The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

November 18, 2009

Watonwan County deputy's case delayed

By Dan Nienaber

FAIRMONT — A trial scheduled to start Wednesday for a Watonwan County sheriff’s deputy has been delayed because a key witness is sick.

Jose Avinael Lopez, 34, is charged with one felony count of possession of stolen property.

Lopez, who lives at a rural residence near Truman in Martin County, was working as a Watonwan County deputy when investigators with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension searched his residence in December.

The investigators were looking for a Melrose Bobcat tractor, worth about $5,000, that had been stolen in March 2004 from a rental business in Otsego. It was found in a pole barn on the same property as Lopez’s house, the criminal complaint said.

Mike Trushenski, assistant Martin County attorney, said Wednesday’s trial was called off late Tuesday afternoon because of a witness’ illness.

Whatever the witness had, it was something that could have been contagious, said Lopez’s attorney, Deborah Ellis of St. Paul. She also said the witness was someone who had been subpoenaed by both sides. “I just know he was sick and the judge was going to be cautious,” Ellis said.

In an affidavit requesting the search warrant, a BCA agent said he interviewed an informant who told him Lopez had asked him to get a new serial number for the Bobcat. The informant worked at a business that owned similar machinery. Lopez wanted the serial number so he could get a clean title for the Bobcat and sell it, according to the informant.

Two men who were renting space to store grain at Lopez’s residence also told the BCA agent they had seen the Bobcat at the residence.

Prior to executing the search warrant, investigators went to Lopez’s house and asked him for permission to check the barn. He refused, they reported.

Ellis said Lopez is innocent and they were ready to go to trial Wednesday. It was her understanding the new trial date will be in May.

“We’re disappointed,” she said. “We want to get this over with.”

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