Regarding Comment From "Older Sibling of Sandra Couture"

Thomas J. Hinze

I haven't written anything in this blog as there have been no updates. I have linked to posts on my Facebook and VK page from time to time, and also on Youtube.

Several weeks ago I saw in my email that there had been a comment submitted to the last post, "Coerced Confession - Throwing One Out to Salvage Some Others?"

The comment was from some unnamed person using the pseudonym "Patvan", who claimed that Sandra Couture was his or her "little sister".

I decided not to publish the comment on that last post. I find it worthless, as it contains no proof of anything at all, just more unproven claims from an anonymous person. Instead I've waited until I had time and was in the mood to reply, and to make this new post out of both my reply and the comment. 

The comment as I found it in my email is copied and pasted below, indented. My only reply is to point out that though I have "begged" for comments on my blog, what I made very clear is that what I was asking for was INFORMATION, not just some more comments containing unproven and undocumented claims from some unnamed person claiming to be somebody.

The INFORMATION that I need and am still asking for is before I "owe an apology" to anyone is:

1: What is the address of the cabin that was supposedly burned by Sandra Couture on July 6, 2012? I need this information so I can provide it to the Cloquet Area Fire District, and to the Fire Reporting officials ("Incident Reporting Inspector" and "Investigator") from the Fire Marshal's Office of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, who are responsible for all incidents in both St. Louis and Carlton Counties. None of those agencies have any record of ANY fire occurring in Cloquet on that date, and no fire was reported in any local media the next morning, either.
Also, neither "Jaida Couture" the person who claimed to be the granddaughter of the victim, or "Patvan" the claimed older sibling of the person who he/she claims actually set the fire on that date can find out the address of the place either. There is just no answer at all to that question.
Why not?

2. What size feet does Joseph Couture have? I need this information, as I find it very unlikely that two people in the area of the Trina Langenbrunner murder were wearing size 11 or 12 New Balance shoes the same week of the murder in which size 11 or 12 New Balance shoes were one of the main clues. 
"Jaida Couture" told me that her mother bought Joseph the shoes of that size.
I know for sure that I saw size 11 or 12 New Balance shoes on Tom Hinze's feet the week of the murder, and that they were much bigger than his feet. I knew that the reason he was wearing shoes that were much bigger than his feet was that he had just been released from jail to which he had been admitted barefoot, and had been given a pair of shoes "out of storage" from the jailer who had out-processed him.
I was in correspondence with a retired jailer, Duane Johnson, who very likely could have found out and informed me and the Sheriff's investigators of who had out-processed Tom that night, had he not suddenly died while we were in correspondence.
I did notify the Sheriff's investigators of what I had seen, and that I was prepared to swear to it in a jury trial. However, there never was any jury trial, no sworn witness testimony, nor any forensic data ever presented to a jury. There was ONLY the sudden confession while I was still trying to tell the (uninterested) Public Defender's office that I had seen size 11 or 12 New Balance shoes on Tom Hinze that week, and that Tom also met all the other clues the Sheriff's investigators said they were looking for.
However, both the head of the Forensics Team and the Public Defender's Office informed me that Tom Hinze has never been DNA-tested.
Why not? What kind of "investigators" wouldn't DNA-test somebody who met all the clues? And what kind of Public Defender's office wouldn't care, and wouldn't even inform the person they were supposedly defending of my existence and testimony?

Anyway, that's the end of this post. The comment from the unnamed person who claims that Sandra Couture is his/her "little sister" is below, indented. All the other things mentioned above are in various past posts, if anyone is interested in reading the entire sad and outrageous story of the St. Louis County, Minnesota style of "justice".

[Trina Langenbrunner Case "Solved"?] New comment on Coerced Confessions - Throwing One Out to Salvage ....

Jun 6 at 6:43 AM

PrintRaw message

Patvan <noreply-comment@blogger.com>

To: lewagner2002@yahoo.com

Patvan has left a new comment on your post "Coerced Confessions - Throwing One Out to Salvage ...":

You begged for someone to comment on your blog for years. When Jaida Couture responded you attacked her because her comments didnt agree with what you think happened. You were sarcastic and condescending to her while she was sharing something that was very painful for her and her family. You wont admit that your theory is wrong.
I dont know anything about the Trina Langenbrunner murder but I do know Joseph Couture. I stepped in and stopped him when he was beating Sandra. Ive seen those crazy eyes when he is angry. I believe he could kill.
As for Sandra Couture I know her very well. She is my little sister. Right before she confessed she told me she started the fire and made the phone calls. She made sure nobody was there because she didnt want to hurt anyone. She only meant to burn the vehicle not the cabin.
I hope this will put an end to your insistence that her confession was coerced. Your wrong!!! Please dont email me in response to this comment. I dont care what you have to say.
Also you owe Jaida Couture an appology!

Coerced Confessions - Throwing One Out to Salvage Some Others?

