701 Rundown: Feb. 13, 2023

Here’s your weekly rundown of some of the most interesting headlines from newspapers across North Dakota.

Sky Dancer Casino security helps nab alleged murderer

A security supervisor at Sky Dancer Casino and Resort in Belcourt contacted federal authorities on New Year’s Day when one man tried to collect nearly $5,000 in winnings but could not produce a social security number.

Producing a valid social security number is required to collect winnings over a certain amount.

The man’s name is Fidel Arena Torres, and it did not take long for the Border Patrol agent who took the call to discover that Torres was a Mexican national who had been arrested and sentenced for murders and kidnapping.

Torres left the casino before he could be detained, but later turned up again on January 20, and this time was arrested by Belcourt Police.

Under questioning, Torres, age 43, admitted to being in the country illegally, and court documents show that he was later taken into custody and charged for being in the U.S. for having been previously removed from the country after a felony conviction.

He had previous felony arrests for drugs in Arizona in 2000 and for unlawful possession of another ID in Utah in 2011.

According to El Sol, a newspaper in Nayarit, Mexico, Torres is linked to a criminal gang and was arrested for two murders in December of 2012 as well as for the kidnapping of a shrimp trader a month later.

Torres told a court he has no incentive to return to Mexico because of past torture by a cartel, and his currently being held in federal custody as he awaits trial.

(Story from the Turtle Mountain Star)

Mayville man suspected of having child porn prior to his death

Steven Wesley Volla, 59, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound during a standoff with police on Jan. 18.

Volla was being investigated for possessing child pornography, and law enforcement had gone to his home on Jan. 18 to execute a search warrant.

In a media release on late Wednesday, Jan. 25, Sheriff’s officials said a man at the residence barricaded himself in a room in a shop building on the property during the search.

Despite negotiators speaking with him by phone in hopes of getting him to leave the shop, the man was pronounced dead that evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

According to court records released on Jan. 25, a special agent with the N.D. Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) had received a report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that three files containing child pornography had been uploaded to a phone used by Volla on Nov. 2.

The files contained GIFs depicting a sexual act with a child who appeared to be 4 or 5 years old, and another of a child who appeared to be 10 to 12 engaging in a sexual act, the warrant said.

Further searches conducted by BCI agents in December and January uncovered another 23 files suspected to contain child pornography.

(Story by Cole Short, Hillsboro Banner)

Multi-vehicle crash near Argusville

Northbound I-29 was closed between Argusville and Gardner for approximately two-and-a-half hours following a January 26 multi-vehicle crash.

At around 7 p.m. a N.D. Highway Patrol trooper had responded to a four-vehicle crash on the interstate.

The trooper’s vehicle was parked with its emergency lights flashing in the passing lane, as the vehicles involved in the crash were blocking the road.

The trooper exited his vehicle and was checking on the occupants involved in the crash when a 1997 Kenworth semi, towing an empty Barrett cattle trailer, struck the rear of the parked patrol vehicle.

The semi-truck then jack-knifed into the median. There were no injuries in the crash and the Cass County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the accident.

(Story by Angela Kolden, Cass County Reporter)

Flood insurance no longer a requirement

At a city sponsored flood insurance forum held last Thursday, Jan. 26, at the Grafton Armory, residents learned that they can now cancer their flood insurance if they so choose.

As of Jan. 19, residents of the city of Grafton are no longer required to carry flood insurance on their homes that have a mortgage,” said Grafton Mayor, Christ West, who is also an independent flood insurance agent.

“The project is signed off on by FEMA and is finalized,” he added.

The project has gone on for 13 years, West gave an overview of the hoops and challenges they faced over the years.

“The hours that went into this project are incalculable, especially behind the scenes,” he said.

Jon Markusen, who was the lead engineer on the Flood Risk Reduction Project which removed Grafton from the 100-year floodplain, went over some of the finer points of the project.

“The project began in 2013 with a lot of planning. There was the design, construction and certification process with a lot of different pieces going into it,” he said.

Markusen went on to explain a bypass channel that goes around the north side of town and the tieback levy which runs along Highway 17 and south of town, regarding how the project functions.

“We were hoping to finish the project in the fall of 2019, but we ended up completing it in the summer of 2020. There was a couple of really wet years in there, when you are trying to build levies you need dry dirt and when it rains every other week like it did in 2018 it makes it tough,” said Markusen.

(Story by Todd Morgan, The Walsh County Record)

Kelly’s Cafe is not closing

Kelly Johnson, owner of Kelly’s Cafe in Arthur, N.D., is assuring residents she has no plans to close anytime soon despite rumors suggesting the opposite.

The rumor started roughly a week ago, she said, as people were telling her they had seen it on Facebook, which, of course, didn’t make any sense.

Until, however, she discovered that her cafe is not the only Kelly’s Cafe in the world.

As it turns out, a Kelly’s Cafe in New Jersey is being sold. Someone must have searched Kelly’s Cafe, skimmed the closing information, and started the rumor on Facebook.

(Story by Angela Kolden, Cass County Reporter)