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DULUTH - A Duluth police officer, acquitted of a sexual assault charge in 2003 and also disciplined after a complaint of inappropriately searching a female three years before that, is being investigated for another complaint by a woman. Dean Symens, 38, an investigator in the Violent Crimes Unit, has been a member of the force since 1995. "I can't comment on elements of the investigation at this time," Police Chief Gordon Ramsay said Tuesday. He declined further comment. Symens, the married father of two children, couldn't be reached for comment.
DULUTH - A 76-year-old Duluth man who volunteered with the Boy Scouts -- and whose attorney said had attained the rank of major in the Air National Guard -- is accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a boy 16 to 20 years ago. Edwin Charles Culbert Jr. was charged Wednesday in St. Louis County District Court with first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct. According to the criminal complaint, Culbert sexually assaulted the boy starting when the alleged victim was 12 years old in 1990. Culbert posted $10,000 bail and was released Wednesday afternoon from the St. Louis County Jail.
DULUTH - A former Iron Range two-sport star athlete who once made a living swinging a baseball bat used one this week to ward off a burglar. But the bat he used was turned against him, leading to criminal charges against a Duluth man. Stephan J. Leland, 23, is charged with first-degree attempted burglary and second-degree assault after allegedly attempting to enter the East Second Street apartment of Eli Tintor on Sunday. Tintor, a Hibbing High School graduate, was an 18th-round draft choice of the Minnesota Twins in 2003.
DULUTH - An 81-year-old Hibbing woman said her life savings were wiped out and she was "34 dollars and some cents'' in the hole after a Florida man scammed her out of almost $38,500 by telling her she had won the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes -- a $600,000 prize. The Publishers Clearing House Prize Patrol didn't come to the woman's door with a check.
DULUTH - A 62-year-old school bus driver is being held in the St. Louis County Jail after being accused of sexually assaulting four elementary school girls. The bus driver, of Two Harbors, is being held on preliminary charges of four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct during his duties as a school bus driver, the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office said. He allegedly sexually assaulted four North Shore Community School students between the ages of 6 and 10.
A Grand Marais husband who caught another man alone with his wife in their home is accused of using a crowbar, knife and gun to force the man to have sex with her. The wife also is charged in the case for allegedly aiding and abetting the sexual assault of the 43-year-old Cook County man.
La-Z-Boy has long been a unique and clever trademark for reclining chairs. The Proctor Police Department will soon find out how valuable that name is. After receiving E-Bay bids topping $43,000 for a "La-Z-Boy'' motorized lounge chair that police confiscated from a man who drove it drunk into a parked vehicle, Proctor Police Chief Walter Wobig said he was notified today that the chair is not a La-Z-Boy and cannot be auctioned as one. The chair, which can reach speeds of 20 mph, was temporarily removed from the E-Bay site.
DULUTH - A once-proud Duluth high school hockey captain shuffled out of a St. Louis County courtroom with his head bowed and tears in his eyes wearing a blue jail jumpsuit, handcuffs and leg irons after being sentenced to almost five years in prison -- the maximum under sentencing guidelines -- for his role in a Congdon Park home invasion. Ian Guzzo, 20, formerly from Two Harbors, was sentenced by Judge Shaun Floerke on Wednesday to 57 months in prison after a St. Louis County jury in June found Guzzo guilty of aiding and abetting first-degree burglary.
DULUTH - Staff Sgt. Adam Sheda made it home a little over a week ago after an 18-month tour of duty with the Army National Guard in Iraq. His family could breathe a sigh of relief that a military death notification team never appeared at their door bearing bad news from the Middle East. That's what makes Duluth's first homicide of 2007 even sadder to Sgt.