 

Thomas J. Hinze

I haven't written anything new in this blog for well over a year, as there haven't been any new developments worth writing about. I have continued to try to publicize the information as much as possible by posting links here and there to some of the posts.   
The post that has received the most views by far has been "Attempts to Correspond with Steven Hagenah, Pt 2", as this post shows most clearly the absolute and inexplicable REFUSAL of the police investigators to seriously investigate or even DNA-test Tom Hinze, the son of a former (Red Lake County) Sheriff, who met every single "clue" in the murder case that the investigators said they were looking for. 
And the post also shows the attitude of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in the case. None of them cared about sworn testimony or forensic data being presented to a jury in a trial, or that the defendant Joseph Couture had been kept ignorant of my testimony of ANOTHER person meeting the "clues" the investigators claimed they were looking for, or that that other person had never been DNA-tested, despite my repeated pointing out that he met all those clues -- the police and prosecutors had obtained their "confession", and that was enough to convict the defendant, and "solve the case".  
By the way, as I am writing this, I have been doing some searching around the Internet. I have just become aware that Steven Hagenah has passed away, on May 9, 2016. Here is a link to an obituary in which his skill at "pulling confessions" is praised. Well, I suppose that's a useful skill, especially if there's no matching DNA data available in the case. May he rest in peace.
But anyway, but to bring this matter more up to date, back in October 2016, I read the following in the Duluth News Tribune. I'll post a quote to the most pertinent part of the article, here: 

 A judge has thrown out a cold case murder charge against an Iron Range man, ruling that his confession to the 1987 slaying of an elderly Virginia woman was the result of a “highly coercive” interrogation by police.
Bruce Wayne Cameron, 45, is set to be released from the St. Louis County Jail more than 16 months after authorities charged him with intentional second-degree murder in the death of 83-year-old Leona Mary Maslowski.
Sixth Judicial District Judge David Ackerson ruled on Friday that Cameron’s June 2015 statement to investigators — in which he confessed to assaulting Maslowski inside her Virginia apartment — was given involuntarily and in violation of his 14th Amendment right to due process.
“The detectives essentially told the Defendant what they wanted him to say and then led him into saying it,” Ackerson wrote in a 32-page order.
Defense attorneys had argued that the statement was coerced through leading questions and false promises by the investigators.
"We are happy for Mr. Cameron and his family,” Chief Public Defender Dan Lew told the News Tribune. “He's sat in jail for almost a year and a half waiting for this day.”
...............................................
Cameron, who was 16 at the time, had been at a party in the duplex above Maslowski’s apartment the night of her death and had been interviewed by law enforcement multiple times.
The investigation turned to him last spring when he was identified as a possible suspect based on a palm print and fingerprints discovered on a kitchen door in Maslowski’s apartment.
Police said he denied involvement in an April 2015 interview, but offered the confession on June 2, 2015, when confronted with the forensic evidence.
According to court documents, he told investigators that he had entered Maslowski’s apartment, "most likely drunk" and in search of alcohol. He said he was confronted by Maslowski and punched her when he thought she was moving toward the phone. He also said he used an object to hit her in the head and possibly choked her, according to the criminal complaint.
Defense attorneys moved to suppress the statement, arguing that Cameron was led to believe that the forensic technology was enough to implicate him in Maslowski's murder and that confessing was the only way to keep his case in juvenile court — where he would face lighter sanctions — and out of prison.
Despite his age at the time of the incident, the juvenile court lost jurisdiction over Cameron when he turned 21, requiring the matter to be handled in standard court.
Ackerson noted that the BCA agents did “well over 90 percent of the talking” in the interview and that Cameron’s answers were mostly limited to one word or one phrase, citing examples of the agents repeatedly asking Cameron if he had struck Maslowski with various blunt objects.
The judge said Cameron’s version of the events simply did not fit the established facts of Maslowski’s death and criticized the agents for attempting to “lead and steer” him into confessing.
“The only reasonable inference from the extreme leading of the Defendant by the detectives is that the Defendant’s will at that point was entirely overcome, and he was merely trying to say whatever they wanted him to that would get him the benefit of juvenile court treatment and the promise of not going to prison,” Ackerson wrote.
The judge also wrote that a mental health assessment concluded that Cameron suffers from a “mild cognitive impairment” and that he appeared to be “thoroughly intimidated and frightened by the coercive nature of the interrogation.”

Well, to put it mildly, I was amazed, and nearly overcome with the warm, hopeful feeling that yes, there can indeed be justice, in St. Louis County, Minnesota, after all. I mentioned the case in messages to a couple of my Facebook correspondents, with the comment that Mr. Daniel Lew, the Chief Public Defender mentioned, is a Public Defender who actually does his job!
What I did next then, naturally, was to immediately write to Mr. Lew regarding the "confessions" in the Langenbrunner case. I'll just post the email itself ... actually, this is the second email I sent on November 20, as it includes the full text of the first email I sent October 25, which I never got an answer to:

 Dear Mr. Lew,

I sent you this nearly a month ago, and haven't heard anything from you, so I am sending it again.
I am assuming that perhaps the first email was overlooked, or that maybe you needed time to research and consider.
I'll wait for a few more days, then decide how I will proceed.

