Traffic stop ends in kidnapping charge for 3 suspects
Suspects were charged with aiding and abetting kidnapping and aiding and abetting second-degree assault
Traffic stop ends in kidnapping charge for 3 suspects Suspects were charged with aiding and abetting kidnapping and aiding and abetting second-degree assault Check out this story on sctimes.com: https://www.sctimes.com/story/news/local/2014/09/26/traffic-stop-ends-kidnapping-charge-suspects/16291261/
David Unze, dunze@stcloudtimes.com Published 11:00 p.m. CT Sept. 26, 2014 | Updated 7:22 p.m. CT Sept. 27, 2014
Booked at the Stearns County Jail were Harley Rae Weilage, 22, of Sauk Centre, Jennifer Lynn Marsh, 39, of Brook Park and Nils Anthony Njus, 50, of Alexandria.(Photo: Stearns County Jail)
A man and two women were arrested early Friday after a traffic stop in Sauk Centre in which a man in the back seat told a police officer he was being kidnapped and beaten because the suspects thought he was a snitch.
The victim told police he'd been beaten with a baseball bat and the people who had kidnapped him were going to kill him.
Three suspects were charged late Friday with aiding and abetting kidnapping and aiding and abetting second-degree assault. Booked at the Stearns County Jail were Harley Rae Weilage, 22, of Sauk Centre, Jennifer Lynn Marsh, 39, of Brook Park and Nils Anthony Njus, 50, of Alexandria.
They are expected to make their first court appearances on the charges Monday in Stearns County District Court.
According to the criminal complaints charging them, Sauk Centre police officer Joseph Jensen stopped a vehicle at 12:13 a.m. Friday because it had a taillight out and didn't have its license plate properly illuminated.
When he approached, a man in the back seat mouthed the words "help me" twice to Jensen. Jensen also saw a baseball bat in the center console and started to question the driver, who was acting nervous, sweating and appeared to have a high heart rate.
The driver, identified as Marsh, admitted using methamphetamine. Jensen then asked the man in the back seat to get out of the vehicle, telling him that he had a warrant for his arrest. What Jensen really wanted was to get the man out of the vehicle to talk to him away from the others.
The victim said he had contacted Weilage about buying marijuana and went to her Sauk Centre apartment. There, Njus and Weilage forced him to strip to his underwear, and they looked for a recording device while they hit his elbow with the baseball bat and punched him.
They told the victim that they believed he was talking to police about their drug dealing and that they were going to kill him.
Njus later told police the whole ordeal was a "family matter" and he denied kidnapping the man. He said they were on their way to Melrose.
Weilage told police that she confronted the victim about some e-mails involving meth dealing. Investigators found the victim's cellphone in Weilage's possession.
Marsh told police a version of events that was "consistent with (the victim's) report," according to the court complaint. Investigators found e-mails and text messages that corroborated the victim's story.
The victim had a large lump on his elbow where he had been hit with the baseball bat.
Follow David Unze on Twitter @sctimesunze or contact him at 255-8740.
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