What follows below is a part of a long email that I wrote to Ron Taggart of the Public Defender's office, in July 2013, as a partial explanation of why I think the Sheriff's Department refused to DNA-test Tom Hinze (pictured left), to do any physical checks on the Nissan car that Tom had every opportunity to "borrow" the night of the murder, to even bother to ask me the location of the trailer where Tom had burned clothing in the week of the murder, or to interrogate him on my allegations that he had threatened my life.
The "powers that be" in St. Louis County have more than once violated the law themselves in egregious ways besides the refusal to investigate evidence -- especially in a terrifying "drug bust" on my property in 1998, where they didn't even come with a warrant, but nevertheless entered my house with guns drawn ... (to be continued in the narrative below).
There was a $100,000 reward offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer of Trina Langenbrunner. If I had received that reward for that information, I may well have used it to get a lawyer and sue the "good old boys" who'd put me out of business as a farmer, and terrified my family at gunpoint for several hours in July of 1998.
The narrative follows below, as I originally sent it to Ron Taggart on July 17, 2013 (strangely, just a few days before Joseph Couture "confessed" to the murder of Trina Langenbrunner -- with no evidence or testimony ever having been presented to a jury).
Between 1997 and 2000, I first became aware of forced drugging being done to mental patients in the County, in many many cases, to kids. In fall 1997, I wrote a letter which was printed (after being edited) by the Duluth News Tribune, about a case I had witnessed, where a young person had been "diagnosed" and drugged against her will. Then she was committed by the St. Louis County Justice System to a Cloquet facility designed for adults. Here, besides being forcibly drugged, she also witnessed the suicide of another desperate patient, was sexually molested (while a minor) by an adult female counselor, and was being strongly "encouraged" to undergo electro-shock treatment to "erase bad memories".
With the help of friends, including myself, she managed to extricate herself (at first, temporarily, then permanently) from this county-backed system of forced drugging and mistreatment. She is now in her 30's. The last I have heard, she is employed full-time and doing fine, without being drugged.
Unfortunately, the Lake Superior Drug Task Force (which I'll refer to from now on as "the Task Force"), including members Mr. Dennin Bauers and Ms. Sally Burns, put 2 and 2 together, and came up with 7. I was/am vociferously and actively against the kind of psychological and pharmaceutical abuse I described above ... so the Task Force kind of jumped to the conclusion that I must have been growing marijuana on my farm and selling it to young people.
On Thursday morning, July 16, 1998, about 10 members of the Task Force came out to my farm on the Birch Point Road, armed with guns, but with no search warrant.
I wasn't home when the Task Force arrived, but was on the road picking up the 14-year-old son of a friend, as he was going to help me weed carrots that day.
Ms. Sally Burns was the only female member of the Task Force there that day. I drove into my yard just in time to see Ms. Burns acting as "point person" for the home entry.She was crouched down to the right of the (unlocked) front door of my house, with her gun drawn, reaching out in front of her with her other hand, knocking sharply on the door.
At the same moment, another officer stepped up to the driver's door of my truck and demanded I sign a paper he shoved at me, giving my permission for the Task Force to search my house and property for marijuana.
I asked if they had a warrant. He said they didn't need one, that I should just sign where he pointed. About that instant, I saw Ms. Sally Burns going into my house with her gun drawn. I hollered, "If you don't have a warrant, get the hell out of my house!!"
"No need to swear!" the officer told me in a warning voice, as the Task Force members were standing around my yard with guns, but no warrant -- and one of them was going with her gun drawn into my house, where my son, daughter and son-in-law were still sleeping.
I will attempt to shorten a very, very long story ... the Task Force held the 4 of us in the hot sun for about 3 hours, while a couple of them went to Duluth to get a warrant. They wouldn't allow us to go inside my own house to eat, answer the phone, use the bathroom, or even for a drink of water.
While we sweltered in the hot sun, a couple more of the Task Force made a run to the Twig Store for cold drinks and snacks for their group, which they enjoyed in front of us. I remember Mr. Dennin Bauers especially, enjoying a cold soda in an unmarked government 8-cylinder SUV parked on my lawn. He reclined back in the seat, with his feet up on the dashboard, the air-conditioning turned on, and the motor running.
I had agreed to pay 2 people to help me weed carrots that day, and had to send them home. One of them had taken the day off from his other job, so I had to pay him for work not done. The 14-year-old boy (who was big for his age) told me later that he was spoken to rudely and treated as a criminal or gang member, because he had no I.D. When the Task Force ascertained that he really was 14 (by calling his mother who was unavailable to come and pick him up), a uniformed Sheriff's Deputy gave him a ride home in a marked Sheriff's squad car. That Deputy was Mr. Ross Litman, by the way, before he was elected Sheriff. According to the boy's account (which I heard second-hand from his outraged mother), Mr. Litman had driven north on the Munger Shaw Road, known for curves and deer-crossings, at speeds up to 85 m.p.h.
Later, the team which had gone to Duluth returned with their belated search warrant. Some of the Task Force went into my house (and left quite a mess), while others went out into the garden and woods. A couple of them stayed to guard the 4 of us.
About that time, Tom Hinze (on his way home to his parents' place farther down the Birch Point Road where he lived in a camping trailer at the time) drove into my yard, right into the middle of everything. I tried to wave him off, as I knew he had no driver's license, and suspected (rightly) that he was stinking drunk. Dennin Bauers asked his name. "My name's Tom," he answered loudly. Dennin Bauers asked his last name. Tom replied with a grin, "That's none of your damned business!"
Ms. Sally Burns then answered, "We've got ways to find out your last name, Tom," and she crouched down in front of the car with her notepad out and started to write down the license number.
Tom grinned again, "That ain't gonna help you none. The car's not in my name! My dad taught me never to put a car into my own name." Then he told them that his dad had been a cop, the former Sheriff of Red Lake County.
The Task Force agreed with Tom that his dad had given him sensible advice, but then Dennin Bauers told him that he should leave, now. They allowed him to leave in his car, though he was obviously in no condition to be driving.
Not long after that, the Task Force members came in from the woods, and said they hadn't found any marijuana. Then they left, with no apologies. I distinctly remember Sally Burns tell me that they had seen some pictures upstairs upstairs in my house that looked like people smoking marijuana. "You have to be careful, Lloyd," she warned me.
Later, Tom Hinze and I talked about this. I marveled that the Task Force had let him go, as drunk as he was, without calling a uniformed deputy to arrest him for DWI.
"They like me," Tom said, with his characteristic quick laugh.
I vociferously, loudly, and publicly related and protested the illegal and terrifying actions of the Task Force that day, and I wrote letters about it, as well. My biggest fear at the time was that they could so easily frame me -- I owned 40 acres, and there was no possible way I could patrol 40 acres every night. They may have liked Tom Hinze, but I knew that they didn't like me. (*Please ask Sheriff Litman to confirm*.)
Cops, everywhere just doing their damnedest to help nurture, protect snd promote a free and democratic society. Just gotta love 'em for their zeal and dedication!
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