Thank you,
Lloyd Wagner

--- On Tue, 10/25/16, Lloyd Wagner <lewagner2002@yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Lloyd Wagner <lewagner2002@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Coerced confession in another St. Louis County murder case
> To: dan.lew@pubdef.state.mn.us
> Date: Tuesday, October 25, 2016, 5:44 PM
> Dear Mr. Lew:
> I just read of your success in getting the coerced
> confession of Mr. Cameron suppressed by Judge Ackerson. My
> congratulations.
>
> I am a witness in the Trina Langenbrunner murder case
> (September 2000), and I have maintained for many years that
> my testimony regarding Thomas J. Hinze has been deliberately
> ignored and covered up by investigators from the Sheriff’s
> Department, and by the MBCA.
> 
> Mr. Hinze met every clue the investigators said they were
> looking for, yet the Sheriff’s office absolutely refused
> to take my testimony seriously, or to DNA-test Mr. Hinze.
> The fact that Mr. Hinze was never DNA-tested was confirmed
> to me in 2013 in an email by former investigator for the
> Public Defender’s Office, Mr. Ron Taggart.
>
> In 2012, Mr. Joseph Couture was arrested, and in 2013 he
> also confessed to a murder I say he could not have done. He
> was convicted solely on the basis of his confession. No
> sworn testimony or forensic evidence was ever presented to a
> jury.
>
> Not only was Mr. Couture framed and induced to confess to
> the murder, both he and Sandra Couture were also induced to
> confess to a “Cloquet arson fire” of July 6, 2012.
>
> I have checked media reports and also have checked with the
> Cloquet District Fire Chief, and with the Incident
> Investigator and Inspector from the Minnesota Department of
> Public Safety for the Cloquet area (both in St. Louis and
> Carlton Counties).
>
> There is no record in any media of that fire the morning
> after it supposedly occurred, but only reports of it AFTER
> it was supposedly “solved”. None of the gentlemen in
> either the Fire District or the DPS have any record of such
> a fire even having occurred. The claimed grand-daughter of
> the "fire-victim" could not give me an address of the house
> that was supposedly burned, even after several weeks of
> correspondence. (I believe my correspondent was someone else
> posing as the "fire-victim's" grand-daughter, because as I
> say, there are no records of any such fire.) However, both
> Joseph and Sandra are serving 7 years each for this “arson
> fire” they confessed to.
>
> As I could not get my testimony into a courtroom no matter
> how hard I tried, I instead wrote a blog reproducing my
> correspondence with many various people (letters in the
> past, and emails more recently) concerned with this case.
> These are the original text files of beginning in 2003,
> which I have never deleted, and I also have never deleted
> any of the emails.
>
> I will give you a link to the first post in the blog, and
> ask you to please consider looking at it. I will also attach
> a screenshot of a list of all the posts, so you can get a
> quick overview of the number and variety of people I have
> contacted regarding this case. http://formerlyfarmerly.blogspot.com/2014/09/introduction.html
> 
> Thank you very much.
>
> Best Regards,
> Lloyd Wagner

And here is the screenshot of the list of all the posts in this blog, that I also sent to Mr. Lew:

 Then, after waiting over 2 more weeks without any response from Mr. Lew, I sent him this email, on December 7, 2016:

 Dear Mr. Lew,
I've decided I'm going to resume posting on my blog regarding the Trina Langenbrunner murder cover-up and framing, plus the related matter of the concocted-out-of-thin-air "arson fire" of July 6, 2012.
What I plan to do within the next few days, is to post a completely new blog post, which will consist mainly of the email that I wrote and sent twice to you. I also plan to add comments to that, to compare the Cameron induced confession (as reported in the Duluth News Tribune) with the Couture framing, and to point out how the two cases are different.
The behavior of the police, prosecutors, and Public Defender's Office in the Couture case was much MORE egregious than in the Cameron case, and it is glaringly obvious, and yet I can't even get a comment from you.
Anyway, I will not bother you again, but I just thought I would let you know what I am going to do, in case you do want to make a comment before I post that.
Sincerely,
Lloyd Wagner    

Well, I said above that I wouldn't bother Mr. Lew again, but then I reconsidered. The reason I reconsidered is because after I had written the above email, I watched the entire Netflix series of "Making a Murderer". 
Something that caught my attention in that very interesting 10-part (so far) series about that Manitowoc County, Wisconsin murder case, was someone's pointing out that challenging an obviously coerced confession in some murder cases is tantamount to accusing the police and prosecutors of deliberate misconduct. (!)
This is especially true in a case like the Trina Langenbrunner murder, where repeated witness testimony was ignored for years, the life of the witness (myself) was threatened, and a DNA test of the person who I repeatedly said met all the investigators' "clues" was never taken. 
And besides that, an "arson fire" was concocted completely out of thin air -- as described briefly in the first email above, and written about in more detail HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE -- and two people, Joseph and Sandra Couture, were also induced to "confess" to that fire that never even happened. The two were sentenced to 7 years in prison each for that, as well, and ordered to pay restitution, besides, of nearly $35,000 each ... well, in such an egregious matter, it's understandable that even a Chief Public Defender might be hesitant to buck the obviously stinking (not to say criminal) corruption in the County.
So, upon reflection of the above, I wrote one more email to Mr. Lew, on December 16, 2016, as follows:  

