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Articles by Brandon Stahl
KARE 11 Investigates: Legislators call for reforms, investigations
ST PAUL, Minn. — “Clearly, we got some work to do this next session,” said DFL State Senator John Hoffman. Sen. Hoffman chairs the powerful Human Services Committee, and reviewed records KARE 11 uncovered as part of its investigation into the partnership between a for-profit company called Kyros, the state’s largest provider of peer services, and its non-profit partner, Refocus Recovery.
KARE 11 Investigates: Former jail doctor at center of inmate deaths gets back his medical license
SAINT PAUL, Minn. — The state medical board restored the license of a doctor whose former company was at the center of KARE 11’s Investigation into numerous preventable deaths in Minnesota jails. The board had indefinitely suspended the license of Todd Leonard in January 2022 after finding the death of a Beltrami Jail inmate “should never have occurred. And it must never be allowed to happen again.” The board reinstated Leonard’s license on Nov.
KARE 11 Investigates: Minnesota schools found more guns post-pandemic
MINNEAPOLIS — Few things raise more concern for parents than the safety of their kids in school. After a number of high-profile gun cases in Minnesota schools and a fight over school resource officers, KARE 11 Investigates obtained data to understand how often guns are seized. Schools are required to report to the Minnesota Department of Education when a weapon is found on the property. They also report the weapon type, discipline and law enforcement involvement.
KARE 11 Investigates: Hardel Sherrell: five years without justice
ST PAUL, Minn. — Hardel Sherrell suffered for days and became paralyzed in the Beltrami County jail as his jailers and medical providers ignored his pleas for help. “It’s obvious what happened,” said Hardel’s mom Del Shea Perry, “Hardel was medically neglected and left to suffer and die for six long agonizing days.” For Perry, the following 1,825 days have been spent on a relentless crusade seeking one thing that has proved elusive.
KARE 11 Investigates: Man who was a ‘gap case’ found guilty of brutally murdering girlfriend
SAINT PAUL, Minn. — A violent, mentally ill man who was released by the state back into the community was found guilty last week of brutally murdering his ex-girlfriend, 21-year-old Abigail Simpson. Terrion Sherman, 27, had a history of violent crimes before the murder, but he would become known as a “gap case” in Minnesota. He was too mentally ill to stand trial and found incompetent for his previous crimes.
Ramsey County to pay $3 million to woman injured while in custody
ST PAUL, Minn — Ramsey County has agreed to pay $3 million to a woman who was severely injured while in custody at the Ramsey County Adult Detention Center in Feb. 2021, according to the woman's attorneys. In a federal civil rights lawsuit filed in September of last year, attorneys for Miri Mozuch-Stafford alleged that corrections officers tackled her while she was handcuffed behind her back.
KARE 11 Investigates: Gov. Walz signs bill to end use of juvenile solitary confinement
SAINT PAUL, Minn — Gov. Tim Walz signed a bill Friday that will prohibit juvenile detention facilities from putting youth into solitary confinement, following KARE 11’s reporting finding that the practice is widespread in Minnesota. The new law was included in a controversial public safety bill that split along party lines due in large part to gun safety measures, including universal background checks and red flag laws.
KARE 11 Investigates: Minnesota nursing board director resigns
Investigations The Minnesota Board of Nursing weighed firing its executive director Thursday before she submitted her resignation Author: Brandon Stahl (KARE11), Lauren Leamanczyk, Steve Eckert Published: 5:47 PM CDT May 18, 2023 Updated: 5:47 PM CDT May 18, 2023 SAINT PAUL, Minn. — The embattled director of the Minnesota Board of Nursing submitted her resignation on Thursday just before the board was to decide whether to fire her. Kimberly S.
KARE 11 Investigates: Controversial Board of Nursing director on leave
MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. — The controversial executive director of the Minnesota Board of Nursing has been placed on leave "effective today," according to an internal email sent to board staff Tuesday morning and obtained by KARE 11. Meanwhile, a notice posted on the board’s website announced an “Emergency Open Special Meeting” scheduled for Thursday “to consider ending the appointment of the Board’s Executive Director.” Kimberly S. Miller has been the board's director since August 2021.
KARE 11 Investigates: Board delays allow potentially dangerous nurses to practice
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Investigations A ProPublica and KARE 11 Investigation finds the state nursing board drags its feet investigating complaints against nurses accused of serious misconduct. Author: Brandon Stahl (KARE11), A.J. Lagoe, Lauren Leamanczyk, Jeremy Kohler (ProPublica), Emily Hopkins (ProPublica) Published: 2:00 PM CDT April 3, 2023 Updated: 11:56 AM CDT April 3, 2023 Stephanie Lundblad is still waiting.
