Caroline's Crime Scene

Growing up with a mom who is a TV crime reporter hasn't brought a bundle of benefits for my kids. A nice perk, however, did present itself for my daughter about 10 years ago when she was in sixth grade.

I was working late on a Sunday night and my daughter, a big Vikings fan, begged me to let her visit our station so she could watch defensive tackle John Randle appear on Rosen's Sports Sunday. It was a school night, but I decided to let her stay up late because I knew it would be a memorable experience (and it made me feel less guilty for being away from home!).

Not only did Shelby meet Randle, she also got to appear on Mark Rosen's show with Randle and another Vikings star, Randall McDaniel (while I was busy in the WCCO newsroom writing a story about an accused killer.)

Randle and McDaniel were both very gracious to Shelby, giving autographs and agreeing to pose for a couple of photos. I thought of that night when word came this weekend that Randle had been selected for the 2010 Pro Football Hall of Fame, one year after McDaniel was inducted.

It was nice to reflect on some good Vikings memories this Super Bowl weekend as we awaited a game that should have featured our hometown team.

As a crime reporter, I have often interviewed people who were shocked to find out someone they knew was charged with a serious crime such as rape. With the arrest of a former head of the Minneapolis Park police today, it was my turn to see how it feels first hand to be in that position.

To say I was shocked would be a huge understatement. Five years ago, I was a student in William Jacobs' legal issues class in the masters in police leadership program at the University of St. Thomas. My classmates were all police officers, several of whom have become police chiefs in Twin Cities communities.

All day I have been hearing from former classmates who are dismayed and disgusted by the news about our former instructor. Most recently, Jacobs, who is also an attorney, was on the faculty at Minneapolis Community and Technical College School of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, teaching future cops. (I am also on the guest faculty there and teach a police and the news media class.)

I have spent enough years on the crime beat to know that people are often not what they seem and may carry secrets or live dual lives. But there is no way I ever could have imagined this veteran police supervisor and legal issues teacher could be capable of the horrific allegations I read in the criminal complaint today. My classmates and I, though professionally skeptical people, never saw any clues.

I expect to  be in court Monday when Jacobs makes his first court appearance on charges he repeatedly molested a boy who was just 12 years old when the crimes allegedly started. I am sure it will be strange and difficult to reconcile the memories I have of my former instructor with the image of Jacobs wearing jail clothes, standing in front of a judge, accused of crimes.

In the summer of 2007, I attended a graduation ceremony for 22 new Minneapolis police officers. It was one of brightest groups of recruits to hit the streets. All of the cadets had four-year college degrees, and the group had very high test scores.

These are always very happy occasions and so full of hope as families and loved ones watch the young officers get their badges and get sworn in.

On that particular summer night, a highly decorated former Marine named Timothy Carson was among the recruits. I am sure none of us in attendance could have imagined the notoriety he would gain just two and a half years later.

Carson is the officer arrested Wednesday at the end of his shift on the MPD's SWAT team, accused of robbing a bank on his way to work. The charges came just three years to the date after he started his training at the MPD academy.  He is also a suspect in about a dozen other robberies, and police say he has confessed to four in Apple Valley near his home and five in Minneapolis in the neighborhood where he works.It was very sad to see Carson's parents in federal court on Wednesday as he made his first appearance on the bank robbery charges. How painful it must be for them as their 28-year-old son faces many years behind bars, instead of a career as a police officer.

In court, the judge mentioned Carson has a lot of debt. That may play into the choices he allegedly made since a robbery spree started just a few weeks ago. We have also heard he has a child with serious medical problems. These are tough challenges, but it is still very hard to reconcile the image of a cop holding up a woman in a coffee shop, a teller at a bank and clerks at convenience stores.

It is just as hard to understand how someone could function as a violent criminal part of the day and then go to work just hours later as a SWAT officer.

The charges have rocked the MPD to its core like few other allegations I have seen in covering this department for close to thirty years. The only "bright" spot in this bad episode is the super police work of the Apple Valley officer who first spotted Carson driving a car without a front license plate not long before the bank was robbed Wednesday in Apple Valley. A short time after that stop, the bank was robbed by a masked gunman. Responding to the robbery call,the officer, Kurt Schultz, spotted Carson leaving the area. From there, the officer worked with the FBI and MPD officers, and by the end of the day Timothy Carson was behind bars.

As I write this, investigators are continuing to look at unsolved robberies to determine if Carson could be connected to them too. Whatever answers they find, it may be a long time before anyone understands what motivated a promising young officer to allegedly cross the line in such a violent way.  And even more time is likely to pass before the law enforcement community can put this disturbing case behind them.

