New details and allegations emerged Wednesday in the case of a 22-year-old Forest Lake man who White Bear Lake Area High School officials say enrolled as a student using a fake identity.

White Bear Lake Police Chief Dale Hager said they continue to investigate what high school principal Russell Reetz told families Tuesday was a man who “appears to have provided fraudulent documentation and a false identity to enroll.”

Investigators are pursuing possible criminal violations related to fraud, forgery and unlawful conduct involving interaction with minors, Hager said.

Court records show that in March the man was convicted of gross-misdemeanor indecent exposure in Washington County for sending a 15-year-old girl a nude picture of himself through Snapchat in July 2023. He was sentenced to a year of probation.

The man was arrested by Plymouth police on Sunday on warrants from past theft convictions in Anoka County and for allegedly violating conditions of his probation in July in the Washington County case. He was booked into the Anoka County jail and remained there until Wednesday, when he was transferred to the Washington County jail.

The Pioneer Press generally does not identify suspects before they are charged.

‘Absolutely nuts’

State Rep. Elliott Engen, R-Lino Lakes, whose district includes communities served by the White Bear Lake school district, said the man posed as a 17-year-old student, even making this year’s football team. Engen provided the Pioneer Press a copy of the team’s roster that lists the man as KJ Perry, a 5-foot-10-inch, 165-pound senior cornerback.

“This whole thing is absolutely nuts,” Engen said.

Engen said he heard about the man Tuesday morning after his brother, who is a senior at White Bear Lake Area High School, called to tell him that “there’s been a 22-year-old man posing as a student. He said, ‘And a bunch of my friends knew of him as KJ. I’ve seen him pass by in the halls.’ ”

Engen said he did a “deep dive” on the man and found his real name and background. He said he’s also heard “from a slew of parents and students that are reaching out and saying that this is so ridiculous.”

Engen noted families were told that staff members, families and students “saw something and decided to report it.”

Engen said he puts the blame on White Bear Lake Area Schools Superintendent Wayne Kazmierczak. On Tuesday, he sent Kazmierczak a letter calling for his immediate resignation.

“This failure represents a catastrophic lapse in basic enrollment verification protocols, student safety measures and administrative oversight, which are core responsibilities that fall squarely under your leadership as superintendent,” Engen’s letter reads.

Engen alleged in the letter than the man, while posing as a student, exposed students to unnecessary danger, “undermining the trust families put in our education system.”

Engen said Wednesday that “what I’ve gathered, from several sources, was that the man’s motive “was to continue having tight-knit circles with girls.”

Kazmierczak and school district spokeswoman Marisa Vette did not respond to a request to comment on Engen’s letter.

Principal Reetz told families Tuesday that “we have determined that while enrolling this individual we followed our enrollment process, which is as rigorous as state law allows.”

He added, “We take all concerns seriously, and appropriate steps are taken any time there is a potential threat to student safety.”

Ryan Bartlett, the high school’s football coach, did not respond to a request for comment.

Former Forest Lake, Centennial student

Engen gave the Pioneer Press a previous season’s football roster for Forest Lake Area High School that lists the man’s real name.

Forest Lake school district spokeswoman Renae Reedy confirmed to the Pioneer Press that the man was a student at Forest Lake Area High School from January 2022 to early January 2023 and that he played football “for some of the 2022 season.”

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the Centennial School District confirmed to the Pioneer Press that the man had attended Centennial Area Learning Center from early September 2023 to mid-December of that year. He then participated until late May 2024 in the district’s online program designed for students who need to make up credit toward their diploma. “He did not graduate from the Centennial School District and did not play football for Centennial High School,” the spokeswoman said in an email.

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Engen said a mother of a student approached him outside White Bear Lake Area High School about the man. She was in tears, Engen said, and told him that last week she hosted a party for her daughter and her friends after the Homecoming football game. The man showed up unannounced and uninvited, causing the woman’s son to tell him they did not want him to be there.

“Her son said, ‘Leave. You’re creepy.’ So the guy had to leave,” Engen said. “So it was a well-known thing amongst these kids what this guy was up to.”

Mary Divine contributed to this report.

