Evidence in the shooting death of a Nfld woman turned over to County Attorney
The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Northfield Police Department have turned over all their evidence in the death of Lilly Kirkoff to Rice County Attorney John Fossum. He said he has 2 reams of paper on his desk that he’ll be reviewing and making a determination by the end of the year. That would be to determine if charges may be filed against the woman who shot Kirckoff on August 14th, in the home they shared on Jefferson Road. As no charges have been filed, KYMN is not
naming her. A Grand Jury could be called. Fossum said, “to determine whether or not there is First Degree Murder, we could have a Grand Jury decide whether or not there’s some other level of offense, what the appropriate level of charge is or whether or not there’s sufficient evidence on the Prosecution side to overcome a claim of self defense”. At trial, Fossum says, prosecutors would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it was NOT self defense. He added that, in this case, there are many facts that would make it plausible that it was self defense. In the meantime, he has reams of evidence to go through.
Faribault man pleads guilty to sexual assault with a child
A Faribault man charged in August with 3 felonies involving criminal sexual conduct with a child pled guilty yesterday to one count of 2nd degree criminal sexual conduct. According to the criminal complaint, 25 year old Richard George Meza, was 
accused of multiple incidents of soliciting, touching and penetrating at least 3 children under the age of 13. The complaint, heavily redacted, indicates that Meza sometimes babysat these children and is somehow related to them. The detective contacted Rice County Social Services who discovered there were more victims and that Meza reportedly admitted to a 3rd party that he had sexually abused 2 of the children and that his mother and sister were aware of it. Meza’s sentencing is scheduled for February 21st. The maximum sentence is 25 years, however the presumptive sentence, with no criminal history, is 90 months or 7.5 years in prison. Meza REDACTED COMPLAINT
Nfld School Board approves Master Facilities Plan
The Northfield School Board approved their 2-part Master Facilities Plan this week. Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann said they adopted the Executive Summary. He explains the first part is what’s called the Building Life Cycle Management plan. He said that they have 2 projects that a new Facilities Advisory Committee will be reviewing at least annually. The committee will be made up of citizens from the public and staff. The projects involving the Northfield High School and the elementary schools were discussed previously and they are on our website, kymn.net. Essentially the Board approved plans to set in motion those projects at the appropriate time. Hillmann said the Board will look at the projects every March and determine, based on input from the Facilities Advisory Committee, if they should move ahead with 1 or both projects. The bottom line is the voters will have to approve the funding. The 2nd part of the Master Plan is their Long term Facilities Maintenance plan which goes to the State and then entitles them to funding when necessary.
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