Click here to read the story.

It is always fun to catch up with WCCO retirees who return each year for a holiday luncheon at our station. Last night, they joined current 'CCO employees in our news studio for a holiday.



In these tough economic times, it was especially meaningful to be able to get together with so many great people who are such an important part of our history as a television station in the Twin Cities.



The guests included our former weather guy Bud Kraehling, who looked terrific, Ron Handberg, who hired me back in 1977 when he was our news director, and photojournalist Dick Nordling, who retired five years ago.



These are just some of the many people who made WCCO the hugely respected television station that has been connecting with our community for so many decades.



In a week full of bad news, it was a treat to share memories with these terrific former colleagues and to take time out to visit with some of the newest members of our 'CCO family.



I took a few photos of the some familiar and not-so-familiar faces that are a huge part of WCCO TV -- love the one of Bud Kraehling with meteorologist Chris Shaffer!

Twenty-two years ago today, Don Shelby announced the birth of my daughter during a broadcast on MPR. We named her Shelby Elizabeth and, even though it was in the middle of a November ratings period, my husband and I didn't choose the name for WCCO's long-time anchorman. (But Don likes to think we did!)

Over the years, she has often visited our newsroom to give tours to her friends or stop by when I was working long hours on a crime story. She has also worked at the WCCO booth at the Minnesota State Fair and filled in as a receptionist at our station.



All this immersion in the world of news has definitely rubbed off on our youngest "child." Today our daughter, Shelby, is a member of the WCCO newsroom "family." When she's not attending journalism classes at the University of Minnesota, Shelby also works part-time on our assignment desk.

Part of her job means calling local law enforcement agencies for information on crimes and updates on their investigations. It's funny how many people call her back, thinking the "Shelby from 'CCO" who left a message is Don Shelby, not the most junior member of the newsroom! (Don tells her to tell people she is 'Lil Shelb so they know which Shelby is calling from 'CCO.)

I love having her working in the same newsroom where I started more than thirty two years ago. But,as a mom, I have to step back sometimes and let her figure things out on her own. That's not always easy to do. But I know it will help as she navigates a journalism world that has changed dramatically since I began as the newsroom clerk back in March 1977.



It has been an interesting four months since our assignment manager, George Norman, hired Shelby. Sometimes she chides me about treating her more like my daughter than like a newsroom colleague. Other times, Shelby can't wait to tell me about a news story she helped on that day. Sometimes she struggles with whether to call me "Mom" or "Caroline" when talking about me at work. (Most days it is not an issue since our schedules don't overlap too much.)

Shelby is on track to graduate from college in May. It is hard to predict where she will be heading after that. Despite all the grim forecasts about the future of journalism, she seems determined to pursue a career in that field. In the meantime, I am grateful she has had the opportunity to work in the familiar surroundings of the 'CCO newsroom.

Just got word that Oprah Winfrey is retiring in 2011. Hard to imagine the talk show scene without her. I was a guest on her show back in 1995 for a segment on undercover reporting. I was invited to talk about an I-Team investigation we did on downtown Minneapolis police officers sleeping on the job, hanging out in a strip joint and playing pinball on-duty. The report rocked city hall and led to a lot of change and improvements in the downtown patrol unit. It also attracted the attention of an Oprah producer who invited me to be a guest on the show.

Photojournalist Nancy Soo Hoo and I got the royal treatment as Oprah guests. We were put up in a ritzy hotel and transported around Chicago in a limousine. We were also allowed to bring our camera inside her Harpo Studios for a behind-the-scenes feature we shared with viewers.

There aren't many glamorous experiences on the crime beat. This was one of the most enjoyable assignments I have ever had. It’s also one that I still hear about from viewers more than 14 years later.

Watch The Video Of Caroline's Oprah Experience

Does posting the six minute video online of the guys in St. Paul and Minneapolis laughing as they randomly attack victims glorify their behavior? That’s the comment raised by a viewer who wrote to me Thursday and it has popped up on some of the Web sites.

My short answer: no. Sure, these guys wanted to draw attention to themselves by posting their weekend rampage on YouTube. I doubt, however, any of them wanted the kind of attention they ended up getting. As I write this, all eight guys in the video have been identified by police. So far, five of them have been arrested and police expect more soon.