Devon Williams grew up in Dublin, Ohio, which is only 15 miles northwest from Ohio State, so it’s no surprise the Gophers linebacker grew up a Buckeyes fan.

But now with Minnesota, his first trip to the “Horseshoe” in 2023 went poorly. He made four tackles but received a season-low grade from Pro Focus in the Gophers’ 37-3 loss at Ohio Stadium.

Needs became a must as Williams was thrust into a starting spot due to that season’s rash of linebacker injuries and transfer portal defections.

“Thinking I was ready, but I really wasn’t,” Williams recalled in July. “It’s pretty much as simple as that. … But it was a lot. You got to be strong enough. You got to be fast enough and you’ve got to have the mental stability to each and every week prepare for the next team. And at that time, I, honestly, wasn’t ready.”

Two years later, the senior is much more prepared for Saturday’s homecoming of sorts in Columbus, Ohio. With a career-high 13 tackles in Saturday’s 31-28 win over Rutgers, Williams is the Gophers’ leading tackler (31) through one-third of the season.

“He has made some of the biggest changes in my 13 years being a head football coach, from the first time I met him to where he is now,” head coach P.J. Fleck said on his KMSP Ch. 9 coaches show after the season-opening win against Buffalo.

Here are five things to know about Williams:

Moving forward

“It was a lot of areas of my life that I didn’t really have in order,” Williams said on TV, declining to share details. “Being here (at Minnesota), allowed me to see those things and just attack them every single day.”

Williams said he needed to avoid getting “too stressed out.”

“When you get hit with adversity, you can either keep going or you can think about the past, you can harp on it too much, and things like that,” he said Wednesday. “Earlier in my career, I did that, and then now it’s kind of like, okay, what’s the next right step? And just taking each single step every single day.”

Back in Ohio

Mark Crabtree coached Williams at Dublin Coffman High School, and he eerily echoed Fleck’s words.

“I think he probably has matured as much as any player that I’ve ever been a part of,” Crabtree told the Pioneer Press. “Forget the football piece for a minute. I’m really happy for him on a personal note because of where I think he is in life at this point.”

Crabtree often stays in touch with former players early in their college careers. But he hasn’t connected with Williams lately.

“Obviously, I’d like to stay in touch with them more often, but it’s a good sign to me when, as they get older, you’re not as in touch with them as much because they’re they’re in a good place,” he said.

‘Smooth’

Williams was a rare player to play varsity as a sophomore at Dublin Coffman, which has produced its fair share of college players, including former NFL and Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn.

“His potential was unlimited,” Crabtree said of Williams. “He just was very smooth as a football player. You could see that if he, if he was going to get serious about the sport it, he had a really high ceiling.”

Crabtree recalled one play in particular. In a playoff game against Toledo Whitmer early in his career, Williams dipped around a “pretty good” offensive tackle and sacked future Bowling Green quarterback Riley Keller, knocking Keller out of the game.

“Certainly not glamorizing that (hit) just because of the nature of it, but it was really athletic, a big play,” Crabtree said. “It changed the complexion of the game in our favor.”

Putting in the work

Gophers defensive coordinator Danny Collins said part of Williams’ success comes with being at the U for a fifth year.

“I think, too, the way Devon works now compared to when he was younger is tremendous,” Collins said. “It’s a great example for the young guys that are watching Devon now … They see him continue to work on those things after practice, pre-practice. His intentionality that he’s bringing has been really special. I’m excited for him.”

Williams played with Mariano Sori-Marin before Sori-Marin became the Gophers linebackers coach this year.

“He’s helped me a lot,” Williams said. “We just have that tight relationship. He’s my coach at the end of the day, so I respect him as a coach, but I can come to him and talk to him.”

Right call

Williams had more than 10 scholarship offers but not the Buckeyes. He committed to Kentucky but flipped from the SEC program in favor of Minnesota.

“I feel like I made the right decision,” Williams said.

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By JAMEY KEATEN

GENEVA (AP) — Switzerland’s glaciers have faced “enormous” melting this year with a 3% drop in total volume — the fourth-largest annual drop on record — due to the effects of global warming, top Swiss glaciologists reported on Wednesday.

