Stacie Stanley will start as St. Paul Public School’s next superintendent on May 12, with a first-year salary of $270,000 following contract approvals by the district’s board Tuesday night.

A short-term contract sets Stanley’s start date at May 12 and goes through June 30. A long-term contract begins July 1 and ends June 30, 2028. She will receive an additional salary of $37,384 during the period of her short-term contract.

Her second-year salary was set at $275,400 and her third-year salary was set at $280,908, according to district officials.

Interim Superintendent John Thein receives a salary of $230,000 a year, according to his employment contract with the district which was approved in April. Thein has been serving as interim superintendent since May after the departure of former superintendent Joe Gothard, who left to lead the school district in Madison, Wis. Thein also served as interim superintendent of St. Paul Public Schools from 2016 to 2017.

Gothard’s base salary as of 2023 was $256,000.

The St. Paul school board unanimously selected Stacie Stanley in December, hiring the Edina superintendent who grew up in St. Paul and attended the city’s schools.

She is the first SPPS superintendent born, raised and educated in St. Paul in the district’s more than 150-year history, Thein said Tuesday.

Stanley has been superintendent of Edina Public Schools since July 2021 and previously served as associate superintendent at Eden Prairie Schools. She is the president-elect of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators. Stanley has held leadership roles in the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District, Roseville Area Schools and East Metro Integration District.

Stanley graduated from Central Senior High School.

Before getting into education, Stanley worked in occupational therapy. She then worked as a math teacher. She eventually became director of the office of equity and integration for East Metro Integration District. In her career, she has overseen curriculum assessment instruction and support services and English-learner programs, she said during the virtual meeting.

Stanley has a doctorate in educational leadership from Bethel University and a master’s degree in education and a bachelor’s degree in K-8 elementary education from St. Catherine University in St. Paul.

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Minnesota Senate Republicans are leaning into their push to force state Sen. Nicole Mitchell from office after the Woodbury Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmaker was hit with another felony charge tied to her alleged break-in at her stepmother’s home last year.

In an ethics complaint filed Tuesday, Senate Republicans argued Mitchell had a conflict of interest when she voted to block a motion that would have opened her to an expulsion vote. They also filed an updated ethics complaint which includes her new charge of felony burglary tools possession, which prosecutors filed on Feb. 10.

Mitchell now faces two felony charges in connection with the April 22 break-in, where prosecutors allege the senator used a crowbar to pry open a basement window of her stepmother’s home in Detroit Lakes.

Mitchell, who pleaded not guilty and is set to go to trial on June 16, told officers she was there to retrieve her father’s ashes and other sentimental items, according to the criminal complaint. The first-term DFL senator has declined to resign even as members of her own party, including Gov. Tim Walz, have called on her to do so.

Efforts to remove Mitchell

Minority Republicans filed an ethics complaint against Mitchell last year based on the initial felony charge and pushed for votes to remove her from office, but so far they haven’t succeeded. It takes a two-thirds majority of the 67-member Senate to remove a member, and while some DFLers have said Mitchell should step down, Republicans need 12 to break rank to reach the 45-vote threshold.

While the DFL has a 34-33 majority, on Jan. 27, the Senate was tied 33-33 between the parties following the death of Minneapolis DFL Sen. Kari Dziedzic the month before.

Republicans pushed to put a removal vote before the Senate when the parties were still tied, but it failed on party lines.

If Mitchell hadn’t participated, Republicans could have prevailed 33-32. At a Tuesday news conference announcing the new and updated complaints, Sen. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, said Mitchell had a “personal and financial interest” in the outcome.

“Sen. Mitchel deliberately and defiantly violated the rules of ethical conduct of the Minnesota Senate,” Drazkowski said. “Our contention is simple, Sen. Mitchell has a conflict of interest in any vote related to her political future.”

Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa. (Courtesy of the Minnesota House of Representatives)

Ethics committee

A Senate ethics committee will have to hear the complaint within a month, but it’s unlikely the new Republican complaints will gain traction.

Last year, the Senate Subcommittee on Ethical Conduct deadlocked on the initial complaint against Mitchell on partisan lines. The committee, which must hear complaints within 30 days, has two DFL and two Republican members even with an overall DFL majority in the Senate.