 Dear Mr. Lew,
I have been reflecting further on that Cameron case, and Mr. Cameron's induced confession being thrown out by the Judge. That's something I have never heard of happening before, at least in St. Louis County.
I look at it in two ways. In one way, it gives the public the heart-warming impression that justice eventually does prevail, in St. Louis County cases. In another way, it almost seems as though they arrested him, knowing ahead of time that his induced "confession" would be thrown out -- to give the public the heart-warming impression that justice eventually does prevail, in St. Louis County cases.
That case shows only minor malfeasance on the part of the investigators and interrogators. They were just a little over-zealous, I suppose. The case is still open.
But in the Couture case, the malfeasance was much worse. Actual crimes were committed by certain people in law enforcement, in covering up testimony and evidence, in manufacturing new "evidence", and even in concocting a new crime for a framing. I won't go through it again, as I have already explained it to you in brief, and offered my blog with all of its documentation.
As you were not in your present position at the time all of that malfeasance was occurring, it is probably not fair to drag you into it, or to diss you in my blog, as though you were a part of it. Getting an over-zealously obtained confession thrown out by a Judge is entirely of a different order than pointing out actual conspiracies and crimes committed by people in high positions of law enforcement ... not even to mention the obviously coerced false confessions.
However, please reflect on the fact that the Coutures have effectively had NO defense, except from myself. I am just a witness who happened to see something, and who refuses to accept the Sheriff's telling me that I did not see what I saw. So, I just keep on telling people what I saw, and I keep on digging into why the Sheriff was so determined NOT to DNA-test the man who I said (and the Sheriff also damned-well knew) met every clue the investigators said they were looking for.
I am a former bankrupted vegetable farmer who had dirt under my fingernails and grease on my jeans, and who is now an English professor at a University, living in a rented apartment in Thailand. I certainly cannot afford to hire a lawyer.
So, I have written to you, the Chief Public Defender, in St. Louis County. It seems to me that you are at least in as good a position as I am, to speak out about this case of injustice.
I also realize that if you do speak out, they will do their very best to discredit and destroy you, as they have done to me. However, I am not destroyed, and my conscience is clean in the matter. I've done the best I could.
I am not sure whether or not I will continue adding to the blog, or exactly what I will do. I will continue to speak out about it, as widely as I can. You do what you feel you have to do. I would appreciate your help, or even your advice.
Sincerely,

Lloyd Wagner 

Well, to make a long story a little shorter, I got no response from Mr. Lew. 
Probably completely unrelated to my emails to Mr. Lew, I did notice in Blogger Statistics within the past couple of weeks that there were 5 views of THIS POST, all in one day. That's over 1/5 of the total number of views that post has received over the past 2 years since I published it. That post is the record of my correspondence regarding one important facet of the case with retired jailer, Duane Johnson, who suddenly died, at about the age of 60, in 2014.
If that has anything to do with anything, only God knows, and I can only speculate. I asked a couple of mutual friends who knew Duane much better than I did, if Duane had ever mentioned anything about our correspondence to them. I got absolutely no reply. So I don't know. It did interest me that there were 5 views of that one post, in one day.
On my testimony, however, and on my research, and on my correspondence on this case, I provide ample links and documentation to back it up. I have it all backed up by screenshots, as well, and not only on my own computer.
All the Sheriff's Department and MBCA would have had to do to prove me a liar, would have been to DNA-test Mr. Hinze and prove him innocent (if they actually thought he was) -- but they refused to do that. Instead they released Mr. Hinze without ever DNA-ing him, and years later came up with a "confession" from Mr. Couture to "solve" the case.  Mr. Couture confessed to the same things I had repeatedly described about Mr. Hinze's actions the week of the murder, wore the same size 11 or 12 New Balance shoes (though no one will tell me what size feet he has) -- and the van he supposedly owned even ended up to be the same exact color as the car I described: charcoal gray. What a bunch of incredible coincidences, eh??
And then suddenly, an oh-so-easy overturning of a coerced confession by a St. Louis County judge, something I've never EVER heard of before -- and during the same time-frame of the world-wide exposure of the very similar coerced confession in the "Making a Murderer" case, on Netflix.
Hence, this blog post. 
Thanks for reading, and please share. 
 

