REGIONAL BRIEFS: A&E shooting footage on local 1997 murder

Talk about it

From the Forum Communications News Bureau

MINNESOTA

Concordia Christmas tickets on sale Oct. 30

MOORHEAD, Minn. – Tickets for the annual Concordia College Christmas concert, “All Are Welcome,” go on sale at 9 a.m. Oct. 30.

The Memorial Auditorium box office on the Concordia campus is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Tickets are $13 each. Online, telephone and mail order ticket purchases require a $2 handling charge per ticket. Tickets for groups of 20 or more receive a 25 percent discount.

Mail orders should be addressed to Christmas Concert Tickets, Concordia College, 901 8th St. S., Moorhead, Minn. 56562.

The Moorhead concerts will be held in Memorial Auditorium on the Concordia campus at 7 p.m. Dec. 7; 2 and 7 p.m. Dec. 8; and 2 p.m. Dec. 9.

The Minneapolis concerts will be held at the Minneapolis Convention Center at 6 and 8:30 p.m. Nov. 29.

For more information on the Moorhead concerts or to purchase tickets visit www.ConcordiaChristmas.com or call (888) 477-0277.

Tickets for the Minneapolis concert can be purchased beginning Oct. 30 at the Orchestra Hall box office by phone at (800) 292-4141 or online at www.MinnesotaOrchestra.org. Ticket prices are $18, $22 and $26 plus handling.

(FF)

WF man given over 3 years for store robbery

MOORHEAD, Minn. – A 19-year-old West Fargo man was sentenced to three years and five months in prison Thursday for using a handgun to rob a Moorhead convenience store.

In a trial earlier this year in Clay County District Court, Brandon Mitchell Sherman was convicted of felony aggravated robbery for robbing the Stop-N-Go at 1702 30th Ave. S in Moorhead on Feb. 15.

Sherman was also ordered to pay $245 restitution to the convenience store and was credited with 231 days of jail time already served.

Police say he entered the store just after midnight on Feb. 15, showed a handgun to an employee and demanded cash. The employee was not injured.

Sherman was arrested in early March. He was identified based on a video that showed him wearing a Fargo North wrestling shirt from the 2009-10 season. He was on North’s wrestling team that season.

(FF)

Two teens arrested for cab driver robbery

DULUTH, Minn. – Police have arrested two suspects in connection with a weekend robbery of a cab driver.

Duluth police investigators located and arrested a male suspect 17 years old in the 4400 block of West Fourth Street at 8:39 a.m. Wednesday. He is being held at the Arrowhead Juvenile Center pending formal charges of first-degree aggravated robbery and second-degree assault.

Investigators located the second male suspect, 18 years old, in the 100 block of West First Street. He is being held in the Saint Louis County Jail pending formal charges of first-degree aggravated robbery and second-degree assault.

(DNT)

Minot woman charged in crash injuring two

MOORHEAD, Minn. – An arrest warrant has been issued for a Minot, N.D., woman who faces felony charges for allegedly causing a fiery crash on Highway 75 north of Moorhead last week that injured an elderly couple and herself.

According to a complaint filed with the charges, the driver was taking shots of banana schnapps before the high-speed crash and does not recall what happened.

Brianna Eileen Pallotta, 25, was charged Wednesday in Clay County District Court with two felony counts of DWI and one felony count and one misdemeanor count of criminal vehicular operation.

The Minnesota State Patrol said Pallotta was driving southbound on Highway 75 at about 9:30 p.m. Oct. 9 when she tried to pass another vehicle and struck an oncoming car head-on.

The driver of the other car, Nolan Underlee, 83, and his wife, Doris Underlee, 79, of Hendrum, were taken to Sanford Medical Center in critical condition.

(FF)

A&E shooting footage on local 1997 murder

MOORHEAD, Minn. – A production company is in Moorhead to shoot footage for a show that will focus on a local murder case in which a husband and wife were convicted of killing their baby sitter.

Clay County Sheriff Bill Bergquist said crews from the A&E cable TV channel will film at a number of spots in the area, including one scene that will attempt to recreate the murder of AnneMarie Camp, whose body was found in May 1997 at an abandoned farm near Sabin.

Michael Gianakos is serving a life sentence for the shotgun death of Camp, who worked as a baby sitter for Gianakos and his wife, Jamie Dennis-Gianakos.

Dennis-Gianakos pleaded guilty in state court to involvement in Camp’s death and is serving a 25-year sentence.

Gianakos has maintained he is innocent.

(FF)

Condition of woman hurt in crash improves

GLYNDON, Minn. – The medical condition of the 57-year-old minivan driver who was injured in a two-vehicle accident Wednesday near here has improved, according to a Sanford Health spokeswoman.

Susan Ekre was listed in critical condition Wednesday night following the accident, but she has since been upgraded to serious.

Officials say the accident occurred when Ekre failed to yield at the crossroad of Minnesota Highway 9 and Clay County Road 26 at 11:49 a.m. Wednesday about 20 miles northeast of Moorhead and her minivan collided with a pickup truck.

Oscar J. Green, a passenger in the pickup, was ejected and killed in the accident, officials say. His wife, Diane F. Green, was driving the pickup. She was taken to Sanford, but her condition is not available.

NORTH DAKOTA

Dispatchers: AT&T Mobile can’t dial 911 in Grand Forks County

GRANDS FORKS, N.D. – AT&T Mobile customers may have trouble dialing 911 in Grand Forks County, the county emergency dispatch center said Thursday afternoon.

The center added that it has been in contact with AT&T to help end the service disruption.

Ecolab to close in Grand Forks by end of July

GRAND FORKS, N.D. –Ecolab announced Thursday that it would close its Grand Forks facility, ending most of its 144 full-time positions here.

The facility will operate until the end of July, according to the company. Its employees in Grand Forks perform office support, accounting, customer service, human resources and other duties.

Layoffs will begin as soon as January and happen in rounds depending on Ecolab’s business needs, said spokesman Roman Blahoski. He did not give more specific details of the timing, size or number of rounds of layoffs between now and the final shutdown of the location.

Some employees will be able to continue their jobs from home and others will be able to take jobs at other Ecolab locations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois or Indiana.

The move is the second major layoff in Grand Forks within a month, following the elimination of about 345 jobs announced by wind blade manufacturer LM Wind Power on Sept. 26.

Two masked men rob bank in New England

NEW ENGLAND, N.D. – Hettinger County Chief Deputy Josh Monson said two men in dark ski masks robbed an American Bank Center teller at gunpoint here Thursday morning.

The men got away with an undisclosed amount of money after the robbery at 8:20 a.m., Monson said.

No one was hurt.

Monson said there are no leads as to their whereabouts.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Hettinger County Sheriff’s Office at 701-824-2935

(DP)

Tags: crime, minnesota, accidents