The new complaints will need to be heard soon. Democrats have maintained that Mitchell must have a trial before the Senate can decide to act.

“As I have maintained since April, Senator Mitchell is owed due process. That includes the adjudication of her case in court, and the consideration of ethics in the Senate,” Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy said in a statement. “The subcommittee on ethics will continue to play its role in due time.”

Sen. Erin P. Murphy, DFL-St. Paul. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Senate)

Mitchell’s attorney Bruce Ringstrom Jr. said changes to charges against Mitchell shouldn’t warrant a new ethics complaint as they don’t introduce any new evidence in the case.

“Without any actual evidence to support a new ethics complaint, there shouldn’t be another hearing scheduled,” he said in a statement.

Trial delayed

Michell was originally scheduled to go to trial on Jan. 27, but a judge agreed to delay the trial until after the legislative session. Judge Michael D. Fritz sided with Mitchell’s attorneys, who cited state law barring members of the Legislature from being tried for crimes during the session or when they are attending committee business.

Prosecutors argued the seriousness of the alleged offense warranted an exception, but Fritz said the law does not differentiate between levels of charges.

Mitchell, a first-term senator and former broadcast meteorologist who is a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, was elected in 2022 and is in the third year of her four-year term. She isn’t scheduled to face election again until 2026.

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Adnan Abdullahi Abdi initially lied to police and said his 19-year-old friend Omar Noor Nunow died by suicide at his St. Paul apartment on April 1. Later, when pressed by investigators, Abdi said he pointed a gun at Nunow to “scare” him and pulled the trigger, not knowing it was loaded, court documents say.

On Tuesday, Abdi was given a downward departure from state guidelines and sentenced to three months in the Ramsey County workhouse and five years of supervised probation after previously pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter for causing Nunow’s death “by culpable negligence which created an unreasonable risk.”

Adnan Abdullahi Abdi (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Abdi, 18, of St. Paul, had entered a straight plea to the charge, meaning there was no agreement between the defense and the prosecution on the terms of his sentence.

Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Cory Tennison asked Judge Adam Yang to impose a four-year prison term, which would have fallen in the middle of sentencing guidelines. Tennison called the case a difficult one and said that while Nunow’s father supported probation for Abdi, “I can’t join in that.”

“This was very dangerous conduct. While not intentional, it obviously led to a death,” Tennison added. “This is presumptive prison because the conduct was egregious.”

Yang stayed execution of a four-year prison term as part of the downward dispositional departure requested by Abdi’s attorney, Eric Nelson.

Abdi can serve the 90-day workhouse sentence on electronic home monitoring, and will receive four days of custody credit.

Yang ordered Abdi to complete 80 hours community service and write an apology letter to Nunow’s father. Restitution was left open for 90 days.

 He told him, ‘Freeze,’ then fired

According to the criminal complaint, officers responded to the Merriam Park apartment building at Marshall and Prior avenues at 2 p.m. April 1 after Abdi reported that Nunow shot himself. They found Nunow dead in a bedroom and one spent shell casing on the floor. A handgun was in a cabinet by a bed.

Abdi told officers that Nunow was his friend from school and he spent the night at his apartment. He said he woke to the sound of a single gunshot and saw Nunow falling to the ground. He checked to see if Nunow was breathing, picked up the gun and put it in the cabinet. He said he moved it because he didn’t want to shoot himself.

A 25-year-old man, who Abdi said was Nunow’s uncle and stayed at the apartment, told police that when Nunow’s father is away, Nunow had friends over. He said he had seen Nunow and his friends with guns, and heard them playing with the weapons and talking about pointing the guns at each other, the complaint said.

At police headquarters, investigators told Abdi “that certain aspects of his initial account did not make sense” and asked if gunshot residue testing would show that he’d fired the gun, the complaint said. He “eventually admitted that he had shot (Nunow) by accident.”

