FARIBAULT, Minn. – Charges have been dropped against a Mower County deputy accused of attacking a handcuffed prisoner in 2019. Ryan Matthew Chrz, 35 of Austin, was accused of punching the handcuffed teen in the face, after an incident at McDonald’s in Austin, court documents state. A trial was scheduled to begin on Monday. -0-
An Austin woman who pleaded guilty to a felony firearm possession charge in Mower County District Court in 2019 has been sentenced. 27-year old Skylar Paige Stahl was sentenced Monday to five years of supervised probation, 68 days in jail and 40 hours of community service. -0-
An Albert Lea man is accused of sexually assaulting the family’s teen babysitter over a two-year period. Matthew Ryan Estes, 34, was charged Friday in Freeborn County Court in connection to the incident in which the then 13 year old victim says she met Estes at church where he was a janitor and offered to … Read more
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture confirmed the presence of the emerald ash borer Wednesday [July 21], for the first time in Freeborn County. Due to the fact that this is the first time EAB has been detected in Freeborn County, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture has established an emergency quarantine prohibiting the export of firewood … Read more
A Worth County man has been charged with attempted burglary after violating a restraining order when he allegedly broke into a Mason City apartment Monday morning. 26-year-old Cody Dakin was taken to jail. He also faces a separate criminal complaint after he tried to make phone calls to the person at the apartment. He remains … Read more
An Owatonna man who took part in the vandalism of the new cattle barn on the Steele County Fairgrounds last summer has been sentenced in Steele County Court. Isaiah John Meixner, 21, was sentenced Monday to two years of supervised probation and 240 hours of community service for his role in a string of vandalism … Read more
AUSTIN, Minn. – A report of gunfire led to the recovery of a stolen shotgun, one fugitive, and one arrest. The Austin Police Department, assisted by the Mower County Sheriff’s Office, responded to a shots fired call just before 1 am Tuesday in the area of 4th Street SE and 6th Avenue SE and found … Read more
Reports of a fire shutdown I-35 southbound at the Minnesota-Iowa border Tuesday. Traffic nearly came to a standstill stretching to Albert Lea along I-35 due to the emergency the Minnesota Department of Transportation initially said was a semi fire at US 65, but then reported it was actually a grass fire adjacent to the interstate. … Read more
A 30-year-old Minnesota man is facing charges of indecent exposure with a child at a local campsite. Kelvin Rosales is accused of entering a camper and climbing into an 11-year-old girl’s bed with his pants down at Kamp Dels in neighboring Waterville on July 18, according to a criminal complaint. Witnesses told a responding deputy … Read more
ALBERT LEA, Minn. – The new MercyOne clinic in Albert Lea will open for patients on July 26. “Albert Lea Family Medicine & Specialty Care has been just short of three years in the making,” the president of MercyOne’s North Iowa region said. -0-