By STEVE KARNOWSKI

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota prosecutors filed misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges Tuesday against a woman accused of using a racist slur against a Black child at a playground — an incident the woman has since used to raise more than $800,000 after she appealed for help with relocating.

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“Defendant wrongfully and unlawfully engaged in offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous, or noisy conduct, or in offensive, obscene, or abusive language that would reasonably tend to arouse alarm, anger or resentment in others,” the criminal complaint alleges.

A social media video of the April incident, in which the woman admitted to using the slur, has garnered millions of views. It showed a man confronting her for using the slur toward the child. She then appeared to double down on the racist term and held up a middle finger to the man who challenged her.

As of Tuesday, she had raised over $800,000 on the Christian fundraising platform GiveSendGo — including many donations that came in after the charges were announced — with a stated goal of $1 million. In her last update, in June, the woman claimed she was the victim of “silly misinformation.”

“Big things are happening regarding our future,” she wrote. “Life-changing events are at play, and we have all of YOU to thank for that! I won’t go into specifics, but just know that all is well on our end. … Keep standing up for yourselves, and keep fighting for the First Amendment!”

The woman was charged by summons with three counts of disorderly conduct. Each count carries a maximum potential penalty of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine, though actual sentences in Minnesota tend to be lighter. Her arraignment was set for Oct. 29.

“This was a situation that deeply affected many people, especially our communities of color, and caused real turmoil in our community,” Mayor Kim Norton said in a statement. “We acknowledge the lasting impact this incident has had, not only on those directly involved and across our community, but also in the broader conversations happening at the state and national level.”

While the complaint lists a Rochester address for the defendant, it wasn’t immediately clear if she was still living there, given her stated intention to relocate. The complaint indicated that police attempts to make contact with her were unsuccessful. Court records said she was representing herself.

Initial reports said the young victim was 5 years old, but the criminal complaint said he was 8. The child’s father told police his son is autistic, and due to his disability, he doesn’t understand typical social boundaries and requires intensive parental supervision. At some point while at the park in Rochester, the child took an applesauce pouch from someone else’s diaper bag, it said.

The father saw this and chased him to try to retrieve the food pouch. The defendant also saw it and chased the child, who climbed on playground equipment to try to get away. She repeatedly called him the racial epithet, the complaint said, and grabbed the food item from him.

A different person, who recorded the confrontation on his phone, asked her why she used the slur. The complaint said she admitted to using it and said she could “if he acts like one.” When pressed, the complaint said, she turned her anger to the witness, called him the same epithet, and when confronted about her “hate speech,” she used expletives to indicate she didn’t care.

“Given the sensitive and complicated nature of this case, along with the high level of public attention, completing the necessary reviews and conversations with the victim’s family took longer than usual,” the office of City Attorney Michael Spindler-Krage said in the statement explaining the lengthy investigation.

The NAACP Rochester chapter started its own fundraising campaign for the child’s family. The GoFundMe page had raised $340,000 when it was closed in May, per the family’s wishes.

The organization has been working with the family to pursue legal action against the woman in the video, said the chapter’s president Walé Elegbede.

“Their child was victimized and traumatized with the racist and hateful rhetoric and actions,” he said. “It’s not just the child; the family was impacted.”

Elegbede commended the city attorney’s office for bringing charges, calling it the “first step” to pursue “justice and accountability”.

“If you have a child and you’re going to the park, you want to enjoy the park,” he said. “And if the child does something, a responsible adult will talk to the child with empathy, not with hate and vitriol. And that’s where she chose to take it. And when she had opportunities, there was no remorse whatsoever.”

Associated Press writer Sarah Raza contributed to this story from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

By ERIC TUCKER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has reached settlements with a group of current and former FBI agents who have said they were disciplined for invoking personal and political views, including about the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot and the COVID-19 vaccine, or for clashing with supervisors about approaches to investigations, their lawyers said Tuesday.

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Empower Oversight, a group founded and led by former staff members of Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, announced the resolutions of 10 cases, including eight settlements in the last two weeks. Most of the cases concern agents who had accused the FBI of politicizing its work during President Joe Biden’s administration, a claim leadership denied.

Three of the agents are returning to duty at the FBI. Others are being permitted to voluntarily retire, and some are receiving restoration of back pay and benefits, the organization said in a statement announcing the deals. The FBI did not return an email seeking comment, though Director Kash Patel said on social media last week that agreements had been reached.

