AFSCME Local 668, a union affiliated with AFSCME Council 5 that represents workers who provide services to the Metropolitan Council, said on Friday that members have voted to authorize a strike.

A statement by AFSCME Council 5 Executive Director Bart Andersen and Local 668 President Tiffany Leff said the workers are seeking “fair raises, an end to unfair and discriminatory performance-based pay, and the respect and dignity they deserve in the workplace.”

The guidelines for performance-based pay are not shared with workers, said Max Hall, the director for External Relations and Planning at AFCSME Council 5. “There is no transparency in the process.”

There will be a 10-day “cooling down period” required after the strike vote notice is sent to the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services. During this time, AFSCME and the Metropolitan Council will enter mediation.

The Metropolitan Council is a regional policy-making board that operates Metro Transit, Metro Mobility, and Transit Link for the seven counties in the Twin Cities metro area.

AFSCME Local 668 represents more than 700 workers in the metro area who maintain waste water sewage pipes, Metro Transit accident investigators, air and water quality testers, and those who process affordable housing construction requests.

Related Articles

Forbidden Festival promises eight-hour college music event, open bar, at St. Paul’s Allianz Field in September

A downtown St. Paul church opposes an 88-unit supportive housing facility by Dorothy Day Center

Wadena area priest placed on administrative leave after allegations raised

Charges may mount for alleged ruby slippers heist accomplice

Minnesota study finds fault with state agencies over pay adjustments

One of two men charged with exchanging a flurry of gunshots last year outside a White Bear Lake bar following an argument over a spilled drink has pleaded guilty to second-degree assault.

Charles Edward Stevens-Thigpen, who was shot in the leg during the Sept. 24 shootout at Doc’s Landing, entered the plea to the charge this week in Ramsey County District Court and faces up to seven years in prison, court records show. The 36-year-old from St. Paul is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 30.

Charles Edward Stevens-Thigpen and Kardell Baraka Otae Jackson (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Kardell Baraka Otae Jackson, 50, of St. Paul, faces the same assault charge and also two counts of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. His case is scheduled to go before a jury Aug. 8.

The charges say the two men fired 13 rounds at each other in the bar’s parking lot, including one that grazed a 48-year-old man who was sitting in the bar. A bullet was found lodged in a dart machine, and the three bullet holes were discovered in the bar’s roofline.

Another round, as surveillance video showed, nearly struck a woman who had run toward Jackson.

Officers were called to the bar along White Bear Avenue just north of Interstate 694 shortly before 1 a.m. The shooters had fled, but were soon identified as Stevens-Thigpen and Jackson, according to the charges against them.

The surveillance video showed that Stevens-Thigpen and Jackson got into a “heated dispute” inside the bar, the charges say. At one point, Jackson held a pool cue as if he was going to strike Stevens-Thigpen with it. Two women and a man intervened and blocked Stevens-Thigpen and Jackson from one another.

Jackson ran to his Chevrolet Tahoe with Stevens-Thigpen following a few seconds behind with a pistol in his hands. Jackson allegedly fired off a shot at Stevens-Thigpen, who had rounded the corner of the bar, barely missing him. Stevens-Thigpen took cover behind a Tesla, and the two men exchanged gunfire.

Stevens-Thigpen nearly shot a woman who ran toward the Tahoe. Jackson helped her get into the SUV before he again shot at Stevens-Thigpen. Stevens-Thigpen “grimaced” and began to favor his right leg, the charges say.

As Jackson and the woman fled the parking lot, Stevens-Thigpen fired three to four more rounds at the Tahoe. He ran to a GMC Denali and also fled.

Spilled drink on ex’s sister

Police say a man had called 911 to report he was trying to drive to the hospital after he had been shot in the leg. Officers tried to make contact with the caller, but he never answered return calls. The phone number was associated with Stevens-Thigpen.

Stevens-Thigpen voluntarily went to the police department two days later, turning over a Smith and Wesson 9mm handgun to police when he arrived.

Stevens-Thigpen told police he was at the bar when he bumped into a table, knocking over a glass of soda onto his ex-girlfriend’s sister. He said that caused an argument with the woman, who was Jackson’s girlfriend, and Jackson intervened.

Related Articles

Granite Falls man admits to choking, sexually assaulting girlfriend in St. Catherine dorm room

St. Paul woman advertising sexual services online set man up to be robbed, murder charge says

Iowa man convicted of murdering a police officer who tried to arrest him

Charges may mount for alleged ruby slippers heist accomplice

Former St. Paul charter school substitute teacher admits to classroom sexual misconduct with student

Stevens-Thigpen said he went to his Denali to get his 9mm as a “precaution.” He said when he saw Jackson in the parking lot, Jackson fired at him. He returned gunfire.

He said he went to a doctor the next day because of severe bleeding from his injury, and that his family convinced him to talk to police.

Jackson was arrested Sept. 27 in the parking lot of his workplace. His Tahoe had three bullet holes to its passenger side. He denied getting into an argument at Doc’s Landing, saying he tried to defuse the situation and left to avoid trouble.

He denied firing a gun at the bar. Officers executed a search warrant on his Tahoe and recovered a Glock 9mm handgun, the charges say.

A 20-year-old Granite Falls, Minn., man admitted in court Friday to choking and sexually assaulting his girlfriend in her St. Catherine University dorm room in September.

Keanu Avery Labatte entered a guilty plea in Ramsey County District Court to an amended charge of second-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with the assault at the St. Paul university.

