Ever since the story of Vernon Center's alleged child rapist Jeremy Giefer's 2008 pardon broke, The City Pages' Nick Pinto has been following the case like a relentless auburn wolverine.
Today, Pinto reports in Susan Giefer's child care license revoked:
Particularly concerning was the fact that it took a solid two weeks between the time the Department of Human Services, which licenses child care facilities, was notified of Giefer's latest alleged sexual abuse and the time the department finally issued a temporary suspension of the Susan Giefer's license.
This week, that temporary suspension became permanent. On Tuesday, the Department of Human Services formally revoked Susan Giefer's family child care license.
Go check out City Pages to read the damning conclusions that moved DHS to pull the license.
Meanwhile, accused criminals from nearby Lake Crystal--where budget ax-wielding Minnesota House Public Safety chair Rep. Tony Cornish serves as Chief of Police--are making the local news. The Mankato Free Press reports in Jury will decide if Lake Crystal man was in position of authority in criminal sex case:
A Blue Earth County Judge said one of the key issues in the criminal sexual conduct case of a Lake Crystal basketball coach - whether he was in a position of authority over his alleged victim - should be decided by a jury; the request to dismiss all charges against Steve Campbell has been denied.
Campbell, 28, had been charged with five felonies stemming from a sexual relationship between Campbell and a 17-year-old girl he'd coached. The charges centered on the fact that Campbell, as her coach, was in a position of authority over the girl, a factor in the specific statute under which Campbell was charged. . .
Campbell first met the girl when she was in junior high school and playing on a basketball team coached by Campbell¹s wife. The girl was having emotional problems, and Campbell sought to help her with Bible counseling.
Through that counseling, they eventually became physical, and he admitted having sex with the girl in September and several times after that. "It's nothing I wanted to happen, nothing I intended to happen. I just wanted to help. I helped too much I guess," he told police. . . .
There goes Gruenhagen's notion that the destructive force of the male sex drive cann be attributed to the influence of Alfred Kinsey and curbed by the Bible. In Nibbe indicted on murder charges, the MFP reports:
A grand jury on Wednesday indicted Jennifer Lee Nibbe on first-degree murder charges in the death of her husband, James Nibbe.
Nibbe had been charged with second-degree murder in the case, but prosecutors believed they had enough evidence to pursue first-degree murder charges. In Minnesota, first-degree murder charges require a grand jury indictment.
Police were called to Nibbe’s rural Lake Crystal residence in August when she reported her home had been broken into and her husband shot. She became a suspect and was arrested Sept. 10 after investigators found no evidence of an intruder.
Let's hope that Lake Crystal has seen the last of this sort of thing for awhile. MPR reports in House bill would cut $100 million from public safety, courts:
The Minnesota House passed a bill Thursday that would spend nearly $2 billion on public safety and the courts over the next two years. The Republican-backed bill would cut nearly $100 million in state funding compared to the current biennium.
The bill passed on a party-line vote of 71-59.
It would provide stiffer prison penalties for dangerous sex offenders. But it also could cut more than $16 million from the prison system, and cut funding for the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and battered women's programs.
Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Good Thunder, chairman of the public safety committee, said the cuts were judicious.. . .
If the citizens of Lake Crystal and vicinity simmer down, maybe the cuts to the court system and prison system will be okay.
Photos: Jeremy and Susan Giefer (above); Lake Crystal Chief of Police and House Public Safety Committee Chair Rep. Tony Cornish (below).
Related posts: UPDATED! Jeremy Giefer hires private criminal law attorney; judge orders DNA test
Pardoned by Pawlenty board in 2008, sex offender hit with criminal sex, incest charges
Star Tribune picks up Giefer pardon story, drops ball by forgetting Sjodin tragedy
The Pawlenty pardon update: blog roundup; Giefer back in court
Pawlenty pardon update: incidents in the life of Jeremy Giefer in 2008
City Pages update: Giefer in court, more pre-pardon details emerge
How cunning of Tony Cornish to get behind yet another de facto unfunded mandate. They can pass all the lock-'em-up laws they want but it won't do any good if there aren't any prisons in which to lock 'em up, or prison guards to keep 'em locked up. Of course, this is all of a piece with Cornish's somewhat inconsistent (or is it selective) attitude towards persons accused of wrongdoing: http://renaissancepost.com/politics/tony-cornish-minors-and-being-tough-on-crime/
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | Apr 01, 2011 at 09:58 AM
By the way, did you catch Nick Pinto's other recent story about a Midwestern sexual predator who seemed to be a pillar of the community?
http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2011/03/samuel_curtis_j.php
That would be the S.C. Johnson described here: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=S._Curtis_Johnson
Yes, he's a scion of the Johnson Wax family: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=S.C._Johnson
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | Apr 01, 2011 at 10:31 AM