Man arrested for making terroristic threats

Jan 11, 2013 (The Pine Journal - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- A Sandstone man was charged Tuesday in Carlton County Court with making terroristic threats.

Forrest Michael St. John, 20, faces a total of six charges, including two counts of felony terroristic threats (defined in this case as "threatening to commit a crime of violence with the purpose of terrorizing another"), two misdemeanor fifth-degree assault charges, underage consumption and obstructing the legal process.

According to the criminal complaint: Cloquet police officers were dispatched to a Cloquet fast food restaurant at approximately midnight Jan. 5, with a report of an individual -- later identified as St. John -- threatening to shoot two or three other people.

St. John had allegedly approached two juveniles and an adult who were eating there and threatened to pull a gun out of his waistband and shoot them. Witnesses described him as someone with "potential gang ties" who is known to carry a gun.

Police located St. John in the rear of an automobile leaving the parking lot. Police discovered he had been drinking -- he is under the legal age and tested .083 -- and arrested him. After being taken into custody, St. John became "extremely uncooperative" and was kicking and spitting in the back of the squad car.

Assistant Carlton County Attorney Michael Boese described how terrified the two juveniles and adult were when St. John approached them -- describing the make and model of the alleged gun he was carrying -- and threatened to kill them.

"He is a known Native Mob member and is known to have been involved in a drive-by shooting," Boese told the judge, noting there are five active warrants issued for St. John as well as 18 prior bench warrants issued when he failed to appear for scheduled court hearings on previous cases. Because of this, Boese requested Judge Dale Wolf set bond at $75,000 or $7,500 cash.

St. John began swearing at the prosecuting attorney in the courtroom Tuesday, taking umbrage at the statement that he was a "known Native Mob member." When Judge Dale Wolf threatened to have him removed from the court, St. John told the judge to go ahead and remove him, but he stopped his rant against Boese.

Although defense attorney Joanna Wiegert requested a more reasonable bond amount of $40,000 or $4,000 cash, noting that setting the bail so high is essentially punishing someone before they are found guilty, Wolf set bond at the higher amount after St. John also refused to sign an order forbidding him to have any contact with the three people he had threatened.

St. John pleaded guilty to fleeing a police officer by means other than a motor vehicle, a petty misdemeanor charge, in November 2012. He also pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property and fleeing a police officer in 2010; charges of second-degree burglary were dismissed in that case.

St. John's next court appearance is set for Jan. 23.

More from around the web ___ (c)2013 The Pine Journal (Cloquet, Minn.) Visit The Pine Journal (Cloquet, Minn.) at www.pinejournal.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

[ Back To Technology News's Homepage ]