 

Two Sheriffs Don't Care to Comment

Tom Hinze

 In my last post I included the text of the email I sent both to Sheriff Ross Litman (St. Louis County, MN), and to Sheriff Kelly Lake (Carlton County, MN), asking about the strange Cloquet "arson fire" of July 6, 2012. 
Actually, the last post included the text of the FIRST email I sent to both Sheriffs, on May 22, 2015. As I didn't receive any answer whatsoever, I re-sent the same email to both individuals on the first of June.
As of June 15, I've still received no answer from either of them, and I guess I can safely assume that I won't.
I've therefore sent the following email to two Fire Reporting officials from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, namely, Mr. Scott Radke, who is listed on the DPS website as "Incident Reporting Inspector", and Mr. Richard Sellman, who is listed as "Investigator".
You may notice that the latter part of the email below is just a copy and paste of the same old email I wrote to the two Sheriffs. I'm getting a little tired of trying to put the same simple questions into new words!
I've already received an automated reply from Mr. Radke, as follows: 

Out of the Office - Returning Monday 6/22, Response maybe delayed

-Thanks Scott Radke

Hopefully, Mr. Sellman will be able to give us some information before next week, but if not, we'll just have to wait for Mr. Radke to return. 
It's damned funny that neither of the Sheriffs would know anything about this matter, though, eh? Duluth Police Chief Gordon Ramsay let me know that the Langenbrunner murder was not a Duluth case, and so he doesn't know anything about it ... It WAS a St. Louis County case, though -- I distinctly remember Sheriff Litman giving a press conference proudly announcing the "solving" of it.
Below is the correspondence I sent earlier today to the State Fire Marshal's investigator and inspector at the Minnesota Department of Public Safety:
 Lloyd Wagner

To

scott.radke@state.mn.us richard.sellman@state.mn.us

 

To: Scott Radke, Incident Reporting Inspector, and Richard Sellman, Investigator -- Minnesota Department of Public Safety

Dear Sirs:

I am writing regarding a July 6 "arson fire" that was first reported in the local Duluth/Cloquet media on or about August 1, 2012, at the time of the arrest of Sandra Couture for having set that fire (which had not yet in over 3 weeks, been reported in any media).

Sandra Couture was accused by St. Louis County investigators of having set the fire in order to intimidate or "tamper with" an unnamed witness in the Trina Langenbrunner murder case. Joseph Couture was already in jail, having been arrested in June 2012, and accused of committing the murder back in 2000.

(A little background information about myself: I am a witness in that murder case, whose testimony relating to someone ELSE having committed the murder has been repeatedly ignored by investigators. I firmly believe that the Coutures were "framed" by manufactured evidence that ALSO never made its way into a courtroom -- as the Coutures both suddenly "confessed", and no trial ever took place. For that reason I've started a blog to relate my testimony that I have not been able to get into a courtroom. I'll link the blog below.)

Both Sandra and Joseph Couture eventually confessed to this July 6, 2012 "Cloquet arson fire". Sandra confessed to having set it, and Joseph confessed to having told Sandra to set it. Both were convicted of "witness tampering" and received lengthy prison sentences in connection with this "arson fire".

Several things about the handling of the reporting of this "arson fire" have raised questions in my mind. I have already written to Mr. Kevin Shroeder, Fire Chief of the Cloquet Area Fire District, who confirmed to me what I already suspected: no fire took place on that date in the CAFD, at all.

I've also written both to Sheriff Ross Litman of St. Louis County, and to Sheriff Kelly Lake, of Carlton County, to (1) try to "nail down" the location of that fire, (2) to determine which entity investigated it and determined it was indeed an "arson fire", and (3) to determine which County reported that "arson fire" as an "incendiary fire" statistic to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety for the year 2012.

However, neither of the two Sheriffs have made any response whatsoever to my inquiry. I sent the same email twice, in fact, on May 22, 2015, and on June 1, 2015, and have STILL received no response whatsoever.

I will simply paste the text of those repeated emails below, indented, in quotation marks, and ask for your response to those same questions, which I will report in a future post in my blog. I will include this email in today's blog post, as I have already included the emails to Mr. Shroeder and his reply in the last blog post. Thank you kindly for your responses in this matter.

Sincerely,

Lloyd Wagner

"Dear Sheriff Litman and Sheriff Lake:

I thought it would be easier to send the same email to both of you.

I have some questions about the arson fire reported in the media as having occurred in Cloquet on July 6, 2012, (the one that was confessed to by Sandra and Joseph Couture in St. Louis County Court, as a tampering with unnamed witnesses in the Trina Langenbrunner murder case.)

I noticed a few things about this reported fire that raised questions in my mind, and I ask for your response:

1. It was the first fire I can ever remember that was not reported anywhere in the media the very next morning after it happened, but was only reported a couple of weeks later -- AFTER it had been solved by St. Louis County investigators (based on their having broken a code used in the jail between Sandra and Joseph Couture). 

2. It was reported that the fire was responded to by "Carlton County deputies", but when I looked up fire statistics for incendiary fires in Carlton County for 2012, the total damage reported for seven incidents was $8,600. This despite the fact that the one fire in question had reportedly destroyed a house, plus two vehicles, plus two dogs (who left no skeletons, but were "missing and presumed dead" in the fire).

