So how did they disappear?
The warrants were served Aug. 30 on 949 and 951 Iglehart Ave., the home of longtime progressive activist Michael Whalen.
Whalen said police surrounded him with guns at the duplex he owns in the Summit-University neighborhood. They handcuffed him in his back yard but did not arrest him or anyone else there. Nothing was taken.
At the time, Whalen was allowing a group from New York-based I-Witness Video to stay at the house. They planned to document protest activity during the Republican National Convention. Whalen believes they were the probe's real target.
But no one could find the warrants.
Local activists, reporters and Whalen's attorney all asked about them. Under Minnesota law, a search warrant must be executed and filed within 10 days after it's issued. These did not appear at the court in the required 10 days.
Officials at the criminal clerk's office had not seen the warrants, they said. They did not show up in the clerk's logbook, where the warrants are listed by number, date and address.
The 10 days came and went.
Ramsey County District Judge Joanne Smith, who signed the warrants Aug. 30, did not recall them specifically.
People began assuming the warrants had been sealed, which would have required action by the Ramsey County attorney's office.
But last week, officials there said they had not touched them.
Finally, late last week, prosecutor Heidi Westby found the warrants and supporting affidavits in her mailbox, even though she had no connection to the case.
Scrawled on the outside of the manila envelope was, "Clerk of Court, Ramsey County Attorney's Office, For Filing."
County attorney's office spokesman Paul Gustafson said the whole thing amounted to a "comedy of errors."
An official with the criminal clerk's office said it's possible the envelope was brought to another floor of the building by mistake, then shipped via interoffice mail to the county attorney. For whatever reason, it ended up with Westby, who didn't immediately open it.
St. Paul police spokesman Tom Walsh said he did not know what police did with those particular warrants. But the normal protocol, he said, would be for an officer to take it to the clerk's office for filing, then to a judge to get it signed.
Whalen's attorney, Ted Dooley, said Wednesday he doesn't believe there was anything underhanded about the incident.
"I've been at it long enough that I don't always expect something nefarious," Dooley said. "I do anticipate something incompetent. None of us are perfect."
As to the affidavit itself, it includes allegations that:
The packages actually turned out to be boxes of pamphlets on vegan food titled "Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating," which Whalen's housemate distributes for pay. The boxes feature a picture of a veggie burger, Whalen's attorney said.
Dooley called the allegations "stupid, purely stupid."
Whalen's link to Olson, for instance, was a business arrangement that lasted a year. She was bought out and "they never saw each other again," Dooley said.
"What the hell that has to do with terrorism on the streets of St. Paul is beyond me," he said.
He, too, believes I-Witness was the real focus of police interest.
The same group helped exonerate 400 people charged in protests at the 2004 Republican convention in New York, sometimes disproving police claims about protesters' conduct.
Walsh, the police spokesman, said he didn't believe I-Witness Video was the target. He said investigators believed there was good reason for going into Whalen's home.
"A judge reviewed the probable cause, and a judge concurred that probable cause existed," he said. "That's one of the great things about this system -- the police don't get to make unlawful entry, warrantless entry."
Whalen has not been arrested or charged
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