The state appeals court has overturned last year’s harassment conviction of a White Bear Township woman who was once nicknamed the “neighbor from hell” because of her behavior.

In a ruling released Monday, the panel of judges said the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Lori Elaine Christensen, 61, engaged in conduct that caused her then-next-door neighbor, Amy Wheeler, substantial emotional distress, as defined by state law.

Lori Elaine Christensen (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

A Ramsey County jury had found Christensen guilty of felony harassment for three incidents that occurred between November 2020 and May 2021. It was charged at the felony level because Christensen had two previous domestic violence convictions within 10 years. Christensen was sentenced to the presumptive stayed 23-month prison term and put on probation for three years. She appealed the conviction three months later.

An appeals court panel made up of Judges Matthew Johnson, Kevin Ross and Peter Reyes ruled that “the evidence is insufficient to prove that Christensen’s conduct caused, or would reasonably be expected to cause, ‘substantial emotional distress,’ as that term is defined in the harassment statute. Therefore, we reverse the conviction.”

Christensen gained notoriety more than a decade ago — including an appearance on ABC’s “20/20” — for her long-running pattern of harassment against neighbors Gregory and Kimberly Hoffman on a White Bear Lake cul-de-sac where she had previously lived.

In her years-long campaign against the couple, she was accused of lewd gesturing, screaming, loud swearing, taunting the family’s children and posting large signs about Kimberly Hoffman’s admitted struggles with alcoholism, such as, “I saw mommy kissing a Breathalyzer,” the charges said.

A harassment restraining order was issued in 2010, and police cited Christensen nine times that year for violating the order, according to court records. In 2011, she was convicted of two misdemeanors related to the violations. In 2012, a judge barred Christensen from living in her home and barred her from coming within a mile of the Hoffmans.

New neighborhood

In her new neighborhood, in White Bear Township, she was accused in 2021 of harassing Tim and Pam Pharrell, who moved next door to her in 2016. The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office later dismissed the case, which charged her with two counts of stalking, “in the interest of justice, specifically, judicial economy,” according to the court filing.

Wheeler, Pam Farrell’s sister, then moved into the home in late 2019 or early 2020. In conversations with Christensen, Wheeler initially denied the relationship with her sister, but Christensen eventually became aware of it.

According to the appellate court’s ruling, the first two incidents alleged in the harassment complaint involved Wheeler’s 12-year-old son. On Nov. 20, 2020, the boy told Wheeler that Christensen was yelling at him. After Wheeler went outside, Christensen continued to yell. A month later, Christensen approached Wheeler to complain that Wheeler’s son had littered by dropping a plastic yogurt cup and a wrapper on the street. Christensen threatened to call police and to ask the city to impose a $700 fine. Christensen called 911 and a police officer responded, but did not issue a citation.

In April or early May 2021, Wheeler decided to move out of the house. According to Wheeler, “it was starting to be too much where I couldn’t even enjoy the outside of my house or take my dog on a walk or in the backyard.” Her sister put the house on the market in early May 2021.

The third incident occurred later that month, when Christensen walked past Wheeler’s driveway with her dog while making a video recording with her cellphone. Christensen and Wheeler exchanged words, and then argued. Wheeler, like she did after the first incident, called police. Wheeler told the investigator the incident made her feel “scared” and “terrified.”

‘Substantial emotional distress’

Christensen did not argue to the appellate court the evidence was insufficient to prove she harassed Wheeler by “following, monitoring or pursuing” her. Christensen focused her argument on the statutory definition of substantial emotional distress, arguing the state did not prove any of Wheeler’s “responses that are manifestations of a victim’s mental distress, mental suffering or mental anguish, as required by the statutory definition.”

Substantial emotional distress is defined in the harassment statute to mean mental distress, suffering or anguish as demonstrated by a victim’s response to an act, including but not limited to: seeking psychotherapy; losing sleep or appetite; being diagnosed with a mental-health condition; experiencing suicidal ideation; or having difficulty concentrating on tasks resulting in a loss of productivity.