Several victims did not even report the crimes until the video appeared and they or their loved ones recalled the incidents. One doctor I interviewed in St.Paul showed me his split lip that he received from a mugging on Grand Avenue. He didn’t think to call the police when it happened on Saturday since he didn’t think his injuries were that serious and he doubted the cops could catch his muggers because he never saw them. After his son saw the attack on the news, he convinced his dad to call police.

I agree there is always a risk when we put this kind of video on the news. But in this case it served a public purpose of putting a face on the violence and increasing the chances these guys who committed the crimes last weekend will be held accountable. I believe it will also send a message to other YouTube wannabes who think it is funny to target vulnerable people for the sport of it.

Watch The Video
Read Caroline's Report

I interviewed a young Minneapolis mom and dad today who were robbed at gunpoint Monday on their way home from a laundromat on the north side. I could feel their fear as I sat with them and their 3-year-old daughter in their living room this afternoon. They talked about how it felt to have a gun pointed at the dad's head as he was forced to give up his wallet, hoping the robber wouldn't shoot his wife.

Two days ago, I covered a story on a 17-year-old fatally stabbed when he and a friend allegedly tried to rob a guy walking home on the midtown Greenway last weekend. The robbery victim fought back, stabbing the teen once in the stomach. The Hennepin County Attorney's Office is now reviewing the case to determine if it is a case of self-defense or warrants charges.

These are just two examples of a rash of violent robberies on Minneapolis streets in just the past week. When I interviewed the supervisor of the MPD's Robbery unit this afternoon, the number was close to 60. Most of them won't make the news and few of them are likely to result in arrests or charges.

As I was covering this latest spike in street violence, I thought of the recent Forbes magazine article listing Minneapolis at the top of their list of safe cities. Low crime rates are a key factor in making that list. It was hard to reconcile what I heard from the couple I met today and the rest of the victims I read about in a pile of MPD robbery reports with that article.

It things are that "good" living here, I hate to think what it must be in many of the cities in this country with crime rates too high to make the Forbes list.

It was 20 years ago today that 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was abducted by a masked gunman as he and his brother and best friend biked home from a convenience store in rural St. Joseph, Minn. He hasn't been seen since.

Last Saturday night, I drove up to St. Joseph to attend a children's concert in Jacob's honor. I didn't go to cover the event but to be there to personally try to find a place to put this tough anniversary. I have watched many of our stories and read news articles over and over again, looking for a clue that might give some answers to what might have happened to Jacob.


An age-progression picture showing what Jacob Wetterling would look like at age 29.

My own children were 5 and 2 when Jacob was abducted. Like so many parents of young children back then, it affected how I viewed the world and raised my kids. As a crime reporter, I know stranger abductions are extremely rare and that most of these crimes involve someone known to the victim. But seeing a young boy snatched by a stranger in rural St. Joseph penetrated the sense of safety for all our kids.

Over the years, I have posted many stories about Jacob's unsolved kidnapping on our Cold Case page. I would love to be able to write a final chapter on what happened to Jacob before another anniversary comes around. I wish it for his family and for all of us who raised our kids wondering who snatched a child on a Sunday night so close to his home.

As the Twins play their final games in the Metrodome, a lot of us in the WCCO newsroom have so many memories of highlights from covering the two World Series won by the Minnesota Twins.

One of my favorite "scoops" happened outside the Dome on Game 6 of the 1991 World Series. I had lobbied hard with our managers for photojournalist Nancy Soo Hoo and me not to be assigned to a specific story that night and be allowed to "roam" until we found something big.

We soon struck gold. We were the only news crew waiting, with our camera rolling, at a VIP entrance to the Dome when actress Jane Fonda and her then-husband, Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner, showed up.

At the time, there had been criticism and even protests by Native Americans about the Braves fans doing a "tomahawk chop" to show their support for the team.

In the middle of the controversy, Jane Fonda said she would stop doing the "chop" but was then seen doing what some people thought was "the chop" in support of the Braves. As she and Turner entered the Dome, I asked Fonda about the "chop." She agreed to demonstrate for me, on camera, her hand motion supporting the team, insisting it was not a chop.

Fonda described it as more of a "patty cake" motion. I also asked her if she planned to ask her husband to consider changing the name of the team since many Native American protesters were also offended by it. She basically said it was up to Ted what he called his team. (Eighteen years later, Fonda and Turner have moved on with their lives and the Atlanta team is still called the Braves.)

Fonda's hand demonstration and interview got picked up nationally. It was fun looking at the video today (which I hadn't viewed in about 18 years!). I was kind of surprised to see me sort of push Turner out of the way to get to his wife! You can check it out here.