3. I recently wrote to Mr. Kevin Shroeder, Fire Chief of the Cloquet Area Fire District, who told me that according to his records, no fire took place in that district on that date, nor on July 19, when Molotov cocktails were also reported to have been thrown at the same address, (and also responded to by Carlton County deputies). Mr. Shroeder pointed out that there are some addresses in St. Louis County that do have Cloquet addresses, and also some Cloquet addresses in Carlton County that are out of the Cloquet Area Fire District.

     A. If the fire was indeed in Carlton County, but out of the Cloquet Area Fire District, then it seems it should have shown up in the Carlton County report as an incendiary fire in 2012.

     B. If the fire actually took place in St. Louis County, then it seems it should have been responded to by some St. Louis County fire department, instead of by "Carlton County deputies", as reported.

5. Why would the address of the fire be kept secret from the public? In fear that the Coutures might find out? That of course makes no sense, because if they really did burn a house, they must have known where it was. (!)

6. Which entity initially investigated and made the official determination that the July 6, 2012 fire was an arson fire?

7. Was this fire reported to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety as a St. Louis County fire statistic for July 6, 2012, or as a Carlton County fire statistic? How about the Molotov cocktails that were thrown on July 19, 2012? Why can't I find either of these fires in any Northland news reports anywhere, until in August 2012?

Sheriff Litman may recall that I have repeatedly offered testimony regarding a certain person who met every criteria the Sheriff's Department said they were looking for in the case, since 2001. My testimony has been ignored, and I have even been called a liar in this case, without any DNA data ever being presented to attempt to PROVE me a liar. St. Louis County investigators refused to DNA test the person I pointed at, or to investigate other forensic information I pointed at. Instead, they let the guy know that I was talking about him, which caused him to threaten MY life. Then he was given a very short sentence in NERCC (just across the road from where I used to live) for his umpteenth DWI, and released right back into the rural wooded neighborhood, despite my complaints he had threatened my life.

I've repeatedly attempted to get my testimony into the official record and in front of a jury, and have not been able to do so. For that reason, I started a blog several months ago, to relate that testimony and to present the text of all letters and other communications I have regarding the case.

This email will appear as part of the next post in that blog, and any reply (or lack of reply) I receive to it will be subsequently reported, as well.

Here are the blog links that relate most directly to that reported fire of July 6, 2012.

http://formerlyfarmerly.blogspot.com/2014/11/a-very-unique-case-of-arson.html

http://formerlyfarmerly.blogspot.com/2014/12/ruminations.html

http://formerlyfarmerly.blogspot.com/2015/01/confession-to-murder.html

I thank both of you for your time,

Sincerely,

Lloyd Wagner"

Thank you to all my readers for your interest, and please stay tuned!

Still Digging on That "Arson Fire"

 It's been a while since I posted on this blog. I've been busy trying to wrap up the academic term at the University, writing and grading final exams, etc. And no information seems to fall directly into my lap, any more than does money or luck.
However, a week ago or so the Duluth News Tribune published an article about a special arson-detecting dog from the Cloquet Area Fire District that "assists authorities across the Midwest". Though that dog didn't come to them until 2013, I sent a couple of emails to the Fire Chief of the Cloquet Area Fire District, to ask about the reported arson fire of July 6, 2012. 
Below is my second email, and Mr. Shroeder's reply.

From: Lloyd Wagner [mailto:lewagner2002@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, May 15, 2015 2:30 AM
To: kschroeder@cloquetafd.com
Subject: followup query on Cloquet arson fire

Dear Mr. Schroeder:

I sent you an email a few days ago about an "arson fire" that was reported in the media to have been set by Sandra Couture on July 6, 2012 at the house of a Cloquet resident, and responded to by Carlton County sheriff's deputies.

Sandra Couture was accused of having set this fire to intimidate some unnamed witness in the Trina Langenbrunner murder case.

I pointed out that unlike any other fire, this fire did not appear anywhere in the media until AFTER it was reported "solved" by St. Louis County investigators, and that this fire doesn't show up in any Carlton County fire statistics, anywhere.

I thought that since you are the Cloquet District Fire Chief, you would be the person to ask for an explanation of this anomaly, or who would be able to suggest someone else I might ask instead.

I'd like your comment to post on the blog I've been writing relating my testimony in the Trina Langenbrunner murder, which I linked to in my previous email. Here again are the links which relate most directly to that reported fire:

http://formerlyfarmerly.blogspot.com/2014/11/a-very-unique-case-of-arson.html

http://formerlyfarmerly.blogspot.com/2014/12/ruminations.html

http://formerlyfarmerly.blogspot.com/2015/01/confession-to-murder.html

I realize you're probably busy, and I'll wait for another day or two to proceed.

Thank you again for your time and interest in this matter.

