A St. Paul man pled guilty yesterday to criminal vehicular operation in connection with a crash on Hwy 21 in Wells Township last May. 39 year old Rogelio Priego Vega was northbound on Hwy 21 at Dover Trail when he drifted across the center line and struck a vehicle driven by 39 year old Michael Jerome Brown of Lonsdale. Brown was extricated from his vehicle with 2 broken legs. Vega’s passenger, his wife, was ejected and trapped under the vehicle, she was airlifted to a metro hospital with non life-threatening injuries. Vega was uninjured. He told Troopers, at the scene, that his wife was driving. She was, however, found trapped under the
passenger side and first responders lifted the vehicle to get her free. Vega’s alcohol content was three times the legal limit. A DWI charge was dismissed. His sentencing is set for November 15th.
Multiple charges filed after call on man threatening Nfld woman
A Burnsville man is in jail facing multiple charges after an incident in Northfield. According to the criminal complaint, on Sunday, Rice County Deputies were called to the 8000 block of Kendall Avenue on report of a man, possibly on methamphetamine, threatening a woman. Officers found that 37 year old Joshua James Wroblewski had a warrant out for his arrest. By the time they arrived at the residence, he’d left in a stolen truck. He was driving south on Kendall at 77 mph when he was pulled over and stopped. As the Deputy approached his car, Wroblewski took off. The Deputy chased him for over a mile, reaching speeds of 90. He crashed into another vehicle after losing control. That driver and passenger suffered minor injuries. Wroblewski tried to flee on foot. He’s charged with vehicle theft, 5th degree drugs, fleeing a peace officer, all felonies, and 2 gross misdemeanors including criminal vehicular operation. Bail has been set at $25,000 with conditions. He remains in the Rice County jail.Wroblewski complaint
Charter vs City – still no resolution
The Charter Commission met with Northfield Council on Monday. They’ve been trying to get the Council to agree to adhere to a portion of the Charter that requires the Mayor to review the operations of the City and report back to Council in a public meeting. Sec. 3.8 states that the Mayor must report any neglect, dereliction of duty or waste on the part of any office or department of the City. This Commission added language to add a time-frame, specifically that the Mayor report once per term. City Administrator Ben Martig said, “the Council rejected that last year. They brought back some more amendments this year with the different language, met with our Attorney and I to identify some of the potential private protected data that could be of concern on that”. The Mayor, Martig and City Attorney Hood came up with 5 options that included more than Charter member, Scott Oney said was necessary, including spending a lot of money to have an outside consultant audit City operations every other year. They also removed the word “waste” on every option. Martig said, “the other argument that, well if a Mayor, what should the Mayor review, if the Mayor doesn’t have the technical experience to kind of going in and doing a probe professionally, how does that work? Lot of good discussion going on”. Oney disagreed that there was “good discussion”, saying Mayor Pownell was letting Council speak more than the commission. He explained that the reporting could include things such as a City employee working on their own projects using the City’s resources. There’s a history of a contentious relationship with this council as the Charter has tried to assert themselves. Underlying issues include questions of what authority the Charter has. Any changes must be approved unanimously by the Charter and the Council. The Charter Commission will meet on Sept. 27th in Council Chambers from 6pm to 8pm to discuss the options City officials put forth. According to Ballotpedia, Minnesota has 854 cities, 107 are listed as Charter Cities rather than Statutory cities. For additional information: LMC – Types of Cities Chartered local government
