A judge handed down a nearly 35-year sentence Tuesday to a man who sexually assaulted and kidnapped his girlfriend, after which he was shot by a St. Paul police officer during a manhunt.

Dakota County Judge Dannia Edwards said she agreed with the prosecution’s request for a long sentence because Joseph Javonte Washington livestreamed the sexual assault “for the world to see” and because he assaulted the woman in her Lakeville residence, a place where she should have been safe.

Joseph Javonte Washington (Courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Corrections)

After Washington assaulted the woman in November 2020, he instructed her “to drive him at high speeds from Lakeville to St. Paul,” which she did due to “fear and self-preservation,” Assistant Dakota County Attorney Caitie Prokopowicz wrote in a memo to the court.

Washington, now 35, ran and hid in a dumpster behind a funeral home in St. Paul’s North End.

He yelled from the dumpster that he had a gun. The officer who shot him reported that Washington wasn’t fully facing the officers when he jumped out and he couldn’t tell if he was armed, according to prosecutors.

Washington, who was naked, turned out to be unarmed.

Former girlfriend: ‘Lost a piece of myself’

The woman who’d been in a relationship with Washington said in court Tuesday that Nov. 28, 2020, “is a day that I unfortunately will never forget. I lost a piece of myself that I will never get back because of what Joe did.”

She said she’s constantly afraid she’ll see Washington and she can’t sleep more than a couple of hours at a time.

“I think about Joe trying to kill me and almost succeeding,” she said.

Washington punched the woman in the face, breaking her eye socket. He held a knife to her neck and forced her to perform a sex act on him, Prokopowicz said during the trial. The prosecution also said he caused the vehicle to crash as the woman drove him.

The woman said she had loved Washington, but he hurt her “in more ways” than she could describe, adding that he continued to “manipulate … and harass” her after the assault by writing to her from prison.

He’s been in custody since he was released from the hospital after he was shot. A jury convicted him in October.

Believes he survived shooting to ‘rehabilitate’

Washington apologized to the woman and her parents in court. He said he regretted “everything that happened” and the things he did during their relationship.

He said he believed that he survived being shot so he could “rehabilitate.” He referenced his two sons from a previous marriage who he said he hasn’t seen in years. He’s most recently been in the Rush City prison.

Washington’s attorney, Nico Ratkowski, requested a 20-year prison term, which he called “a very significant sentence.” He said every criminal sexual conduct charge is serious and he didn’t want to discount the victim’s experience in the case, though he said Washington’s actions appeared “to be less serious” than other cases.

“He wants to learn from this experience, he wants to do better moving forward,” Ratkowski said. “Hitting him with the maximum amount of time possible isn’t going to help him do that.”

Case was about power, prosecutor says

The prosecution wasn’t seeking “retribution,” but “mercy and peace” for the victim, Prokopowicz said in asking that Washington serve sentences for criminal sexual conduct and kidnapping back-to-back rather than at the same time, which is what Edwards sentenced him to do.

What Washington did “was not about sexual gratification,” but about power, Prokopowicz said. During the assault, he ripped out the woman’s insulin pump — what she uses to survive as a type 1 diabetic, the prosecutor said, adding that the woman’s brother died of complications from diabetes.

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“I think about how my parents almost had to bury another child,” the woman said earlier during her victim impact statement.

Washington was taken back into custody after sentencing. He has credit for more than four years and five months served.

Washington previously filed a federal lawsuit against the city of St. Paul and two officers over his shooting, and the lawsuit is ongoing. The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office reviewed the officer’s shooting and announced in 2021 he would not charge him.

By TODD RICHMOND

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted a Wisconsin judge accused of helping a man evade immigration authorities, allowing the case against her to continue.

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The arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan escalated a clash between President Donald Trump’s administration and local authorities over the Republican’s sweeping immigration crackdown. Democrats have accused the Trump administration of trying to make a national example of Dugan to chill judicial opposition to the crackdown.

Prosecutors charged Dugan in April via complaint with concealing an individual to prevent arrest and obstruction. In the federal criminal justice system, prosecutors can initiate charges against a defendant directly by filing a complaint or present evidence to a grand jury and let that body decide whether to issue charges.

A grand jury still reviews charges brought by complaint to determine whether enough probable cause exists to continue the case as a check on prosecutors’ power. If the grand jury determines there’s probable cause, it issues a written statement of the charges known as an indictment. That’s what happened in Dugan’s case.

Her case is similar to one brought during the first Trump administration against a Massachusetts judge, who was accused of helping a man sneak out a courthouse back door to evade a waiting immigration enforcement agent. That case was eventually dismissed.

Prosecutors say Dugan escorted Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer out of her courtroom through a back jury door on April 18 after learning that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were in the courthouse seeking his arrest.

FILE – A sign is posted outside of county Judge Hannah Dugan’s courtroom at the Milwaukee County courthouse, April 25, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Andy Manis, File)

According to court documents, Flores-Ruiz illegally reentered the U.S. after being deported in 2013. Online state court records show he was charged with three counts of misdemeanor domestic abuse in Milwaukee County in March. He was in Dugan’s courtroom that morning of April 18 for a hearing.