By Brandon Stahl, A.J. Lagoe Verified, Lauren Leamanczyk Verified, Jeremy Kohler Verified, Emily Hopkins Verified
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KARE-TV (Minneapolis, MN)
Verified
KARE 11 Investigates: Walz signs bill to immediately fund gap case reforms
The Gap The governor will next need to appoint a Competency Attainment Board to oversee a system to treat and supervise criminal suspects too mentally ill to stand trial. Author: Brandon Stahl (KARE11), A.J. Lagoe, Steve Eckert Published: 3:13 PM CDT March 16, 2023 Updated: 3:13 PM CDT March 16, 2023 ST PAUL, Minn. — Gov.
KARE 11 Investigates: Beltrami County, MEnD to pay $2.6 million for jail death
BEMIDJI, Minn. — Editor's note: The story above first aired on Feb. 10, 2023. Beltrami County and its former jail medical provider will pay $2.6 million to the family of a man whose preventable death at the county’s jail in 2018 sparked outrage statewide. Hardel Sherrell was 27 when he died paralyzed and laying in his own filth on a cell room floor after jailers and medical providers ignored his pleas for help.
KARE 11 Investigates: State Senate overwhelmingly passes immediate funding for gap reforms
ST PAUL, Minn. — The state Senate on Wednesday voted 62 to 0 to immediately fund reforms that would close so-called “gap cases” exposed by a KARE 11 Investigation. Those cases saw criminal defendants found too mentally ill to stand trial fall through gaps in the state’s justice and mental health systems when they often were released without care or oversight. KARE 11 found numerous examples where those suspects in gap cases went on to commit murders, rapes and violent assaults.
KARE 11 Investigates: Bungled raid led to innocent pregnant woman’s shackling Original
MINNEAPOLIS — Maple Grove police bungled a raid as they were searching for a stolen snowblower, according to newly released department investigative records. It set off a chain of events that included an innocent pregnant woman’s arrest and her being illegally shackled while in labor.
Charges: 18-year-old connected to string of 2021 robberies
MINNEAPOLIS — Editor's note: The video above first aired on KARE 11 on Feb. 9, 2023. A Minneapolis teen has agreed to be charged as an adult in connection to more than a dozen armed robberies and assaults he was charged with as a juvenile, including an alleged violent crime spree in Fall 2021. Jabron Jiles, 18, had been held in juvenile detention since October 2021, and is now being held at the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center on $1 million bail.
KARE 11 Investigates: Ellison joins prosecution team reviewing 2018 Beltrami County inmate death
ST PAUL, Minn. — Attorney General Keith Ellison will partner with the Beltrami County attorney to decide whether to file criminal charges related to the 2018 death of Hardel Sherrell, Ellison’s office announced on Friday. Sherrell suffered for days and became paralyzed in the Beltrami County jail as his jailers and medical providers ignored his pleas for help before he died.
FBI investigating Ramsey County jail for excessive force, medical neglect of inmate
ST PAUL, Minn. — The FBI is investigating accusations that Ramsey County jail guards broke a woman’s leg, then left her alone for more than 17 hours in excruciating pain in February 2021 before finally taking her to a hospital. Miri Mozuch-Stafford, 29, filed a federal lawsuit in September alleging that the delay in treatment aggravated her injuries and required several surgeries to repair bone and tissue damage, leaving her leg permanently, grotesquely disfigured.
Health Inequities in Pediatric Trauma
This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon. Open AccessReview by Mark L. Kayton 1,2, Victoriya Staab 1,2, Brandon Stahl 2, Khea Tan 1, Larissa Russo 1, Meagan Verney 1, Margaret McGuire 1 and Harpreet Pall 1,2,* 1 K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, NJ 07753, USA 2 Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, Nutley, NJ 07110, USA * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
KARE 11 Investigates: DOC hammers Beltrami County for risk of 'life-threatening' harm at jail
ST PAUL, Minn. — Beltrami County jail staff tried to stop or delay sick inmates from getting emergency medical careaccording to state inspectors, resulting in sanctions for “conditions that pose an imminent risk of life-threatening harm.” The state Department of Corrections, which has oversight of county jails, put Beltrami County’s operating license under a conditional status on Friday and ordered the jail to reduce its inmate capacity from 132 to 80, a near 40% decrease.
