By Dan Nienaber
Free Press Staff Writer
MANKATO
July 02, 2009 12:30 am
—
After admitting to a string of burglaries that added up to thousands of dollars in losses for several Mankato area businesses, Jared Richard Attig was facing time in prison.
He cut a deal instead. On June 15, the day Attig reached a plea deal for 10 different crimes spanning from February through April, he was released from jail after spending about two months there. All 21-year-old Attig had to do to remain free was stay out of trouble, stay away from his criminal cohorts and show up for his sentencing July 29.
Eleven days later, he was behind bars again, this time in Iowa.
Police Chief Pat Conroy of Buffalo Center, Iowa, said he caught Attig and Tyler Thomas Clayton, also 21, lurking behind businesses in an alley there. Conroy arrested the men after they allegedly dropped a knapsack with a stolen drill inside.
Then Conroy, who said he had been watching the pair for several days, got a search warrant for Clayton’s house in Buffalo Center. Evidence linking Clayton to at least three other Iowa burglaries was found, Conroy said.
Several warrants for Clayton’s arrest also were issued Monday in Blue Earth County because he had been linked to the February burglary spree that had landed Attig in jail. Clayton was one of the people Attig had been specifically told to stay away from during his plea hearing before Blue Earth County District Court Judge Norbert Smith.
Attig’s trip to Iowa will likely nullify his plea deal, said Chris Rovney, assistant Blue Earth County attorney.
“I don’t feel we’re compelled to honor that plea agreement because he didn’t follow the conditions,” Rovney said.
He said one of the reasons for cutting a plea deal in the first place was the hope that Attig would get a job and start paying restitution to his victims. That’s not the focus now.
“They’re basically like a horde of grasshoppers going across the country ripping people off,” Rovney said. “That’s one of the hard things about these cases. They keep breaking the law and breaking the law.
“You want to get them on probation so you have a thumb on them, so they can pay their victims back. They can’t pay anyone back making $5 a day in prison, if they even make that much.”
Attig’s case is an example of what some victims see as a judicial system that doesn’t break the cycle of crime. Their businesses are broken into, law enforcement is called, arrests are made, and the suspects appear in court. A short time later, some say, the crooks are out again and their crimes continue.
Victim frustrations
Dean Hewitt, co-owner of Northtown Auto in Mankato and St. Clair, said he was surprised to hear Attig was out of jail and had been arrested again for burglary. Attig told Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Department deputies that he and Clayton broke into Hewitt’s building in St. Clair on Feb. 11.
Some of the windows in two pickups and a car were smashed, overhead lights were broken, tools and a computer were stolen, and a torch from the shop was used to cut open a pop machine. Attig and Clayton were later identified as the people selling tools taken from the business at a Mankato pawn shop.
“I looked at the report and all the stuff they did, all the damage that was done, and I thought they’d be in jail for awhile,” Hewitt said. “I thought months or longer.”
Attig also admitted to breaking into the Palmer Bus building in St. Clair on Feb. 2, the Peak Performance building south of Mankato off Highway 169 on Feb. 16, and Keepers RV Center south of Mankato off Highway 22 on Feb. 24 and Feb. 26.
A total of $23,519 in damage was done at Palmer Bus, where tools, a computer and a .22-caliber rifle were stolen. Three all-terrain vehicles, with a total value of $10,500, were taken from Peak Performance after a chained fence was cut open.
About 10 campers were broken into at Keepers RV Center on Feb. 24 and five more campers were broken into Feb. 26. Small digital televisions had been stolen from the campers, which were also damaged when the locked doors were yanked open, according to the criminal complaints.
Attig told investigators that Curtis Kramer, 20, of Mankato, also was involved in the Keepers break-in.
“The deputies are really doing an excellent job,” said Lisa May, owner of Keepers. “They really had to do some investigating to catch these guys in the first place. I’m sure the justice system is overworked and underpaid, but it’s frustrating that they’re out of jail.”
May said she does understand Rovney’s philosophy about restitution. Her business and its insurer lost several thousand dollars that she wouldn’t mind recovering, and no one wants to see a young person go to prison, she said.
“It’s a Catch 22,” May said. “I’d like to see them locked up, but I’d like to see them become productive citizens, too. Maybe we need to do more with the rehabilitation process. I was surprised, number one, that they were even out and, number two, I was surprised they were back in trouble again.”
Endless job
Arrests and charges for the crime spree involving Attig came together after he, Kramer and another man, 23-year-old Paul Jasper Frantum of St. Clair, were arrested around 6 a.m. April 14. Deputies responding to a report of a go-cart crash south of Mankato found a stolen pickup, two car stereos with wires that had been recently cut and other items. A car reported stolen for Nobles County also was recovered.
It was one of several times each of the three men had been arrested by law enforcement officers in southern Minnesota, said Mike Maurer, Blue Earth County chief deputy. He said there’s not much deputies can do with suspected criminals once they’re arrested and the evidence has been collected.
“We simply arrest them and put them through the judicial system,” Maurer said. “That’s what we do.”
He said he hears complaints from both sides. Some people think the judicial system is too harsh, locking people up for longer than they need to be. Others say convicted criminals should do more jail or prison time.
“We can’t change the system, we just charge the crime,” Maurer said. “Any system you work with, sometimes you have frustrations.
“There’s a big push to get people to become productive members of society.”
Law enforcement officers also want to see those who are repeatedly arrested out of the cycle of crime, whether that means they straighten themselves out or go to prison, Maurer added. “We’re just happy not to see them anymore.”
No trial
Rovney said he will fight any attempt by Attig to withdraw his plea now that prison time is going to be requested by prosecutors.
Conroy said both Attig and Clayton are being held in jail for their Minnesota warrants and he expected them both to be released to Blue Earth County authorities soon.
In Attig’s plea agreement, Rovney said he would request a downward departure and no additional jail time during sentencing. He said it’s unlikely Smith will allow Attig to withdraw the plea and go to trial if prison is requested on July 29.
“The deal was he had to stay out of trouble,” Rovney said. “Hopefully the court won’t let him withdraw the plea. If that happens, I will fight it.”
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