In analyzing the case, the appellate judges reviewed last year’s trial transcript and the video recording of the May 2021 incident. Johnson, writing on behalf of the panel, said the evidence showed that Christensen engaged in conduct toward Wheeler that was “rude, unkind, and unneighborly.”

“It is reasonable to believe that Christensen’s conduct would cause a next-door neighbor at least some emotional distress,” Johnson wrote in the 15-page ruling. “But the state does not argue that (Wheeler’s) actual response (which we have concluded is insufficient) was atypical or that a reasonable person would have experienced a greater degree of mental distress, mental suffering, or mental anguish than (Wheeler) actually experienced.”

Therefore, Johnson wrote, the state’s evidence is “insufficient to prove that Christensen engaged in conduct that would reasonably be expected to cause substantial emotional distress.”

Dennis Gerhardstein, spokesman for the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, said the office respects the Court of Appeals’ ruling and “will make a decision on next steps after review and discussions with the attorneys involved in the case.”

A call to Christensen’s lawyer for comment on the appeals court ruling was not immediately returned Monday.

Court records show Christensen is on probation until September on a misdemeanor disorderly conduct conviction stemming from an incident with a city worker in August 2022. According to the citation, Christensen yelled at the worker, who drove away, and then followed him in her car and recorded him with her cellphone. She blocked the worker’s vehicle with her car to stop him from leaving, causing him to drive onto grass to get away.

In addition to the probation, she was ordered to serve an additional 10 days on electronic-home monitoring above what she had served in jail after her arrest.

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CHICAGO — Carlos Correa wants to make a rehab assignment before returning from plantar fasciitis that has forced him to miss 17 games through Monday night’s game against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

He didn’t do that last season when returning from the same injury, in a different foot, and wishes he had.

“I felt like last time I didn’t get any at-bats, and it took me two, three games to get back to form, and then you’re playing catch-up,” he said last Saturday. “So, I think we’re in a good spot, and hopefully I can get back in there as soon as possible.”

Could that be as soon as this week with Triple-A St. Paul? The Saints are host to six games against Columbus, but the all-star shortstop still needs to clear a few checkpoints before playing anywhere. As of Monday afternoon, there were no plans for Correa to be at CHS Field on Tuesday.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said Correa will go out on assignment but said Monday, “I’m not exactly sure when it is at this point, but sooner than later. … He’s doing well. He’s getting close.”

The Twins are 9-6 since Correa was sidelined just before the all-star break, and the goal is to get him back feeling good rather than get him back as soon as possible. On the other hand, it would be nice to have him back for a four-game series against Cleveland this weekend at Target Field.

The Guardians have a 4½ game lead on the Twins in the American League Central Division with 50 regular-season games remaining.

Fashion? It’s ‘comfort’

Carlos Santana turned 38 in April, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be a fashion trend setter, even if other major league players haven’t warmed to his pants-over-the-knees look.

“For right now, no,” Santana said. “I’m the only player using (it).”

The first-year Twins first baseman used to wear his baseball pants down past his shoe tops in the still-popular style pioneered by former Astros slugger Derek Bell. Now, he is essentially wearing shorts over a couple of pairs of lycra running pants.

Why?

“Comfort,” he said. “I changed to do something different, something fun, and to be comfortable. People like it, people don’t like it. But, you know, I feel good.”

The pants are, of course, a special order. The Twins’ equipment staff cuts the pants to Santana’s desired length, then cuffs them with elastic.

Royce Lewis is on board.

“I think he has good swag, man,” the third baseman said.

It certainly hasn’t hurt Santana’s performance this season. He entered Monday night’s game against the Cubs hitting .243 with 21 doubles, 14 homers and 48 runs batted in over 101 games while playing some of the best defensive baseball of his career.

Santana won a Silver Slugger Award as Cleveland’s first baseman in 2019 but has never won a Gold Glove, something he hopes to do this season. Correa, a great student of baseball’s statistics, said he should.

“If the season ended today, he should be a Gold Glover and a finalist for the Platinum Glove,” he said Saturday. “He’s got 11 Outs Above Average. He has been playing outstanding defense. He’s making everybody on our infield better every single day, with the way he picks every single throw that we throw in the dirt.