KARE 11 Investigates: Troubled jail medical provider files for bankruptcy
SARTELL, Minn. — MEnD Correctional Care, which provides care to more Minnesota jails than any other provider, filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday following years of inmate deaths under the company’s care. At its height, MEnD provided care to thousands of inmates in more than 40 jails in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois.
KARE 11 Investigates: Affordable senior apartment developer accused of ‘double-dipping’
COON RAPIDS, Minn. — On a hot day this summer, dozens of seniors stood outside the Plymouth headquarters of Dominium Apartments, holding signs and protesting. “We need help,” said a woman in a wheelchair holding a sign that read “Dominium rips off seniors on fixed incomes.” The residents of multiple metro area buildings were protesting a 12.5 percent rent hike the company had enacted at its properties – which are marketed as "affordable" housing for people 55 and older.
KARE 11 Investigates: Why the state hospital for mentally ill children cares for so few of them
WILLMAR, Minn. — Four years ago, Rep. Dake Baker stood with Tony Lourey, then the commissioner of the Department of Human Services, to celebrate an unlikely groundbreaking. An old in-patient, children’s psychiatric hospital already in Willmar had become outdated and unable to treat the necessary number of kids. Baker, a Republican who represents the area, lobbied hard to put a new one there. “Thank you for choosing us,” Baker said at the time.
KARE 11 Investigates: Seniors face eviction after manager allegedly stole their rent
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. — When Ernestine Adail got a notice in September saying she was being evicted from her apartment for not paying rent, she thought it had to have been a terrible mistake. She said she always paid her rent on time. Then, other tenants at Sonder Point — a building for low-income seniors — started to receive the same notices.
KARE 11 Investigates: BCA completes investigation of jail medical neglect death
BELTRAMI COUNTY, Minn. — “I want to give this case the total justice and attention it deserves,” said Beltrami County Attorney David Hanson. Hanson confirmed with KARE 11 that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) sent materials from their criminal investigation of Hardel Sherrell’s 2018 death to his office last week for possible prosecution.
KARE 11 Investigates: Low-income seniors rally against rent hikes
COON RAPIDS, Minn. — Outside the River North Apartments in Coon Rapids, senior citizens held signs that didn’t mince words, calling out the building’s developer for rent hikes that are forcing some to move. “They’ll milk us for every cent they can get,” said organizer Jan Bragelman, a resident at the building. The developer, Dominium, is based in Minnesota but boasts that it is one of the nation’s leading developers of affordable housing. The company uses federal tax credits to build.
KARE 11 Investigates: Message from the grave leads family to fulfill loved one’s final wish
BELTRAMI COUNTY, Minn. — Bruce Lundmark’s family is making good on his last wishes. As his brother went through Lundmark’s belongings following his death three years ago, he found a note that read, “if I die, sue the (expletive) out of the Beltrami jail.” A KARE 11 Investigation revealed that the 63-year-old Lundmark spent days in the Beltrami County Jail suffering in pain and begging for medical care that never came, before he was shipped off to the Clearwater County Jail and died within hours.
WATCH: Peabody award-winning KARE 11 Investigates special: ‘The GAP’
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — A year-long investigation by a team of KARE 11 journalists shined a light on systemic failures to treat people with mental illness and protect the public. The reports helped spark transformative state-wide reforms.
KARE 11 Investigates: Historic reforms approved to treat the mentally ill and protect the public
ST PAUL, Minn. — With the clock fast approaching midnight on Sunday, the Minnesota Legislature passed bipartisan, historic reforms to close the gap between the state’s mental health and criminal justice systems for mentally ill defendants. After its expected signature by Gov. Tim Walz, more than $30 million will be spent to supervise and treat people charged with crimes who are too mentally ill to stand trial – and create more than 120 new jobs to do it.
KARE 11 Investigates: Minnesota Human Rights report confirms our earlier findings
Investigations Before the landmark human rights report, KARE 11 documented how MPD police failed to properly discipline and train cops as they disproportionally targeted minorities Author: Brandon Stahl (KARE11), Lauren Leamanczyk, Steve Eckert Published: 5:32 PM CDT April 27, 2022 Updated: 5:38 PM CDT April 27, 2022 MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Human Rights report released Wednesday blasting the Minneapolis Police Department for widespread misconduct also confirmed many of the findings KARE...
