Two boys - 14 and 9 - arrested in Minneapolis arson case

Police have arrested two boys, one 14 and the other 9, in connection with an arson fire that destroyed two vacant houses Tuesday evening in northeast Minneapolis.

Investigator Sean McKenna said the older boy was booked into the Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center and the 9-year-old was released to the custody of his parents.

By state law, children under age 10 can't be charged with a crime.

The boys used "ordinary combustibles" to start the fire in a vacant house at 905 18 1/2 Av. NE., McKenna said. The blaze, reported at 7:20 p.m., quickly spread to an adjacent house.

Both houses, which were more than 100 years old, had been vacant for at least six months, but the 14-year-old once lived at the house where the fire started.

"He was familiar with the property," McKenna said. "This was child's play."

The fire was the 15th this year at a boarded-up or vacant house in Minneapolis. That compares with 38 reported in all of 2007 and 60 in 2006.

The houses at 901 and 905 18 1/2 Av. NE., currently owned by the Northeast Community Development Corp., will have to be torn down, McKenna said.

TIM HARLOW

Boating accident victim was from Illinois Authorities have identified an Illinois man who died Tuesday in a boating accident on Jeanette Lake in northern Minnesota.

Dennis Ronald Nykiel, 55, of Park City, Ill., died when the boat he was riding in apparently hit a rock and he was ejected. He was pulled from the water, but resuscitation efforts failed. Nykiel was wearing a life jacket when the accident happened around 6:20 p.m., according to the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office.

The boat's driver, Raymond Charles Schmidt, Jr., 56, of Medina, Ill, was not injured.

TIM HARLOW

Park Rapids woman charged in shooting Two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree assault and one count of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon.

Stephanie Ann Wehmas, 20, of Park Rapids, Minn., was arraigned Wednesday on those five charges in Hubbard County District Court. She is accused of shooting two men and taking aim at a state trooper early Monday, said Hubbard County Sheriff Gary Mills.

According to Mills, Wehmas used a .22-caliber rifle to shoot two men inside a residence, then fled in a vehicle. Wehmas allegedly fired one shot out of the rear window of her car when a state trooper pulled her over.

It took six officers from three agencies to take Wehmans into custody. Officers also recovered two guns, Mills said.

Wehmas is being held in the Hubbard County jail on $1 million bail.

TIM HARLOW

Dad killed, girl hurt in crash near Northfield A minivan ran head-on into a semitrailer truck west of Northfield on Wednesday, killing the van's driver and severely injuring his 6-year-old daughter, authorities said.

The collision occurred shortly before 2 p.m. Wednesday on Hwy. 19, west of Interstate 35, the State Patrol said.

Killed was Jorge D. Gomez, 32, of Northfield, the driver of the van. His daughter, Jennifer, was in critical condition at Hennepin County Medical Center.

The truck driver, Mark Piontek, 44, of Wright, Minn., was slightly hurt.

PAUL WALSH

Mazeppa woman faces embezzlement sentence A woman from Mazeppa, Minn., will face a penalty of up to 10 years in prison when she is sentenced for embezzling thousands of dollars from her employer.

Wanda Jane Schafer, 54, pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to misappropriating $259,000 over a four-year period while working for an insurance company in Lake City, Minn., the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

She will be sentenced on one count of insurance fraud at a later date, the U.S. Attorney said.

TIM HARLOW

Baby sitter's husband charged with sex abuse The husband of a St. Cloud day care provider sexually abused and photographed a 4-year-old girl who attended the in-home service, according to charges filed in federal court.

The charges, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, also allege that photos seized at the home of Dennis M. Lemke show him not only engaging in "sexually explicit conduct" with the 4-year-old but with two other prepubescent girls as well.

Lemke, 42, is charged with producing sexually explicit material of minors and sending that material to other states and overseas.

He was arrested Wednesday after a traffic stop in St. Cloud, the FBI said, adding that Lemke's current address is in Sartell.

According to the federal charges, the abuse was reported to police in October 2006, when the girl told her mother that about two years earlier Lemke had inappropriately touched her under her clothing when she was attending day care provided by Lemke's wife.

An FBI search of the home uncovered "an extremely large number of digital images ... most of which are sexually explicit images of children." Also retrieved was a digital movie of Lemke sexually abusing a prepubescent girl.

The home day care is no longer in operation.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Janie S. Mayeron ordered him temporarily detained pending a hearing today.

PAUL WALSH

Capt. Rick Mathwig said Thursday that his department is working in concert with authorities in Mounds View and New Brighton to draw up charges against the suspect that he hopes to present to the Ramsey County attorney on Friday.

In a crime alert issued last month, police said the suspect, who is from Fridley, had approached middle school- or junior high-aged girls while in a vehicle and asked for directions. Then he exposed himself and drove off.

The first incidents were reported in February in the northwestern section of the city. In total, the man is suspected in three cases in Roseville and at least one each in Mounds View and New Brighton.