Posted: 12/13/05
Burglars hit Good Times, Spring Grove Legion
Good Times Restaurant in Caledonia and Spring Grove Legion Club suffered burglaries on the night of December 7.
Caledonia Police Chief Randy Shefelbine reported that a person or persons forced entry through a door on the south side of Good Times building and stole more than $3,000. The entry and theft was discovered by owner Kris Wedl the following morning.
The Legion Club in Spring Grove was also broken into that night, Shefelbine said. Once inside, the person or persons broke into the safe. The Spring Grove Police Department did not return a call from The Argus about the burglary.
Brandi Lynne Thillen arrested
Brandi Lynne Thillen, 23, Caledonia, faces 10 different charges after she was arrested during a traffic stop on December 3.
Thillen was stopped on Highway 44 near Alco at 8:30 p.m. that Saturday night for obstructed license plate. According to the police report, she was asked to step out of her car by officer James Logan. Thillen refused to do so and drove off, the report states. Logan was dragged 20-30 feet while attempting to turn off the vehicle. He then pulled Thillen out of the vehicle and to the ground, and handcuffed her. She was taken to the Fillmore County Jail, and was charged with open bottle; reckless or careless driving; driving while drivers license was cancelled, suspended, or revoked; no insurance; illegal use of plates and registration; second degree DUI; DUI .10 within two hours; disturbing the peace, and obstructing legal process.
Her passenger, Brandon Michael Holland, 20, of Spring Grove, was charged with underaged consumption.
Thillen appeared in court on the charges on December 12, where she requested an omnibus hearing. No date had been set for that as of December 12.
She is out of jail on electronic home monitoring.
Taylor arrested for probation violation, escape
Jack David Taylor, 20, of Caledonia, was arrested on December 2 on charges related to escaping from custody, violating an order for protection, and fleeing a police officer.
Taylor was being booked into the Houston County Jail on December 1 when he escaped, according to jail administrator Mark Schiltz. Three other prisoners were being processed ahead of Taylor, so he was handcuffed and told to sit in a hallway. He walked out of the jail with his handcuffs on. He was arrested the next day, minus the handcuffs, during a traffic stop of a vehicle driven by Jacob Lee Palen of Caledonia. He is currently in the Goodhue County Jail in Red Wing. Schiltz said on December 9 that he had 14 people in jail in Caledonia and 20 inmates housed outside of the county.
Dent to appear in court Wednesday
Richard Allen Dent, 40, will have an omnibus hearing on December 14 at 3:30 p.m. Dent was charged with two felony counts of receiving stolen property on October 31 after police searched his home in Caledonia. He is currently in the Houston County Jail.
Janse Randall Bjergum, 24, of Spring Grove was charged in the case on November 3 with two felony counts of receiving stolen property. Authorities recovered stolen property from various burglaries and thefts at his house in Spring Grove. He was released from the Houston County Jail on a $25,000 bail bond. An omnibus hearing for him has been set for January 4, 2006, at 1:30 p.m.
Charges of methamphatamine possession and receiving stolen property were also filed on November 1 against Robert Dean Ellis, 49, Mabel.
Deputies recovered stolen property from burglaries that occurred in all three counties. Tools, guns, food, and hunting and trapping equipment were confiscated.
Other search warrants of houses thought to be connected with the burglaries were executed in Mabel and Harpers Ferry, IA.
Shefelbine sentencing December 14
Ronnie Shefelbine of Caledonia will be sentenced on December 14 at 9 a.m. Shefelbine entered an Alford plea of guilty to aiding and abetting the manufacture of of a controlled substance in the fifth degree on September 27. (In an Alford plea, a defendant may plead guilty yet not admit all the facts that comprise the crime.)
Shefelbine is one of five men who were charged in September of 2003 in a methamphetamine bust in a trailer home near Eitzen.
The other four men were Levi Jones of Harperís Ferry, IA.; Theodore Hawver of Spring Grove; Thomas Monson, 22, Spring Grove; and Tod Weston, 39, of Eitzen. Jones, Weston, and Monson pled guilty to conspiracy to manufacture a controlled substance and were sentenced to prison.
Polus sentencing date set
Wayne A. Polus, 48, of La Crescent, will be sentenced on January 25 at 9 a.m. Polus pled guilty on September 27 to criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree.
He had been charged with third degree criminal sexual conduct related to an August 2004 incident in La Crescent. He pled not guilty and was set to go to trial on the day that he made the plea agreement.
Polus assaulted a woman while she was sleeping on a couch at his parentsí home, where he resides, early on the morning of August 29.
Marijuana case hearing rescheduled
A plea hearing for Patrick Daniel Dingley, 37, of Rochester that wa scheduled to take place on December 5 was set back to January 30 at 11:30 at the request of Dingley and his attorney, Chris Ritts.
Dingley and Mark Casey Richmond, 37, of Houston, are charged in a marijuana-growing case in Houston County. They were charged September 15 with four counts of third degree conspiracy to manufacture drugs on September 15. They are accused of growing 286 marijuana plants in three different groves on U.S. Fish and Wildlife land and the Gillette property near the Root River in rural Hokah Township.
The omnibus hearing date for Richmond, 37, of Houston, is set for December 14 at 10:15 a.m.
Dingley and Richmond are both free on bail.
Caledonia Argus
314 West Lincoln St.
P.O. Box 227
Caledonia, MN 55921-0227
507/724-3475
E-Mail: editor.argus@ecm-inc.com