KARE 11 Investigates: Counties cut troubled jail medical company
Citing litigation risks along with legal and ethical issues, some Minnesota counties cut ties with the jail medical company at the center of a KARE 11 investigation. BUFFALO, Minn. — *Editor's note: The full story will air in the 10 p.m. newscast on Wednesday, April 20, 2022. More than a dozen counties across Minnesota have already cut ties with – or are considering replacing – a troubled medical provider linked to recent jail deaths, according to records obtained by KARE 11.
KARE 11 Investigates: MPD discipline up, but questions remain if that will continue
Disciplinary actions against Minneapolis police officers spiked in 2020, then went down the next year. City staff say that trend may continue MINNEAPOLIS — New data released today by the City of Minneapolis shows a significant spike in disciplinary actions taken against officers in 2020, but the numbers also raise questions about whether that harder approach to problem cops will last. The city disciplined 63 officers in 2020 – more than the previous five years combined.
KARE 11 Investigates: State senate takes up effort to eliminate gap cases
Citing a public safety crisis, state lawmakers pledge more reforms to close gaps exposed in a KARE 11 investigation. SAINT PAUL, Minn. — Two years after 21-year-old Abigail Simpson was murdered in her St. Paul apartment, her mother went before a state senate committee on Tuesday to call for reforms to prevent another case like Abigail’s from happening. “The pain and the emptiness that comes with burying your child does not go away,” Michelle Simpson said.
KARE 11 Investigates: Closing a loophole that allows mentally incompetent defendants to buy guns
Reform plan to close a legal gap KARE 11 exposed that allowed the accused Buffalo Allina clinic mass shooter to legally buy a gun despite prior violent threats. ST PAUL, Minn — One year after the deadly mass shooting at a Buffalo medical clinic, a lawmaker representing the area wants to close a legal loophole that allowed the alleged shooter to legally buy the gun he’s accused of using in the attack.
KARE 11 Investigates: Reforms to close gap for mentally ill caught in criminal justice system
Minnesota lawmakers propose bipartisan plan to help criminal defendants too mentally ill to stand trial who often go without treatment and supervision. ST PAUL, Minn. — Darkese Shorter’s criminal history reads like a case study for what recently introduced bipartisan legislation sets out to prevent. In November 2017, Shorter threatened to stab a Minneapolis cab driver as he tried to rob him.
KARE 11 Investigates: Federal grand jury investigating Beltrami County inmate’s death
Grand jury probe signals possible criminal charges in the 2018 death of Hardel Sherrell, which already has resulted in the suspension of the jail doctor’s license. SAINT PAUL, Minn. — A federal grand jury is investigating the 2018 death of a Beltrami County jail inmate, KARE 11 has learned. Hardel Sherrell suffered for days and pleaded for help before dying all while his jailers and many of his care providers believed he was faking, as KARE 11 has extensively reported.
Federal grand jury investigating Beltrami County inmate’s death
SAINT PAUL, Minn. (KARE) — A federal grand jury is investigating the 2018 death of a Beltrami County jail inmate, KARE 11 has learned. Hardel Sherrell suffered for days and pleaded for help before dying all while his jailers and many of his care providers believed he was faking, as KARE 11 has extensively reported.
KARE 11 Investigates: Med Board suspends controversial jail doctor’s license
Board cites “careless disregard” for inmate who died while under the care of Dr. Todd Leonard, saying ‘tragedy like this should never have occurred’ SAINT PAUL, Minn. — EDITOR'S NOTE: The video above originally aired in July 2021. The state medical board has indefinitely suspended the license of Dr. Todd Leonard, the controversial doctor whose company is at the center of numerous jail deaths.
KARE 11 Investigates: Special Report - The GAP
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — KARE 11 has spent months investigating what happens to people charged with crimes, but who are so severely mentally ill that their cases cannot go to trial. Are they given the necessary treatment and supervision? We found too often that the answer is no, leading to tragic consequences, from brutal assaults and rapes to murders. This special year-end report highlights our key findings – and the calls for reform lawmakers will consider in 2022.
KARE 11 Investigates: Illegal shackling of pregnant inmate prompts policy changes
The same day a KARE 11 investigation revealed a woman was illegally shackled while in labor, Hennepin County rushed to rewrite its policy MINNEAPOLIS — In late October, a how a pregnant woman, who was never even charged with a crime, had been illegally shackled to an ambulance gurney and her delivery room hospital bed by Hennepin County jailers. “That was like the worst thing that I ever had in my life,” said Sara, who asked that her full name not be used.
