Sarah Kruger was arrested for felony damage to property after a neighbor caught her in the act of forcibly removing a fence post, causing significant damage. Despite the seriousness of the crime, which led to her being charged with Criminal Damage to Property in the First Degree—a felony carrying severe potential penalties—Sarah’s parents swiftly intervened to cover up the incident.
Leveraging their legal and political connections, Sarah’s parents engaged in a concerted effort to have the charges dropped. The City Attorney refused to prosecute the case based on recommendations from Kruger’s attorneys despite having prosecuted similar crimes in the past (as the City Attorney himself acknowledged). The case was then pursued by the Winona County Attorney. However, through persistent lobbying and influence, Sarah’s family managed to get the charges dismissed. After the dismissal, they took further steps to erase the incident from public records by successfully petitioning for the expungement of her criminal records. This was achieved despite the objections of the victim, illustrating the lengths to which Sarah's parents went to shield her from the consequences of her actions and cover up her serious crime.
Here's a series of events and the original documents to back it up:
Sarah Kruger was arrested on October 11, 2022. According to the incident report filled out by the Winona Police Department at the time, she was arrested for “felony damage to property”. They referred a felony level charge of Damage to Property in the 3rd degree. See Exhibit 1, Page 1-2.
Quoting from the initial police report, “Tonight, around sunset she saw Sarah and an unknown person … doing something. Sandra stated she went outside to investigate and saw Sarah had a chain wrapped around [the neighbors] fencepost. Sarah was attempting to pull out the post. […] Sandra stated that she saw Sarah take down the post.”
“Sandra then showed me the damaged fence post. […] The fence post was broken off at the ground and lying next to the footing. I also observed survey markers removed from the ground.” See Exhibit 1, Page 3.
After the incident, Officers “attempted to make contact with Sarah by phone, and in person with no success.” See Exhibit 1, Page 5.
Following the destruction of the neighbor’s fence, they (the neighbors) had their attorney email the Kruger’s attorney a “Cease and Desist” on October 10, 2022. See Exhibit 2, Page 2.
The email was forwarded to Howard Kruger, Sarah’s father, by their attorney who stated, “By the way, I called Mike Flaherty, the prosecutor for the City of Winona, and left a message for him to call me about this.” See Exhibit 2, Page 1. This was the initiation of Sarah’s parents getting involved in her legal problems.
On October 24, 2022, charges were filed against Sarah Kruger. She was charged with Criminal Damage to Property in the First Degree, which carries a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The prosecuting office was the Winona County Attorney’s office. See Exhibit 3.
On an email thread dated October 28, 2022, Bruce Nelson, the Howard Kruger’s attorney, said to Sarah, “I talked to the City Attorney about this issue the week after the incident and he wanted nothing to do with prosecuting this if referred to him.” Nelson also noted that the City Attorney “had a case similar to this several years ago that he prosecuted.” See Exhibit 4.
The issue was though, the City Attorney wasn’t the prosecuting office. The County Attorney’s office was.
In the same email thread, Sarah says to Bruce, “I just spoke with the attorney in the Cities, and he suggested emphasizing the following to Karen if you see fit. […] The City Attorney chose not to move forward with this, and so the amount was fabricated to bump this up to a felony. [And] Sarah is not the property owner and was acting under the direction of the property owner in good faith.” See Exhibit 4.
As referenced in Sarah’s email, “Karen” is Karin Sonneman, the Winona County Attorney. Sarah’s advice to her parents lawyer, who was helping her out, was to pressure Karin by referencing the City Attorney’s decision to not charge, despite having done so in similar cases, and to throw her parents under the bus as the “property owners”.
Bruce responded by saying, “I called and left a message for Karin to call – she’s in meetings this morning. I’ll make these points […]. See Exhibit 4. Essentially, Bruce, Howard Kruger’s attorney, agreed to pin the crime on his own clients to save the client’s daughter.
By November 8, 2022, Sarah had hired her own attorney, John Lesch. John had been a member of the Minnesota House and had helped Karin on a project in that role. John emailed Karin, the Winona County Attorney, requesting the charges be dropped. He explained, “You may remember me from the MN House Mini Session in Winona 3 years ago. My committee held a hearing with you regarding some innovative ideas you were pursuing.” He ended the email with, “I know this is a busy time for you, Karin, and that today is election day for you. I wish you the best of luck in the election and ask that you respond when time permits.” See Exhibit 5, Page 5-6.
Karin responded on November 14 saying, “Yes, I remember you from the MN House Mini Session in Winona. Bruce Nelson also called me to fill me in regarding the civil side of the Kruger Matter.” She continued, “My inclination at this point, having heard from both you and Bruce, but not having the details of the criminal file, is to resolve this with a dismissal […].” See Exhibit 5, Page 4.
Sarah’s parents had successfully leveraged the relationships of their lawyers to get both the City and County Attorneys to drop the case.
On December 5, Karin emailed John again to let him know she would be officially filing a dismissal. She noted, “I have not had any opportunity to contact the alleged victim regarding my proposal to dismiss the matter without prejudice. […] Once my office has made that contact, I will file the dismissal without prejudice to the Court and copy you.” See Exhibit 5, Page 1-2. Typically, a victims opinion holds a lot of weight, but Karin’s mind was made up prior to ever contacting them.
On December 12, the charges were dismissed. See Exhibit 6.
The next step for the Kruger’s was to get their daughters criminal documents expunged and deleted from the public record. To that end, in February 2023, the Kruger’s filed a Petition for Expungement. The Winona County Attorney responded by saying that they “[have] no objection to the expungement”. Despite having no objection, they noted that “[t]he alleged victim of the criminal matter was not in support of the State’s dismissal”. Karin noted in the response that she “exercised [her] prosecutorial discretion to do so once [she] was made aware of the pending civil matter.” See Exhibit 7. Karin uses a pending civil matter as justification to dismiss and expunge a felony charge even though the civil matter is between Sarah’s parents and their neighbor. It had nothing to do with Sarah herself at the time.
On February 28, 2023, the Court issued an order Sealing and Expunging the records. Exhibit 8.
Exhibit 1:
Exhibit 2
Exhibit 3
Exhibit 4
Exhibit 5
Exhibit 6
Exhibit 7
Exhibit 8
This is an independent expenditure prepared and paid for by Renew Minnesota, PO Box 26471, Minneapolis, MN 55426. It is not coordinated with or approved by any candidate nor is any candidate responsible for it.
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