Court documents suggest Dugan was alerted to the agents’ presence by her clerk, who was informed by an attorney that the agents appeared to be in the hallway. An affidavit says Dugan was visibly angry over the agents’ arrival and called the situation “absurd” before leaving the bench and retreating to her chambers. She and another judge later approached members of the arrest team in the courthouse with what witnesses described as a “confrontational, angry demeanor.”

After a back-and-forth with the agents over the warrant for Flores-Ruiz, Dugan demanded they speak with the chief judge and led them away from the courtroom, according to the affidavit.

She then returned to the courtroom and was heard saying words to the effect of “wait, come with me” and ushered Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out through a back jury door typically used only by deputies, jurors, court staff and in-custody defendants, according to the affidavit. Flores-Ruiz was free on a signature bond in the abuse case at the time, according to online state court records.

Federal agents ultimately captured him outside the courthouse after a foot chase.

The state Supreme Court suspended Dugan from the bench in late April, saying the move was necessary to preserve public confidence in the judiciary. A reserve judge is filling in for her.

Voters in the Mahtomedi School District will be asked this fall to approve a $28 million referendum to fund improvements that district officials say will benefit safety and security, academics, performing arts and athletics.

Among the proposed improvements are a new front entrance at Mahtomedi Middle School and other safety and security improvements.

Mahtomedi High School would get a “hallway circulation” remodel, choir and band classroom improvements, new mechanicals, a weight room addition and safety and security Improvements. Athletic Field 1 would get new turf and lights.

The referendum also would also pay for safety and security improvements to Wildwood and O.H. Anderson elementary schools and disability access and seating improvements at the Chautauqua Fine Arts Center, among other projects.

The school board voted unanimously last month to go out for the bond referendum. It is expected to be the first part of a multi-phase bond referendum process.

“It’s not easy because we have so many needs,” School Board Member Kelly Reagan said at the April 28 meeting. “Getting started somewhere is important. I have been from day one somebody who has felt like this should be something that impacts a lot of students and a lot of people in our community.”

The Mahtomedi Public School District serves approximately 3,176 students across its six schools.

School board member Ryan Domin said at the meeting the Mahtomedi community has been clear about what they would like to see done with facilities in the district.

“I’m supportive of this because this is part of a bigger vision,” Domin said. “If this was all we were focused on doing, I probably wouldn’t feel the same way, but we’ve really taken that community feedback, and I can see how we can align that back to our strategic plan.”

Addressing safety and security is key, he said, but so is addressing other “aging mechanical systems that, if we don’t address them now, could ultimately be far more costly down the line.”

Domin encouraged residents to contact school district officials with ideas to work on private partnerships.

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Superintendent Barb Duffrin said school district officials have been working since 2021 conducting research, meeting with stakeholders and reviewing options for the facilities improvement bond.

“The list of items that we’re going to, hopefully, address has been distilled from a very long list of needs,” said school board member Paul Donna. “Of course, we can’t do it all, but I think we’ve done a really good job of distilling down to what’s really needed today versus what we can look at and maybe wait for a couple of years and build partnerships and tackle those down the road.”

District officials will submit the proposal to the Minnesota Department of Education for review and prepare for a special election in November.

Minnesota United at Houston Dynamo

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Shell Oil Stadium, Houston
Stream: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
Radio: KSTP-AM 1500
Weather: 87 degrees, sunny, 16 mph north wind
Betting line: MNUFC plus-175; draw plus-230; Houston plus-150

Form: Minnesota (6-4-2, 22 points) has won two straight by a combined score of 7-1, including a 4-1 blowout of Inter Miami on Saturday. Houston (2-4-6, 10 points) has lost two of three, including a 3-1 home loss to Seattle last weekend.

Quote: “What top teams do is they put (the Miami win) aside and say we haven’t won more than three games in a row this year,” Wil Trapp said Tuesday. “This is our opportunity to do that against a team that is desperate to win.”

Recent matchups: Loons tied Dynamo 1-1 in Texas last July, giving up an 82-minute equalizer to Sebastian Ferreira. Houston won 2-1 on a game-winner from Sebastian Kowalczyk in the 72nd minute in April in St. Paul.

Absences: Anthony Markanich (ankle), Owen Gene (ankle) and Kipp Keller (hamstring) are out.

Context: Amid a stretch of nine games in 30 days, head coach Eric Ramsay is expected to rotate or change his starting XI this week. “Across the sort of 20, 21 players that we’ve got fighting for starting positions, we can be really competitive,” Ramsay said. “Having made my decision, I’m very happy with what we are going to go with.”

Check-in: Houston misses center back Micael, who was sold to Brazilian club Palmeiras reportedly for a club-record fee of $6 million in February. MLS denied Houston’s request to have Femi Awodesu’s red card appeal, and he will be suspended for Wednesday. Awodesu has played 1,027 minutes.

Prediction: Minnesota has scored at least three goals in its past two MLS matches, and Houston is 22nd in the league with 1.6 goals conceded per match. These trends continue. Loons win 2-0.