Sincerely,

Lloyd Wagner

 
Kevin Schroeder

To

'Lloyd Wagner'

May 15

Mr. Wagner,

 

I have looked into our records, and based on the limited information that you have provided, I can find no record regarding the fire you refer to on July 6, 2012 in the CAFD system.  Please keep in mind that there is a large area that has a “Cloquet” mailing address  that is not served by our department.  We routinely get inquiries for incidents that occurred at a Cloquet mailing address that lie outside of our response area and are served by other fire departments in both Carlton and St. Louis Counties.  Your email lists a response by Carlton County Sheriff’s deputies, but an investigation by St. Louis County investigators.  This would lead me to believe the fire was North of the CAFD protection area in St. Louis County, and would have been handled by any of a number of volunteer fire departments in that area.   Based on what you have provided me, it appears the best contact would be the investigating officers in St. Louis County.  They would have the information on whose jurisdiction the fire occurred in.

 

I am sorry I could not provide more detailed information on any incident on July 6, 2012.

 

Kevin

 

 

Kevin Schroeder, District Fire Chief

2801 Dewey Avenue, Cloquet, Mn 55720

218-499-4274 | Fax 218-499-4289

www.Cloquetareafiredistrict.com

After receiving this prompt response, I asked Mr. Shroeder further: Who in Carlton County would have been responsible for reporting the total fire statistics to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety? ... but almost immediately after having asked that question I decided instead to follow the advice that Mr. Shroeder had already given me, and to contact the St. Louis County Sheriff's Department.

Those of you who have been reading this blog may laugh, because obviously, I've come full-circle, here -- the FIRST contact was to the St. Louis County Sheriff's Department, way back in 2001, and I've gone several 10's of thousands of miles since then!

However, this time, I've sent the same email to two Sheriffs' Departments, both St. Louis County, and to Carlton County. I hope that between the two, I can at least get this "arson fire" nailed down solid. The email which I will send just before I post this, is below, with the subject, "Cloquet arson fire of July 6, 2012", which for some reason I can't seem to paste as part of the email.

Dear Sheriff Litman and Sheriff Lake:

I thought it would be easier to send the same email to both of you.

I have some questions about the arson fire reported in the media as having occurred in Cloquet on July 6, 2012, (the one that was confessed to by Sandra and Joseph Couture in St. Louis County Court, as a tampering with unnamed witnesses in the Trina Langenbrunner murder case.)

I noticed a few things about this reported fire that raised questions in my mind, and I ask for your response:

1. It was the first fire I can ever remember that was not reported anywhere in the media the very next morning after it happened, but was only reported a couple of weeks later -- AFTER it had been solved by St. Louis County investigators (based on their having broken a code used in the jail between Sandra and Joseph Couture). 

2. It was reported that the fire was responded to by "Carlton County deputies", but when I looked up fire statistics for incendiary fires in Carlton County for 2012, the total damage reported for seven incidents was $8,600. This despite the fact that the one fire in question had reportedly destroyed a house, plus two vehicles, plus two dogs (who left no skeletons, but were "missing and presumed dead" in the fire).

3. I recently wrote to Mr. Kevin Shroeder, Fire Chief of the Cloquet Area Fire District, who told me that according to his records, no fire took place in that district on that date, nor on July 19, when Molotov cocktails were also reported to have been thrown at the same address, (and also responded to by Carlton County deputies). Mr. Shroeder pointed out that there are some addresses in St. Louis County that do have Cloquet addresses, and also some Cloquet addresses in Carlton County that are out of the Cloquet Area Fire District.

     A. If the fire was indeed in Carlton County, but out of the Cloquet Area Fire District, then it seems it should have shown up in the Carlton County report as an incendiary fire in 2012.

     B. If the fire actually took place in St. Louis County, then it seems it should have been responded to by some St. Louis County fire department, instead of by "Carlton County deputies", as reported.

5. Why would the address of the fire be kept secret from the public? In fear that the Coutures might find out? That of course makes no sense, because if they really did burn a house, they must have known where it was. (!)

6. Which entity initially investigated and made the official determination that the July 6, 2012 fire was an arson fire?

7. Was this fire reported to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety as a St. Louis County fire statistic for July 6, 2012, or as a Carlton County fire statistic? How about the Molotov cocktails that were thrown on July 19, 2012? Why can't I find either of these fires in any Northland news reports anywhere, until in August 2012?

Sheriff Litman may recall that I have repeatedly offered testimony regarding a certain person who met every criteria the Sheriff's Department said they were looking for in the case, since 2001. My testimony has been ignored, and I have even been called a liar in this case, without any DNA data ever being presented to attempt to PROVE me a liar. St. Louis County investigators refused to DNA test the person I pointed at, or to investigate other forensic [information] I pointed at. Instead, they let the guy know that I was talking about him, which caused him to threaten MY life. Then he was given a very short sentence in NERCC (just across the road from where I used to live) for his umpteenth DWI, and released right back into the rural wooded neighborhood, despite my complaints he had threatened my life.