“I think when you seriously consider his numbers, there’s nobody better in the American League, numbers wise.”

That 11 outs above average leads all first basemen, according to mlb.com’s Statcast.

Briefly

Byron Buxton, who left Sunday’s game after hitting the wall on a catch in the sixth inning, was not in the lineup Monday. Baldelli said his day off wasn’t related to the collision and that the center fielder would play Tuesday night. … The Twins have placed left-handed reliever Steven Okert on the bereavement list. To replace him on the 26-man active roster, they recalled right-hander Josh Winder from St. Paul. … The Twins didn’t have any update Monday on Brock Stewart, who appears to be weighing whether to have season-ending surgery on his sore right shoulder.

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Saint Dinette, the creative French-inspired Lowertown bistro, will close once its lease expires in March 2025.

Don’t call it a funeral, owner Tim Niver said: no flowers, no mourning. Part of why he’s giving plenty of notice is because he wants to give the restaurant a proper celebratory send-off, he said. After all, he told his staff this spring, nearly a year in advance.

“It’s better to really live and love this one out,” he said.

Owner Tim Niver at Mucci’s Italian Restaurant in St. Paul on Friday, April 8, 2016. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Niver, who opened Saint Dinette in 2015 with J.D. Fratzke and Brad Tetzloff, also runs Mucci’s near West Seventh and hosts a podcast exploring issues affecting the restaurant industry. Closures are sad, he said, but it’s not inherently bad to recognize when the tires are running out of air.

“It’s sad because there’s memories that were made there, but those don’t go away,” Niver said. “A thing that’s an entity to you,  kind of like a living thing, ceases to exist other than memory. But we f—ing rocked that restaurant, and it’s such a good restaurant. It’s always been. I’m proud.”

The primary reason is financial, Niver said — not that the restaurant is underperforming, exactly, but that the business expenses that skyrocketed during Covid have not adjusted back down as the economy has improved, so his menu prices are unsustainably high.

If inflation is improving such that stores like Target can drop prices on thousands of products, Niver asked, why are food distribution giants like Sysco and U.S. Foods not doing the same? The restaurant’s ingredient costs have increased about 8 to 12 percent just over last year alone, he said.

Or take insurance: Because this country lacks an organized, centralized health care coverage system, Niver said — which “would bring a collective joy and ease to the majority of the population” — small businesses are on the hook when insurance companies raise premiums for the sake of their own profits.

“I’m wondering if they really realize what they’re doing by keeping prices as high as they are,” Niver said. “I think they’re trying to get us to succumb to this as the new normal, and I can’t. I run a neighborhood restaurant and I’ve got $30 entrees — there’s a point where it just doesn’t work anymore.”

The other challenge, of course, is that downtown and Lowertown have transformed since before Covid.

To replace lost revenue from workers’ lunches and dinners, downtown areas need to find new ways to draw people in from elsewhere, he said — and it’s not sustainable to rely on just one or even a few businesses to do that alone.

“I don’t want to pin it all on the city, but the city needs to understand that a fervent business community is a fervent economic community as a whole,” Niver said. “People don’t just show up to do nothing. They don’t show up to go somewhere and not be entertained. But somehow, I’m doing all the entertaining, and the city is like, ‘Oh, he must be doing alright.’”

Saint Dinette joins several recent restaurant closures in St. Paul that have come at the end of a lease term — Tavern on Grand, Salut Bar Americain, Foxy Falafel, to name a few — which Niver said makes sense. The end of a lease makes a complex decision simpler and more feasible, he said; you don’t want to find yourself insolvent one day with years left on a lease.

And as costs keep increasing, that fear also means restaurateurs, at least in Niver’s orbit, are becoming more hesitant to sign new leases and open new restaurants at all, he said.

“You have to be smarter, more limber to what happens in the moment,” Niver said. “But things (shouldn’t) have to hit rock bottom for there to be some sort of fire lit in people to understand, maybe we could’ve maintained this all along with a little bit better attention.”

Saint Dinette: 261 E. 5th St., St. Paul; 651-800-1415; saintdinette.com

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