The resolutions come even as the FBI under Patel has moved to reassign and outright dismiss experienced senior executives for unclear reasons. The bureau this month fired, among others, a former acting director who had resisted a Trump administration demand to produce the names of agents who participated in Jan. 6 investigations. The head of its Washington field office, who had played an important role in those probes, was also forced out.

The FBI Agents Association has warned that those terminations were done without due process.

The settlements announced Tuesday include agents who were held up by Republican lawmakers looking to establish that the FBI during the Biden administration had become intolerant of the expression of conservative viewpoints — something Patel’s predecessor, Chris Wray, vigorously denied. Several accused the FBI of politicization before a special House committee in 2023 investigating what Republicans assert is the “weaponization” of the federal government against conservatives.

Democrats dismissed the testimony, calling the hearing another attempt by Republicans on the committee to help now-President Donald Trump.

Those being reinstated include Steve Friend, who has said he was suspended and later resigned after refusing to participate in a SWAT team arrest of a Jan. 6 suspect, and also objected to a COVID vaccine mandate.

Another is Garret O’Boyle, who complained to Congress about the FBI’s handling of Jan. 6 investigations. His lawyers said he was suspended after being suspected of improperly accessing and sharing case information about conservative activist group Project Veritas.

Also reinstated was Zachery Schoffstall, whose lawyers say he was disciplined after he complained about the exclusion of what he believed was exculpatory information in an FBI affidavit during an investigation into a white nationalist hate group.

One of the 10 settlements was reached last year, when the Biden administration agreed to restore the security clearance of Marcus Allen, another FBI employee who had accused the bureau of politicizing its work. He formally resigned.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Voting-rights advocates sued Tuesday to overturn a redistricting map drawn by Texas Republicans meant to favor the party in the 2026 midterm elections, saying it weakens the electoral influence of Black voters.

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The NAACP and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed the lawsuit in Texas.

They accuse Texas legislative leaders of engaging in gerrymandering to prevent Black voters from electing candidates of their choice.

“The state of Texas is only 40 percent white, but white voters control over 73 percent of the state’s congressional seats,” Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement. “It’s quite obvious that Texas’s effort to redistrict mid-decade, before next year’s midterm elections, is racially motivated. The state’s intent here is to reduce the members of Congress who represent Black communities, and that, in and of itself, is unconstitutional.”

Since the Voting Rights Act was adopted, the state of Texas has been found to have discriminated against Black and/or Brown citizens after every cycle of redistricting, according to the NAACP.

Black residents for decades have overwhelmingly favored Democratic candidates.

FILE – NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson speaks before President Joe Biden addresses the crowd, at the 115th NAACP National Convention in Las Vegas, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Texas lawmakers approved the map Saturday, adding five new districts favoring Republicans. The move came after President Donald Trump requested it.

The effort by Trump and Texas’ Republican-majority Legislature prompted state Democrats to hold a two-week walkout and kicked off a wave of redistricting efforts across the country. California Gov. Gavin Newsom in response has approved a special election for a redrawn map to help Democrats win more seats.

Republican Sen. Phil King, the Texas measure’s sponsor, previously denied accusations alleging that the redrawn districts violate the Voting Rights Act by diluting voters’ influence based on race.

“I had two goals in mind: That all maps would be legal and would be better for Republican congressional candidates in Texas,” he said.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2019 ruled that the Constitution does not prohibit partisan gerrymandering to increase a party’s clout, only gerrymandering that’s explicitly done by race.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has not yet signed the map into law, has predicted it will survive any court challenges. Abbott also has predicted other Republican-led states will make similar moves seeking new seats for the GOP in Congress.

The NAACP also on Tuesday urged all other states to act immediately by redistricting and passing what it called new, lawful and constitutional electoral maps.

“It may still seem far away, but the 2026 midterm elections will determine whether our democracy still holds on or whether the people surrender their power to a king,” Johnson said earlier this month.

An Isanti County man charged with hiding a Forest Lake teen in a tent in rural Pine County pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony charges of kidnapping and second-degree criminal sexual conduct, officials said.

Shawn Patrick Bellach (Courtesy of the Pine County Sheriff’s Office)

Shawn Bellach, 39, of Dalbo, was arrested in July 2023 after the girl, 14 at the time, was found living in a tent north of Grasston, Minn. She had been missing since May after leaving her house on a bicycle with her cat and $3,000 in babysitting money

Her mother told the Pioneer Press that the girl left a note saying she was going to be “traveling around the United States with her boyfriend.”

Bellach faces a sentence of four years in prison. His sentencing is slated for Oct. 31.

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