I've repeatedly attempted to get my testimony into the official record and in front of a jury, and have not been able to do so. For that reason, I started a blog several months ago, to relate that testimony and to present the text of all letters and other communications I have regarding the case.

This email will appear as part of the next post in that blog, and any reply (or lack of reply) I receive to it will be subsequently reported, as well.

Here are the blog links that relate most directly to that reported fire of July 6, 2012.

http://formerlyfarmerly.blogspot.com/2014/11/a-very-unique-case-of-arson.html

http://formerlyfarmerly.blogspot.com/2014/12/ruminations.html

http://formerlyfarmerly.blogspot.com/2015/01/confession-to-murder.html

I thank both of you for your time,

Sincerely,

Lloyd Wagner

I will be sending the above email shortly, then polish this post up a little, before I publish it.

Thanks for reading, and please stay tuned.

 

A Fascinating Lack of Response, To Two Inquiries (!)

 I have received no response to the letter I mailed to Sandra Couture at Shakopee, Minnesota, though it's been 33 days since I mailed the first copy (on March 14), and 26 days since I mailed the second copy (on March 21). 
On March 28, I also sent a letter by "snail-mail" to a former Minnesota neighbor whose email address I didn't have. I wanted to let her know about this blog, and to ask that she mention it to mutual acquaintances who may not be active on the Internet, may not know about the blog, but may be interested in it. 
I received an email acknowledgement of my former neighbor's receipt of my letter on April 9, which is exactly 12 days after I mailed it, here in Thailand.
So, I guess there are several possible reasons why Sandra Couture hasn't answered me: (1) it's barely possible that neither copy of the letter reached the prison in Shakopee -- but as I've mentioned before, I have yet to see a letter that hasn't made it over there within 10 days or so, and in this case, I've mailed two separate copies, 26 and 33 days ago, (2) it's possible the letter was intercepted for some reason, (3) it's possible Sandra doesn't want to answer the letter for some reason, (4) it's possible she hasn't had time to answer it, (5) it's possible that she doesn't have $1.15 for postage. 
I'll leave that matter for right now. I'm thinking that some reader or future reader of this blog may possibly have an easier way to get in contact with either of the Coutures than I have, and may know things in this matter that I do not know ... I would certainly like to have a chance to ask the Coutures if they were ever informed of my testimony in the murder case before they each made their "confession", and if they know that the "arson fire" they "confessed" to, evidently never even occurred. 
Maybe I will still get an answer in the mail. It's been a big holiday here in Thailand for the past week, and I'm not sure how that has affected the mail delivery schedule.

Now, on to the more general subject of police behavior/misbehavior. We've all heard about the cop shooting the guy in the back in South Carolina a week or so ago, then trying to cover it up by dropping his taser next to the guy, then being "caught" by a citizen's camera, then being charged with murder. 
What rather surprised me was the unusual quickness with which Duluth Police Chief Gordon Ramsay jumped to the forefront to condemn this murder on his Facebook page, saying on April 9:

This reprehensible act makes my gut turn and this criminal needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. He has tarnished the badges of all the hard working and ethical officers in the country. Police from coast to coast will have to work harder than ever before to build relationships and trust with everyone we serve. It is a very sad day for policing in America.

It seems weird to me that this seems to be the first time the Chief has taken notice of anything like this -- it's not like it's the first time in the history of the United States that the police have shot an innocent unarmed man in the back, and it's not even the first time this year -- or even this month -- but all of a sudden, THIS DAY SPECIFICALLY is "a very sad day for policing in America". 
Anyway, I went to the comments section of that post, and it didn't take long for me to notice that comments posted there didn't necessarily stay there for long.
Comments praising the police in general, and Police Chief Gordon Ramsay and his department in particular stayed there, of course.  
However, comments directly referring to certain unpleasant happenings right in Duluth involving Duluth police officers and Native American victims were deleted. My comment requesting the Chief's opinion on the framing of the Coutures was not deleted (this time), though you can see for yourself the evasive answer.
Since some of my comments on that page have been deleted in the past, this time I took screen-shots. (The time shown in the lower right of the shots is 12 hours ahead of Duluth time).
I'm just going to post these without much further comment, for anyone who is interested in a case-study of acceptable and unacceptable comments on a police chief's Facebook page. 
Please notice how the post above mine in the second picture is no longer there in the third picture, and how several posts in the fifth picture are no longer there at all in later pictures. 
I messaged Jared Busse (whose post above mine was deleted) personally, and he messaged me this comment: "He also blocked me ask about David Croud he was a good friend of mine the Duluth pd only came off 100,000 for the wrongful death suit."
So it seems here that the "good-cop" -- "bad-cop" posture we've all heard about the police adapting in interrogations, is in fact, just a posture.
It's pretty hard to believe that the Chief really knows more about that case in South Carolina than he does about the Trina Langenbrunner case tried right there in Duluth, and is willing to comment indignantly on the one, but knows nothing about the other.
But that's what he claims, eh?
Anyway, thanks for reading, thanks for viewing, and please stay tuned!