there waiting to finish the job.

I find myself being nervous that he may show up and try to harm me again.

Mr. Lilly is lucky he is not being sentenced for homicide instead of assault.

I will accept whatever punishment you hand down, but I implore you not to give him the minimum. Thank you for your consideration.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A robbery occurred near the University of Minnesota Friday afternoon, according to a campus-wide safety notification. 

The incident occurred at around 3 p.m. at the intersection of 14th Avenue Southeast and 8th Street Southeast, according to the notification. One of the male suspects is described as wearing acid-wash jeans and a blue and white striped sweater. The other male suspect was described as wearing a grey hoodie around his face. 

The suspects fled in a white car. 

The notification was sent out to the university community in the form of a Safe-U Emergency, meaning the incident is believed to be an immediate threat in the area.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan joined Sen. Tina Smith as she called for the reactivation of the Violence Against Women Act in Congress.

The act, which provided $1.6 billion towards investigating and prosecuting violent crimes against women, was signed by former President Bill Clinton, but expired earlier this year.

“The Violence Against Women Act advances the fundamental and profound value that women should be free from violence wherever they are: in their homes, in their communities, in their workspace, wherever they are.” Smith said.

The Senator is a member of the Indian Affairs Committee in Washington. In January, she sponsored the Justice for Native Survivors of Sexual Violence Act.

“We face a crisis of Native women who’ve gone missing, murdered and affected by violence at alarmingly high rates,” said Flanagan.

In September, Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Flanagan launched the first meeting of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force. Their goal is to draw attention to the disproportionate rates of murder and violence experienced by Indigenous women.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A man is dead after a Saturday night shooting in Minneapolis.

Police say officers were called to the 600 block of Main Street SE just after 10 p.m. Upon arrival, they found a man, believed to be in his 30s, lying on the ground with a gunshot wound.

The man was taken to HCMC, where he died from his injuries a short time later.

The man’s identity is being withheld at this time.

Police say they do not have anyone in custody.

This homicide marks the 40th this year.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Authorities say 11 horses and ponies were rescued from a residence in North Branch Friday in a suspected case of neglect.

The North Branch Police Department said in a Facebook post that the animals were seized under warrant from the residence and transported to boarding facilities where they’re receiving necessary food and veterinary care.

The Minnesota Hooved Animal Rescue told WCCO the horses are suffering from lice, pneumonia and starvation. The rescue organization is currently raising money to help with expenses.

The owner of the animals has 10 days to declare whether or not they want to keep them.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Officials have identified the man fatally shot over the weekend near the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the victim as 30-year-old Mohamed Ahmed Hassan, of Columbia Heights. He died of a gunshot wound to the chest.

Minneapolis police say the shooting happened Saturday night near the intersection of Main Street Southeast and 6th Avenue Southeast in the city’s Marcy-Holmes neighborhood.

First responders found Hassan in the street and brought him to Hennepin Healthcare, where he was pronounced dead shortly after.

Investigators are still searching for the shooter and a motive. The public is not believed to be in danger.

Hassan’s death marks the 40th homicide in Minneapolis this year.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – The Robbinsdale Police Department responded to a report of a car theft with a child inside.

At 7:32 Monday morning, a woman was putting air in her tires at the Hy-Vee gas station when a man got in her car and drove off. A four year-old child was in the backseat.

After driving a short distance, the suspect briefly stopped the car and the child got out of the car. He then continued to flee in the car and onto 36th Avenue North. The child was not hurt.

The car was found at 8:45 a.m. in a residential neighborhood in Golden Valley. The Dark blue Kia was abandoned near  33rd Ave N. and Scott Avenue N. The car was not damaged.

Afterwards, Robbinsdale officers discovered another stolen car which had been dropped off by the same suspect in a nearby lot, just before this incident.

Anyone who may have seen the incident or have information related to the suspect should contact the Robbinsdale Police Department.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Kenneth Keith Clark was sentenced Monday to 144 months in prison after being found guilty of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

The assault happened in November 2012. The victim was a grandmother who was contacted as part of the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative grants introduced in 2016. She wanted to proceed with the investigation.

Clark was charged in 2012 after evidence indicated he forced a woman into sexual conduct in his cab. Although police promptly responded, the office says miscommunication between police and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension lab caused a delay in the investigation.

Clark, now 66, was found guilty in June based on the “newly discovered powerful DNA evidence,” the office said.

The 12-year sentence is within standard sentencing guidelines.