KARE 11 Investigates: DOC and jails fail to report pregnant inmates shackled
The case of a woman shackled while in active labor was not reported to the legislature as required by law – part of a pattern of underreporting. MINNEAPOLIS — Innocent, terrified and in labor at the Hennepin County jail, a woman who was 9-months pregnantfelt treated like a dog when her jailers took her to a hospital in shackles, . Sara, who asked that her full name not be used, said she asked one of her jailers why she had been shackled. “He told me 'this is the law,'” she said. It’s not.
MN Supreme Court says child protection can be held responsible for 4-year-old’s death
Eric Dean’s stepmother murdered the young boy despite numerous reports made to child protection that he was being abused; case sparked statewide reforms ST PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled today that Pope County child protection workers can be held responsible for the death of 4-year-old Eric Dean, who was murdered by his stepmother despite numerous reports that the boy was being abused.
KARE 11 Investigates: State lawmaker demands reform to address gap cases
‘This has got to stop’ lawmaker says following KARE 11’s reports exposing deadly failures in the criminal justice and mental health care systems ST PAUL, Minn. — A key state lawmaker says he will introduce a bill at the start of next year’s session to reform the state’s criminal justice and mental care systems following massive failures in those safety nets exposed by KARE 11.
KARE 11 Investigates: Nurses union calls on jails to cut ties with controversial care provider
Friday rally protests lack of action taken against doctor whose company is at the center of a KARE 11 Investigation into needless inmate deaths. ST PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Nurses Association is calling on jails across the state to stop using a controversial private company to provide medical care behind bars.
Minnesota jail nurse says 'I felt like I had witnessed a murder'
Key witness in an FBI investigation of a Beltrami County jail death goes public for first time. Tells KARE 11 Investigates Hardel Sherrell should still be alive. BEMIDJI, Minn. — EDITOR'S NOTE: The full story will air tonight on KARE 11 at 10 p.m. Nurse Practitioner Stephanie Lundblad had just started working at the Beltrami County jail in August 2018 when she was instructed to look in on an inmate. Staff warned her he was faking being paralyzed and incontinent.
Minnesota teen vomits to death in Minnesota jail
A 19-year-old girl arrested for shoplifting had uncontrolled vomiting that went untreated. KARE 11 investigates why she died in jail four days later. MOORHEAD, Minn. — Abby Rudolph reeked so badly when she spoke to her mother at the Clay County jail in November 2016, she worried she could be smelled through the glass partition. As the teenager withdrew from opioids, she told her mother she couldn’t control her bowels. She was puking so much they wouldn’t let her stay with the other inmates.
KARE 11 Investigates: Lawmakers demand answers after massive failures led to a murder
GOP members ‘deeply troubled’ by KARE 11's investigation about a dangerous and mentally ill man who walked free and untreated before shooting an innocent bus rider. ST PAUL, Minn. — Two top GOP House members responded to a KARE 11 investigation Friday saying they want the state’s Department of Human Services to explain how a dangerous and mentally ill man committed to the agency for treatment went home instead.
KARE 11 Investigates: Accused sexual predator arrested after KARE 11 report
Officials lost track of a severely mentally ill man charged in two sex assaults; he was arrested two hours after KARE 11 reported finding him on the streets. A severely mentally ill man charged with two sex assaults will be held in jail after police arrested him late Thursday night – just hours after KARE 11 reported finding him walking the streets near a homeless shelter. KARE 11 exposed how court and mental health officials lost track of Omar Isse, 30, despite a long record of criminal charges.
KARE 11 Investigates: Mortgage denial rates 3 times higher for Black borrowers in MN
Data analyzed by KARE 11 shows the mortgage approval gap persists even when Black applicants have similar qualifications as white applicants. MINNEAPOLIS — Editor's Note: Full story airs on Thursday, Oct. 21 at 10 p.m. Trinette Potts knew she wanted to be a homeowner every time she looked at her kids and grandkids. She wanted a sense of place for them, stability and the financial benefits of homeownership. “I’m not going to live forever,” she told KARE11.
KARE 11 Investigates: Accused sexual predator, severely mentally ill, lost
The courts and his social workers lost a severely mentally ill man charged in two sexual assaults. KARE 11 found him living on the streets MINNEAPOLIS — Editor's note: Watch the story tonight at 10. At 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Omar Isse was supposed to be in Hennepin County court to determine if he was mentally fit to stand trial on charges that he raped an unconscious woman on a public picnic bench last year.
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