Charges: Convicted sex offender raped woman in St. Paul after meeting her on dating app

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A convicted sex offender is jailed and charged with raping a woman at his St. Paul home on Sunday after meeting her on an online dating app.

Green Isiah Kelly Jr., 38, was charged Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court with third-degree criminal sexual conduct and criminal sexual predatory conduct. He was arrested Sunday night and remains at the county jail ahead of a first court appearance on the charges set for Wednesday. A defense attorney is not listed in the court file.

In 2013, Kelly was convicted of third-degree criminal sexual conduct for raping a woman who had passed out from alcohol at a party in St. Paul, court records show. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, followed by 10 years of conditional release. Most people sent to prison in Minnesota serve two-thirds of their sentence in custody and the remaining on supervised release in the community.

Kelly was given an additional 15 months in prison in 2020 for repeatedly punching a fellow inmate in the face at Minnesota Correctional Facility-Faribault, according to court records. He was put on intensive supervised release in September.

According to Tuesday’s criminal complaint and St. Paul police:

A 37-year-old woman from Menomonie, Wis., reported to police about 4:15 p.m. Sunday that she had been sexually assaulted less than two hours earlier at a home in the 800 block of Aurora Avenue in St. Paul’s Summit-University area. She identified the suspect as “Isiah,” who was later identified as Kelly.

She told police she had met Kelly through a social media dating app about a month earlier, and that they began texting and made Facetime calls to each other.

She said the first time she saw Kelly she realized the photos he had posted on the dating app were not of him. She questioned him about that and he admitted they were not him. She said she told Kelly that she wasn’t interested in dating him, but was willing to be friends. They then talked casually.

On Friday, Kelly asked if they could get together, and she said she was coming into town the next day. Around 11:30 a.m. Sunday, she agreed to cut his hair and beard, and went to his home on Aurora Avenue to meet him. He took her to a local restaurant. While there, he said he wanted to be in a relationship with her, but she told him she wasn’t interested.

When they returned to Kelly’s home, he asked her to come inside to cut his hair and offered to pay her to do so. “(The woman) was suspicious because (Kelly) was bald,” the complaint states, adding that he then said he’d pay her full price of a haircut if she would trim his beard.

When she and Kelly went into his bedroom, where she thought she was going to trim his beard, he said, “Let’s get down to business” and grabbed her arm and began to kiss her on the neck, the complaint states. She told police she pushed him away and told him, “Not that type of business” and repeated that she did not want to be in a relationship with him and did not want to engage in sex.

Kelly then grabbed her by the arm and threw her on the bed. He ripped off her shirt, pants and underwear and pinned his body against hers as she screamed and kicked at him. She told police she repeatedly yelled, “No! I don’t want to have sex with you!” the complaint says. He then raped her.

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Kelly stopped when someone knocked on the door, she told police. When he answered the door in his boxer briefs, she grabbed her torn shirt and pants but could not find her underwear. She tried to leave the room with one pant leg on but Kelly met her at the bedroom door and told her not to leave. She was able to get past him and leave the home.

The woman drove directly to a hospital in Wisconsin. As she drove, Kelly called her multiple times. She recorded their conversations and provided them to police. Kelly apologized for not listening to her and said he let his “hormones speak for [him],” the complaint states. She told him that she had said “no” and yelled at him that what he did was “definitely not okay.”

After his arrest, Kelly underwent a suspect sexual assault examination. In an interview, investigators asked him if he knew the woman and he corrected the pronunciation of her name. He then said he wanted a lawyer.

University of Minnesota resident physicians announce intent to unionize

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Resident physicians at the University of Minnesota have filed for union recognition.

Organizers say a supermajority of the university’s group of nearly 1,000 residents and fellows voted in favor of unionizing.

In their announcement Monday, residents said they want to address long hours, difficult working conditions and low pay.

Dr. Mayrose Porter, a resident OB-GYN at the University of Minnesota, said she’s struggled with understaffed shifts and low pay. On some of her late-night shifts, she said, the only food she has access to is a vending machine.

“There’s no way to get around the fact that medicine is difficult … and that involves difficult training,” she said. “However, I think that there’s a lot of spaces within that that don’t need to be as difficult as they are.”

The residents would join SEIU’s Committee of Interns and Residents. Earlier this month, 200 Hennepin Health residents announced their intent to join the same union.

Organizers say many residents make around Minneapolis’ minimum wage: $15.97 an hour. They can work up to 80 hours a week.

Porter said the residency system doesn’t give doctors much room to advocate for better conditions. Since residents are assigned positions, they don’t get to compare pay, benefits and locations like employees or students in other fields can.

“You really don’t have any bargaining power,” she said. “I love working for the University of Minnesota, I was so happy to match here. And I can also recognize that there are other places that had better benefits, that had better pay, that had better quality-of-life aspects.”

Porter says unionizing could create a place to bring up concerns about work.

Residents are able to unionize following changes to Minnesota’s Public Employment Labor Relations Act in 2024, which adjusted bargaining units across the University of Minnesota.

The next step is for the state’s Bureau of Mediation Services to recognize the union. A U spokesperson said in a statement that the administration will be in touch with the organizers and the bureau.

“The University values our relationship with labor-represented employees and honors its obligations under the Public Employment Labor Relations Act,” the statement said.

Organizers say they want U administrators and President Rebecca Cunningham to start contract negotiations as soon as possible.

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Republicans look to rein in courts, judges as Trump rails against rulings

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By LISA MASCARO

WASHINGTON (AP) — Angry over the crush of court rulings against the Trump administration, Republicans in Congress are trying to slap back at the federal judiciary with proposals to limit the reach of its rulings, cut funding and even impeach judges, tightening the GOP’s grip on government.

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House GOP leaders say all options are under consideration as they rush to rein in judges who are halting President Donald Trump’s actions at a rapid pace. In many cases, the courts are questioning whether the firings of federal workers, freezing of federal funds and shuttering of long-running federal offices are unlawful actions by the executive branch and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

In perhaps the most high-profile case, Judge James E. Boasberg ordered planeloads of deported immigrants to be turned around, raising the ire of Trump, who called for his impeachment, and billionaire Musk, who is funneling campaign cash to House Republicans backing impeachment efforts. The president calls the judges “lunatics.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that “desperate times call for desperate measures” without mentioning impeachment.

“We do have authority over the federal courts, as you know,” the Republican speaker said. “We can eliminate an entire district court. We have power of funding over the courts, and all these other things.”

Not yet 100 days into the new administration, the unusual attack on the federal judiciary is the start of what is expected to be a protracted battle between the co-equal branches of government, unmatched in modern memory. As the White House tests the judiciary, trying to bend it to Trump’s demands, the Congress, controlled by the president’s own Republican Party, appears ready to back him up.

It all comes as the Supreme Court last summer granted the executive broad immunity from prosecution, setting the stage for the challenges to come. But Chief Justice John Roberts warned more recently that “impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”

Democrats are warning against what they view as an assault on the judicial branch, which so far has been the only check against Trump and DOGE’s far-reaching federal actions. Threats against the federal judges, already on the rise, remain of high concern.

“It is outrageous to even think of defunding the courts,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, reacting to the House speaker’s claims. “The courts are the bulwark against Trump, and the Republicans can’t stand it.”

House GOP leaders met Tuesday with Rep. Jim Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which will hold a hearing on the issue next week. The House is also expected to vote on a bill from Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., that would limit the geographic reach of certain federal rulings, to prevent temporary restraining orders from being enacted nationwide.

Jordan said he also spoke Saturday with Trump during college wrestling championships in Philadelphia.

“All options are on the table,” Jordan said late Monday. “We want to get the facts. Gather the facts.”

Since Trump took office, and with Musk, on a mission to dramatically reduce the size and scope of the federal government, the administration’s tech-inspired move-fast-and-break-things ethos has run up against the constraints of federal law.

An onslaught of court cases has been filed by employee groups, democracy organizations and advocacy groups trying to keep federal programs — from the U.S. Agency for International Development to the Education Department — from being dismantled.

Judges have issued various types of restraints on Trump’s actions. Trump’s first administration alone accounted for 66 percent of all the injunctions issued on presidential actions between 2001 and 2023, according to data from a Harvard Law Review piece circulated by Republicans.

The legislation from Issa had no support from Democrats when it was approved by the Judiciary Committee last month. A similar bill was introduced Monday by GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Judiciary panel, said Trump is being hit with injunctions because he is “engaged in terrible, irresponsible and lawless violations of people’s rights.“

“We are winning in court,” Raskin said in a video address. “We’ve got make sure we defend the integrity of the judiciary.”

When it comes to actually impeaching the judges, however, top Republicans have stopped short of backing what would be a severe action.