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The shrinkage this year means that ice mass in Switzerland — home to the most glaciers in Europe — has declined by one-quarter over the last decade, the Swiss glacier monitoring group GLAMOS and the Swiss Academy of Sciences said in their new report.

“Glacial melting in Switzerland was once again enormous in 2025,” the scientists said. “A winter with low snow depth combined with heat waves in June and August led to a loss of 3% of the glacier volume.”

Switzerland is home to nearly 1,400 glaciers, the most of any country in Europe, and the ice mass and its gradual melting have implications for hydropower, tourism, farming and water resources in many European countries.

More than 1,000 small glaciers in Switzerland have already disappeared, the experts said.

The teams reported that a winter with little snow was followed by heat waves in June — the second-warmest June on record — which left the snow reserves depleted by early July. Ice masses began to melt earlier than ever, they said.

“Glaciers are clearly retreating because of anthropogenic global warming,” said Matthias Huss, the head of GLAMOS, referring to climate change caused by human activity.

“This is the main cause for the acceleration we are seeing in the last two years,” added Huss, who is also a glaciologist at Zurich’s ETHZ university.

The shrinkage is the fourth-largest after those in 2022, 2023 and back in 2003.

The retreat and loss of glaciers is also having an impact on Switzerland’s landscape, causing mountains to shift and ground to become unstable.

Swiss authorities have been on heightened alert for such changes after a huge mass of rock and ice from a glacier thundered down a mountainside that covered nearly all of the southern village of Blatten in May.

HONOLULU (AP) — Lawyers for a Hawaii real estate investor and broker who sued Shohei Ohtani and his agent denied any improper use of the star’s likeness for a development project and alleged the agent was trying to deflect blame for cost overruns at the player’s home.

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Ohtani and Nez Balelo of CAA Baseball were sued Aug. 8 in Hawaii Circuit Court for the First Circuit by developer Kevin J. Hayes Sr., real estate broker Tomoko Matsumoto, West Point Investment Corp. and Hapuna Estates Property Owners. They accused Ohtani and Balelo of “abuse of power” that allegedly resulted in tortious interference and unjust enrichment impacting a $240 million luxury housing development on the Big Island’s coveted Hapuna Coast.

Hayes and Matsumoto had been dropped from the development deal by Kingsbarn Realty Capital, the joint venture’s majority owner.

The amended complaint filed Tuesday added Creative Artists Agency and CAA Sports as defendants.

“Balelo and CAA sought to deflect blame by scapegoating Hayes for the cost overruns on Otani’s home — overruns caused entirely by defendants’ own decisions,” the complaint said.

“The allegations as we clarified them make very clear that there was never a breach of the endorsement agreement, the video that was posted on the website promoting specifically this project was sent to Balelo and CAA and another adviser to Ohtani, Mark Daulton, and they were aware of it and never objected to it,” said Josh Schiller, a lawyer for Hayes and the suing entities.

In a motion to dismiss filed Sept. 14, attorneys for Ohtani and Balelo said “plaintiffs exploited Ohtani’s name and photograph to drum up traffic to a website that marketed plaintiffs’ own side project development.”

“This is a desperate attempt to avoid dismissal of a frivolous complaint and, as we previously said, to distract from plaintiffs’ myriad of failures and their blatant misappropriation of Shohei Ohtani’s rights,” Laura Smolowe, a lawyer for Ohtani and Balelo, said in a statement. “Nez Balelo has always prioritized Mr. Ohtani’s best interests, including protecting his name, image, and likeness from unauthorized use.”

Lawyers for Hayes and the plaintiffs claimed they kept Balelo and CAA informed.

“Before the website went live, Hayes submitted a link to the entire site — including its promotional aspects — by email to Balelo and Terry Prince, the director of legal and business Affairs at CAA Sports LLC,” the amended complaint said. “It remained online with no material changes for 14 months before Balelo suddenly objected and threatened litigation — weaponizing the issue in order to create pretext for yet another set of demands and concessions.”

“The sudden demand that Kingsbarn terminate plaintiffs was instead a retaliatory measure against Hayes for resisting the constant and improper demands of Balelo and (Ohtani),” the complaint added. “Defendants further calculated that, with plaintiffs removed, they could more easily extract financial concessions from the project and enrich themselves at plaintiffs’ expense.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb