A 34-year-old Burnsville man has been sentenced in federal court to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to a count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.

John Majerus II, who pleaded guilty on Nov 8, 2023, will be on supervised release for 10 years after serving his sentence.

According to court documents, in September of 2022 he was serving a prison sentence for a prior federal drug crime when authorities began investigating a drug trafficking operation by federal inmates.

Majerus coordinated the sale of methamphetamine to an undercover officer with the Drug Enforcement Administration, according to federal authorities. After being released, he continued drug sales and conspired to deal methamphetamine from a “stash house” in Southeast Minneapolis, according to federal authorities.

While executing a search warrant on the house, federal authorities found approximately 30 pounds of methamphetamine hidden in the wall. They also recovered drug paraphernalia and two firearms.

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Comedian Richard Lewis never lived in Minnesota, but he was laid to rest last week at the Temple of Aaron cemetery in Roseville.

In a 2015 interview with American Jewish World, Lewis talked about how he first learned that news from his wife, St. Paul native Joyce Lapinsky.

“My in-laws are buried there,” Lewis said. “My wife, she decided one day — talk about a breakfast talk! — she went, ‘I know you’re a Brooklyn boy and you’re not that sure where you want to go at the end,’ and I said, ‘Well, is it the end?… So what are you saying?’ ”

Her response: “You’re going to be next to me for the rest of eternity … you’re going to come to Temple of Aaron cemetery.”

Lewis, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2021, died of a heart attack in his Los Angeles home on Feb. 27 at the age of 76. Known for his dark jokes about his many neuroses and struggles with addiction, Lewis began performing stand-up in 1971 and became a familiar talk show guest, appearing on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” 22 times and “Late Night with David Letterman” 48 times over the span of a decade. He starred in the ABC sitcom “Anything but Love” with Jamie Lee Curtis and was a mainstay on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” since it began in 2000.

Lapinsky got her start singing backup vocals on “Mouth to Mouth,” the debut album from Minneapolis dance group Lipps Inc. that spawned the worldwide 1980 hit “Funkytown.” After leaving Minnesota, she went on to work behind the scenes in producing and music publishing.

The couple met in 1998. In a 2010 interview, Lewis talked about how he introduced himself by giving her “my usual note … which was, ‘I hope you’re married and happy, but if you’re not …’ And I’d have my number on it. And it would be so sleazy. That’s how I picked up my wife. That same note. At a Ringo Starr party, if I can name-drop. And she saved the note. And she gave it to me for our first anniversary, this sleazy note.”

After dating for seven years, Lewis took Lapinsky to meet his therapist. “It’s sad, (I) had no confidence in my ability to select a mate,” he said in a 2007 interview with the Observer. “In a voice that was almost satanic — it was so dark and loud that it seemed to echo through the neighborhood — my therapist screamed at me, ‘This is as good as it gets!’ ”

The pair married in 2005 and Lewis took to matrimony with zeal. “Joyce has such a stabilizing effect on him. Everybody is looking for that one person in life who will love you unconditionally, and he’s found that with her,” his “Curb Your Enthusiasm” co-star and longtime friend Susie Essman told the Observer.

“On stage, I still mine my bottomless pit of bad memories,” Lewis said in a 2008 interview. “In real life, I’m still crazy, but I’m far happier and more grateful than I’ve ever been. Marriage has a lot to do with that. We have a neurotic relationship that’s, 99 percent of the time, filled with laughter and love.”

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Yoán Moncada pulled a double into the right-field corner during the second inning of an April 2 game against the Houston Astros last season at Minute Maid Park.

The Chicago White Sox third baseman doubled again — this time pulling a grounder that just stayed fair down the first-base line — in the sixth inning. Batting left-handed again, the switch-hitter capped the day by going the other way with a two-run home run to left field in the ninth.

Moncada had a strong start to the season, going 8-for-18 (.444) with two homers and four RBIs in the series against the Astros as he built off his All-Tournament Team performance for Cuba during the World Baseball Classic. Then came the back issues that led to two trips to the injured list.

“During the first half of that season, it was painful, stressful,” Moncada said through an interpreter Thursday at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago in Bridgeport. “I couldn’t do anything. I wanted to do stuff and help the team but I couldn’t. It was a really tough time for me.”

He was out from April 11-May 12 with lower back soreness and again June 14-July 25 with lower back inflammation.

Moncada rebounded after returning from the second IL stint, slashing .280/.323/.430 with two home runs and 12 RBIs in August and .298/.344/.560 with six home runs and 12 RBIs in September.

“Once I started getting better and stronger, I felt much better and I felt good,” Moncada said. “That was why I was able to finish the way that I did and that’s how I feel right now.”

The 28-year-old is aiming to use that late-season bounce back as a springboard for 2024.

“He feels great, the back feels great, he’s motivated,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “He’s going to get to spring training early on the 31st of January or first of February, which is a great sign and he’s going to put himself in a position to have a great year. We need Moncada.

“He’s motivated to having a full season under his belt, which is good for him.”

Moncada slashed .260/.305/.425 with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs in 2023. After appearing in 144 games in 2021, Moncada played 104 games in 2022 and 92 in 2023.

His offseason work has included strengthening his abs, back and legs to “get all that core really strong,” he said.

“The way I’m preparing myself for this coming season is to play 202 games,” Moncada said, when asked about attempting to play as close to 162 games as possible. “That’s an exaggeration, but that’s how I’m preparing myself.

“I want to be healthy. I want to be on the field every day.”

Moncada said he is motivated and excited because he’s healthy.

“That’s the only thing I want — if I’m healthy, I know I can do a lot of good things in the field,” Moncada said. “I’m excited right now to get to spring training and start working.

“I think God has saved something good for me. Hopefully we are going to see that. Hopefully I’ll be able to be healthy and really show and really display all I can do on the field.”

Moncada’s best season was in 2019, when he established career highs in several categories, including OPS (.915), doubles (34), home runs (25) and RBIs (79). He signed a five-year, $70 million extension in March 2020 — a deal in which the Sox hold an option for $25 million in 2025 with a $5 million buyout.

The solid defensive third baseman knows he’ll be fielding questions from reporters about the future.

“I would love to stay with the White Sox if they want me here,” Moncada said. “I’m very thankful for the White Sox for the opportunity they have given me after I was traded from the Red Sox (in December 2016). They’ve been treating me very well. I like the organization, I like the city, I like the fans. I would like to stay here.”

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A serial rapist serving a 45-year prison term for a string of sexual assaults in southeast Minneapolis between 2015 and 2020 has been sentenced for the 2013 abduction and physical assault of a 16-year-old girl at Bunker Hills Regional Park in Andover.

DNA from the girl’s water bottle found at the scene of the park attack matched Jory Daniel Wiebrand’s DNA, which was in the system because of his 2020 sexual assault charges, according to the criminal complaint filed in Anoka County District Court in October 2022.

Jory Daniel Wiebrand (Courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)

Wiebrand pleaded guilty last fall to kidnapping and first-degree aggravated robbery, and an attempted first-degree sexual conduct charge was dismissed as part of an agreement with Anoka County prosecutors. Wiebrand, 38, was sentenced Friday to a nearly 16-year prison term that will be served at the same time with his current incarceration.

Wiebrand, of Ham Lake, was arrested in April 2020 in connection with a pair of home invasions involving young women in Minneapolis’ Marcy-Holmes neighborhood, near the University of Minnesota, that occurred the previous June and August. Once his DNA was on file, police were able to link him with several unsolved crimes that went back to June 2013.

The Hennepin County attorney’s office filed 13 cases against Wiebrand in 2020. He faced 29 charges, including six counts of first-degree criminal sexual assault, two counts of attempted first-degree criminal sexual assault, five counts of criminal predatory conduct and four counts each of first-degree burglary and false imprisonment.

According to court documents, Wiebrand attacked one woman as she cleaned snow off her car. He assaulted another in her yard after she returned from shopping. He attacked a third as she entered her home and a fourth as she was on her way to a bus stop. The fifth he attacked in her home just as she got out of the shower. In several cases, he subdued the women with pepper spray if they fought back.

In January 2021, Wiebrand pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct. In March of that year, he was given a negotiated sentence that totaled 550 months in prison, followed by conditional release for the rest of his life. Wiebrand had no prior convictions beyond minor traffic offenses.

Park attack

Back on June 11, 2013, at about 5:15 p.m., Anoka County sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of an abduction that had just occurred near the Bunker Hills’ overlook.

The teen said she was walking home on a trail when an unknown male ran up behind her, grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into a wooded area with tall grass. She said he told her that if she screamed, he would kill her. He put her into a headlock and choked her until she passed out. She estimated that she was passed out for approximately 1 minute, then woke up and saw him running away from her. He took her cell phone.

The girl, who had eye injuries consistent with being choked, gave detectives a description of the attacker. Detectives were unable to develop any solid leads on the identity of her attacker until seven years later, when Wiebrand’s DNA profile from the Minneapolis cases was a match for a DNA profile taken from the girl’s water bottle.

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