Abdi said he’d been sleeping, woke up, and he and Nunow did some online classes. He said he grabbed the gun, pointed it at Nunow and told him, “Freeze,” the complaint said. He said he was lying on his side on the bed when he pointed the gun at Nunow. He pulled the trigger, not realizing it was loaded. The gun fired and Nunow fell to the floor. An autopsy determined the shot was not fired from close range.

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Judge Patrick Diamond was still a young lifeguard at Phalen Beach in St. Paul when he met and wooed Beth Peterson, the woman who would go on to be his wife of more than 40 years, by taking her to a John Prine and Steve Goodman concert. Last summer, the two took sailing lessons out of Bayfield, Wis. and received their captain’s license, leaving Diamond with big plans to sail the Great Lakes, down the eastern seaboard and on to the Caribbean.

Diamond, who had served more than a dozen years on the Ramsey County District Court bench, wrapped up a jury trial in downtown St. Paul on Monday, Feb. 3. On that Tuesday, he completed a full day of pre-trial hearings. He suffered cardiac arrest that Wednesday morning, and died on Feb. 9 at the University of Minnesota Hospital, surrounded by loved ones. He was 64.

“A big dreamer. A big thinker. A big hearted man,” wrote Peterson, sharing the news on his CaringBridge website. “Sail on, Captain. Sail on.”

Diamond, who was born on June 28, 1960, in Hudson, Wis., attended St. Thomas Academy and Hamline University before entering the University of Minnesota Law School, where he was the research and note editor for the Law Review. He went on to clerk for a federal judge in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and then served as Deputy County Hennepin County Attorney from 1992 to 2012 for both Mike Freeman and Amy Klobuchar, who went on to become a U.S. senator.

“He was my chief criminal deputy for 12 years during that time,” said Freeman on Tuesday. “I will brag though that I’m a better fisherman than him. Pat was a very smart man who had great judgment and was deeply committed to justice. He always wanted to figure out what was the right and just thing to do. He was a good trial lawyer.”

Freeman recalled how Diamond would work through creative solutions to problems. “He was more committed to justice than almost anybody I ever knew,” he said.

‘Astute and unflappable counsel’

Diamond argued a case before the United States Supreme Court in 2007, Danforth v. Minnesota, involving a convicted sex offender, who had been deemed incompetent to take the stand in his own defense, attempting to retroactively apply new rules of criminal procedure to challenge a conviction based on his taped testimony.

Diamond was appointed to the Ramsey County District Court bench by Gov. Mark Dayton in July 2012.

As judge, he recently ordered the city of St. Paul to pay legal damages in a case filed by a Summit Avenue homeowner who accused the city of willful violations of the state’s Data Practices Act, and found in another case that USA Powerlifting engaged in discriminatory practices by prohibiting a transgender athlete from competing.

His term in office was scheduled to end on Jan. 4, 2027. An obituary prepared by his family recalled his “wicked wit and big heart,” and his commitment to specialty courts such as the Treatment Court, Drug Court and the Juvenile Delinquent Center.

In a written statement to colleagues, Chief Ramsey County Judge Sara Grewing recalled Diamond as “one of the finest public servants this community has ever known.” Grewing, who clerked for Diamond in the Hennepin County Attorney’s office in 2001, said she was fortunate to be mentored “by his brilliant legal mind and deeply caring heart. Quite frankly, we will be a bit rudderless without his astute and unflappable counsel. We have lost a giant.”

Enjoyed the outdoors

Diamond enjoyed the outdoors, including winter camping, downhill skiing, open water swimming, kayaking and sailing on Lake Superior. He was a fan of minor and major baseball tours. His family remembered him as an avid reader and storyteller who loved pondering recipes for Christmas Eve extended family dinners.

Diamond volunteered for many years as a Youth Week Counselor at Camp Unistar, a Unitarian-Universalist camp on Star Island, Cass Lake when his sons were campers, and continued to volunteer for years afterward. He is survived by his wife Beth, his sons Charlie and Sam, his brother David and sister Peggy, as well as granddaughter Zoey.

Diamond donated his body to the University of Minnesota Anatomy Bequest Program. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on April 18 at Unity Church-Unitarian at 733 Portland Ave. in St. Paul. The service will also be livestreamed. The family has requested that memorials be sent to Camp Unistar.

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