UPDATE September 4: I saw a surge of visits to this post on Bluestem's traffic meters in the last 24 hours. No site led them to this post, but it wasn't hard to find the source of interest in the matter.
Renew Minnesota has published three YouTubes and one webpage post about the episode in Sarah Kruger's life. Kruger won the primary in August. Update: A source in the district tells Bluestem that an email campaign to district residents on this topic is underway, though I'm not sure if Renew Minnesota is the sender. [end update]
In Sarah Kruger Arrested for Destruction of Property, Parents Help Cover It Up, readers learn:
Sarah Kruger was arrested for felony damage to property after a neighbor caught her in the act of forcibly removing a fence post, causing significant damage. Despite the seriousness of the crime, which led to her being charged with Criminal Damage to Property in the First Degree—a felony carrying severe potential penalties—Sarah’s parents swiftly intervened to cover up the incident.
Leveraging their legal and political connections, Sarah’s parents engaged in a concerted effort to have the charges dropped. The City Attorney refused to prosecute the case based on recommendations from Kruger’s attorneys despite having prosecuted similar crimes in the past (as the City Attorney himself acknowledged). The case was then pursued by the Winona County Attorney. However, through persistent lobbying and influence, Sarah’s family managed to get the charges dismissed. After the dismissal, they took further steps to erase the incident from public records by successfully petitioning for the expungement of her criminal records. This was achieved despite the objections of the victim, illustrating the lengths to which Sarah's parents went to shield her from the consequences of her actions and cover up her serious crime. . . .
That Republican PAC is described in Peter Callaghan and Michael Nolan in Finance report: Millions raised for fall campaign with DFL groups in the lead:
Renew Minnesota: This is a new political independent expenditure committee that is affiliated with the conservative business group founded by former GOP attorney general candidate Jim Schultz. The Minnesota Private Business Council has given Renew $225,000, with $125,000 of that coming after the July CFB report. It has also received $100,000 from the national Republican State Leadership Committee. Renew did take part in some House primary races and has begun to seed GOP campaigns in battleground districts, including giving $34,000 to Rep Natalie Zeleznikar in House 3B which is a top DFL target.
Apparently, as predicted, this district will be attracting outside spending as an important piece in the struggle for control of the Minnesota House. A look at pre-primary spending by the candidates here.
END UPDATE
With the retirement of Minnesota House District 26A state representative Gene Pelowski, DFL-Winona, the Southeastern Minnesota district is in play, as both the Minnesota Reformer and MinnPost Minnesota House Races-to-Watch lists note.
There are primary contests between candidates from both major parties.
While the local Republicans have endorsed Winona City Council Member at Large Aaron Repinski over Stephen Doerr who lost to Pelowski in 2022, there's no endorsement in the DFL race between Sarah Kruger and teacher and county commissioner Dwayne Voegeli. The Letter-to-the-Editor pages of the Winona Daily News and the Winona Post are peppered with letters of support for and arguments against each contender.
On Friday, this message was posted on X by Bloomington, Minnesota's Your Old Pal Donavon:
BREAKING — DFL primary candidate for 26A Sarah Kruger had apparently been arrested in 2022 for ripping a fence post out of the concrete amidst a property dispute between her mom and a 74 y/o neighbor. We really gonna lean into the whole felon thing this year? pic.twitter.com/JTxgOAnCEs
— Your Old Pal Donavon 🥥🌴𓅭 (@hellodonavon) June 28, 2024
That didn't look like good behavior on the candidate's part. A Bluestem reader brought the post to my attention.
As is my instinct with anything involving criminal law, I went to the Minnesota Judicial Branch's Minnesota Court Records Online (MCRO) to see whether there had been any resolution of the charges in the court system.
A search of Kruger's name revealed three cases: a divorce in 2016, a Ramsey County snow emergency parking ticket in 2023, and 8,
Index #26 that's 85 pages long, and the document I embed below, which in a September 20, 2023 Order Denying Motion that the defendant
Court File No. 85-CV-23-460: Order Denying Motion uploaded by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd
One Minnesota House sidenote: Kruger's attorney, John Patrick Lesch, served in the Minnesota House from 2003-2020, according to the Minnesota Legislators Past & Present Database kept by the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library. In 2020, he won DFL endorsement for re-election but lost the primary for the St. Paul district he represented.
Just after I wrote the above paragraph, Lesch sent a direct message in X:
. . .I saw your post about the Sarah Kruger Sandra Murnane suit. I was her counsel in that matter. To clarify, there was no arrest. There was no probable cause found, and the charge was dismissed. The county attorney also later agreed that her charge should be expunged. The complaining neighbor later admitted that the allegation she made regarding Sarah Kruger removing her fence post was false. . . .
Fact check: No, Sarah Kruger is not a felon. Bluestem recommends that DFL primary voters look to the candidates' positions and real life histories rather than insinuations on social media.
Photo: Sarah Kruger, photo by Amy Nelson, Winona Post.
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To clarify, Ms. Kruger stood right next to and directed the “muscle” called in by her mother, Theresa Kruger, to rip out Ms. Murnane’s fence post. The settlement states that Kruger herself did not rip out the post, NOT that Ms. Murnane made a false report. There is body cam footage via the police response that proves that Theresa Kruger directed Sarah Kruger to have the unnamed male rip out the post with a chain hitched to the back of a truck.
Posted by: Jane Doe | Jul 20, 2024 at 11:51 AM