Keanu Avery Labatte (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

In exchange for the plea, the prosecution agreed to dismiss four other charges: two counts of first-degree sexual conduct and one count each of domestic assault by strangulation and threats of violence.

A cap of 7½ years in prison is also part of the plea deal, which comes just days before a jury trial was to begin. Labatte remains out of jail on an $80,000 bond ahead of a Nov. 4 sentencing hearing.

Labatte’s attorney, Thomas Beito, said Friday that his client admitted to “choking” the woman during the assault. “He did not admit to the other kind of salacious details that were involved here, such as waterboarding, or holding her hostage or kidnapping,” Beito said. “We deny that any of that happened.”

Beito said he will argue to Judge Kellie Charles that Labatte be given a probationary sentence, “due to his age, due to the fact that he doesn’t have any prior significant criminal history.”

Dennis Gerhardstein, spokesman for the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, said prosecutors will ask that Labatte receive the full 7½-year term.

‘I plead the 5th’

According to the Sept. 11 criminal complaint, the woman reported to campus security at 10:50 a.m. Sept. 10 that she had been physically and sexually assaulted multiple times throughout three days in her room by Labatte, her boyfriend of two months. She said he was still in her room.

The university’s security supervisor told St. Paul police the woman was “distraught and visibly upset” when she reported the alleged abuse.

She told police Labatte arrived on campus Thursday night to visit her over the weekend and became “enraged” and “infuriated” after discovering text messages, pictures and social media information. She said he grabbed her phone, and kept it away from her.

She said Labatte went from giving her hickies, which was consensual, to forcefully removing her clothing and sexually assaulting her after she told him she did not want to have sex. At one point, she told police, Labatte put both of his hands around her neck and that it made her feel lightheaded and believe she was going to die.

That Saturday, she told police, Labatte forced her to lie down in the bathtub, where he covered her mouth with a washcloth and engaged in “waterboarding” by pouring buckets of water over her. He also allegedly threatened her with a knife.

She told police that Labatte let her leave the dorm room on Sunday morning after she convinced him she would get food from the cafeteria. Before she left, she said, Labatte gave her cellphone back to her and demanded that she take a picture showing that she made it to the cafeteria so he could keep track of her.

Related Articles

St. Paul woman advertising sexual services online set man up to be robbed, murder charge says

Iowa man convicted of murdering a police officer who tried to arrest him

Charges may mount for alleged ruby slippers heist accomplice

Former St. Paul charter school substitute teacher admits to classroom sexual misconduct with student

Faribault man sentenced to nearly 9 years for shooting, wounding Burnsville man he thought was seeing his ex-girlfriend

While she was speaking with police, Labatte called the woman repeatedly. She said Labatte was paranoid that she was away from her room.

Police noted that she had black, blue and red marks on her neck, the complaint said, and Labatte was arrested on suspicion of domestic assault by strangulation and sexual assault. After being read his legal rights, Labatte said, “I plead the 5th.”

The woman went to a hospital for a sexual assault exam and said she was in pain from Labatte punching her in the stomach, throat and face. A nurse examiner noted bruising on her cheek, neck and ear, which the woman said was from Labatte biting her, according to the complaint.

The woman’s phone log showed that Labatte tried calling her five times while she spoke with police. He also texted her at 10:59 a.m. asking why police officers were outside.

With Ramsey County Board Chair Trista Martinson stepping down to take on a new role, the county will hold a special election for the District 3 seat on Feb. 11.

If more than two candidates file for office, a political primary to whittle down the field will be held Nov. 5, the same day as the U.S. presidential election.

“We are following the timeline set forth in (state) election law,” said Rose Lindsay, a spokesperson for Ramsey County, on Friday. “Having the primary in November and general election in February was the soonest timeline possible to conduct this special election.”

The filing period will run from July 30 through Aug. 13.

Martinson represents Falcon Heights and the St. Paul neighborhoods of Payne-Phalen, the North End, South Como, Como Park, Frogtown, Hamline-Midway and St. Anthony Park. She announced last month that she will step down by Aug. 1 to lead Ramsey/Washington Recycling and Energy, which runs the waste-to-energy conversion center in Newport, a new food scraps recycling program and other trash diversion efforts.

The county commissioners receive salaries of $104,077, and the chair is paid $109,338. In addition, each commissioner is awarded a spending allowance of up to $7,200 to cover work-related expenses.

Martinson isn’t the only county board member leaving office. District 1 Commissioner Nicole Frethem and District 7 Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt have chosen not to run for re-election, and their seats will be on the November ballot. Commissioner Mary Jo McGuire is running unopposed for re-election on Nov. 5.

The candidate filing period for those seats closed June 4. In District 1, Tara Jebens-Singh was the sole candidate to file for office.

In District 7, four candidates are vying for the seat: Kevin “KB” Berglund, Kelly Miller, Sarah K. Yang and Michelle Yener. The political primary for that seat will be held Aug. 13.

Related Articles

Ramsey County commissioners approve raises for themselves, though 3 plan to depart before they kick in

Ramsey County Board chair Trista Martinson stepping down to lead Ramsey, Washington waste-to-energy facility

Christina Rost named director of Ramsey County Veterans Services

Ramsey County to close 64-bed Safe Space shelter downtown, relocate it to Luther Seminary

Ramsey County Board adopts Climate Equity Action Plan, will host Green Expo and Career Fair