Impact of chronic offenders tracked by the City

by DENNIS GEISINGER

Minneapolis residents now have an easy, effective way to tell the courts how an individual criminal offender has affected their lives. Forms provided by the City and accessible on the internet can be detailed with information about a person whose unlawful behavior has impacted neighborhoods and the people that live and work in them.

The identity of those submitting this cyber testimony is coded to protect their privacy and then reviewed by officers of the court.

“Community impact statements (CIS) are presented to the court by prosecutors from the Minneapolis City Attorney’s Office to show the negative impact a specific offender or a specific crime has, not only on the victims of the crime, but also on the community in which the crime took place,” according to the City information office.

“We can portray more accurately how their behavior impacts the community,” said 3rd Precinct Crime Prevention Specialist Carla Nielson.

The philosophy of the CIS is that those who live in a particular area know first hand how livability crimes affect the place where they live. For the past several months, an internet tool available from Minneapolis Police has enabled residents to share that information with the courts with much greater ease.

Prior to the rollout of this internet form, people had to go to one of the five Minneapolis Police Dept. precincts to file community impact statements. They did not have the ability to browse cases like they can now.

Individuals charged with livability offenses like trespassing, consuming in public, disorderly conduct, loitering with intent to buy or sell narcotics, lurking and public urination are the focus of requests for CISs. But those responsible for these so-called “nuisance crimes” may have criminal records that cover the gamut of property and violent offenses.

The seven individuals identified in requests for CISs by Minneapolis 3rd Precinct Police since the first of the year have records that, over the last decade, have totaled 368 arrests on charges ranging from trespassing and prostitution to robbery and assault.

According to police, 26-year-old Irwin Taylor Killsplenty has been arrested 90 times since the year 2000. His primary offenses are consuming in public, disorderly conduct, and loitering. He is set for trial on May 6 for gross misdemeanor trespass, arrested 18 times for trespassing in the past. Because it’s a gross misdemeanor, Killsplenty’s maximum sentence could be one year in the workhouse.

Since 1998, Tracy Jean Mayo has been arrested 68 times for various offenses, primarily prostitution related. Last summer, Mayo was arrested on the Midtown Greenway for trespassing and assaulting a police officer. According to the public information in the police report, she squirted the contents of an injection syringe into the eyes of one of the officers as police approached her .

With information collected in CISs, offenders can be “trespassed” from certain geographical areas. This means the court can prohibit someone from entering the boundaries of a neighborhood and can arrest and re-charge them if that trespass is violated.

One such case involved a man named Nathaniel Banks, arrested 79 times for various offenses including assault, narcotics, loitering, and trespassing. Forty-nine of those arrests were in the area of Bloomington Avenue. After being released on parole, Banks was arrested in the area where he had been restricted by the court because of information provided in various impact statements. He was subsequently charged with a parole violation and returned to jail, according to Assistant Minneapolis City Attorney, Paula Kruchowski.

“I find it valuable to able to give a personal statement in court that really says how this person has affected others,” said Kruchowski.
Call 3-1-1 to ask how to participate in CIS program.