Impeachments are rare in Congress, particularly of judges, but several rank-and-file House Republicans have proposed legislation to launch impeachment proceedings against various federal judges who have ruled in ways unfavorable to the Trump administration.

Musk has rewarded House Republicans who signed onto impeachment legislation with political donations, according to a person familiar with information first reported by the New York Times. The person was granted anonymity to discuss the matter.

Republicans are particularly focused on Boasberg, the chief judge of the district court in Washington, D.C., who Jordan said is in a “somewhat unique in that, you know, his decision was crazy.”

The judge is weighing whether the Trump administration defied his order after the planes of migrants landed in El Salvador, turned over to that country’s notorious mega-prison system. The Trump administration had invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a war-time authority used during World War II against Japanese Americans, for the deportations the judge said lacked due process.

Any impeachment effort would also require backing from the Senate, where GOP leaders also panned the effort.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., echoed the advice of Roberts in allowing normal legal procedures to play out.

“At the end of the day, there is a process, and there’s an appeals process, and you know, I suspect that’s ultimately how this will get handled,” Thune said.

Associated Press writers Leah Askarinam and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

Dane Mizutani: Gophers need Niko Medved to channel his inner P.J. Fleck

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Niko Medved was introduced as the next coach of the Gophers men’s basketball team on Tuesday afternoon in Dinkytown.

He spoke for nearly 30 minutes during his introductory press conference that, in many ways, was the antithesis of the performance P.J. Fleck put on when he was introduced as the next coach of the Gophers football team nearly a decade ago.

No talk of being elite. No talk of running into the fire. No talk of eating difficult conversations for breakfast.

It was much more pragmatic approach from Medved, a Roseville native who oozed Minnesota Dad Energy while detailing a path that started with him serving as a student manager with the Gophers roughly 30 years ago, then came full circle this week when he was hired as the man in charge of leading the program into the future.

“Now is the time,” Medved said. “Now is the time more than ever that Minnesota is poised to take the next step.”

Is it? That might hinge on Medved’s ability to channel his inner Fleck.

It’s not going to be an easy task stepping into the spotlight with the Gophers struggling to stay relevant amid the changing landscape of college athletics. The lack of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) budget compared to some of their peers has made the transfer portal a nightmare to navigate.

Just ask Ben Johnson, the former U basketball coach who struggled to keep some of his best players from leaving for more money elsewhere.

In an interview with KFAN radio host Dan Barreiro last week, Richard Pitino offered some advice to whoever took over, and he’d be a pretty good person to listen to as another former coach of the Gophers men’s basketball team.

Though he covered many topics about the program itself, perhaps his most interesting point came when speaking about the importance of establishing a brand that can become recognizable to even the most casual fans.

If Medved needs an example of how to do that, he doesn’t have to look any further than Fleck.

Never mind that Fleck’s personality might rub people the wrong way. The man knows how to build a brand in a way that is authentic to who he is at his core. He has stayed true to himself since his introductory press conference and has established his “Row The Boat” slogan as a brand in the process.

All the catchphrases from Fleck that might illicit an eye roll here and there have been woven into the fabric of the program. The culture that Fleck has cultivated gets players to stick around, fans to show up, and maybe most importantly, boosters to write checks.

It would be wise for Medved to mold himself in Fleck’s image.

That doesn’t mean Medved needs to act like Fleck. He simply has to connect with people the same way Fleck does.

You have to get people to care. It’s the only way the Gophers are going to succeed in a game that’s seemingly rigged for them to fail.

The elephant in the room was something Medved addressed multiple times in his introductory press conference as it seemed like every other question led back to Name, Image, and Likeness in some way, shape or form.

“I believe there are plenty of people here who want to get behind and support this program,” Medved said. “It’s our job getting people to believe in what we’re doing and be like, ‘This is a program that I really want to get behind.’”

That will start and stop with Medved. He has to be the person who can make up for all of the other shortcomings. That’s what the Gophers hired him to be.

You got a glimpse of how Medved will go about his business when brought up his “Team Together” slogan that will be coming with him.

“It’s going to take everybody to be successful,” Medved said. “I’ve seen Minnesotans come together and support something unlike anything. I’ve seen it done here before. I believe we can do that again.”

That sounds nothing like Fleck, and that’s kind of the point.

The authenticity with which Medved speaks will be his biggest superpower. He’s a Minnesotan himself, so he knows Minnesotans better than most. He knows what resonates with them, and he will have to use that to his advantage.

“I can’t wait to pour my heart and soul into this,” Medved said. “You can count on me to do that.”

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