WINONA, Minn. – The hush-hush domestic violence police case against one of their own broke 30 days late when the criminal complaint surfaced in court documents. The complaint, uncovered Tuesday by the Winona Post, accused senior police officer Joshua Squires of domestic violence on his teen-age daughter. Although much of what had happened the previous 30 days was done quietly behind closed doors, this is the best chronology that can be pieced together:
> December 4: Sheriff’s deputies were called to a rural house to check on a domestic situation that occurred at least 12 hours earlier. Records are unclear on the address, but it’s thought to be either in Minnesota City or up a coulee from Pickwick.
> The daughter told deputies she had been hit and bitten by her father at his house at 250 East Fifth in Winona.
.> Deputies interviewed Squires, age 49 and Badge 428. He confirmed some details of the encounter. He was off duty.
> Because the incident began outside the city limits, and because it apparently continued within the city limits, and because Squires was a city officer, there were jurisdictional questions. Discussions of these points involved county Sheriff Ron Ganrude and city Police Chief Tom Williams. Their offices are both in the shared city-county Law Enforcement Center. The decision was made that further investigation would be the province of the city police department.
> To avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest, Police Chief Williams asked the Rochester Police Department to continue the investigation with the presumption that charges would be recommended.
> December 5: In their morning briefings for news reporters, spokespersons for both Ganrude and Williams were minimally transparent. Jeff Mueller, chief sheriff’s deputy, told reporters there had been a “welfare check” involving an adult male and a teen-age girl. Mueller said that city police had jurisdiction. Such normally wouldn’t much interest reporters, who didn’t ask for details. Mueller moved on to other blotter items. Significantly Mueller didn’t mention that it was a police officer who was the “adult male.” Nor did he mention that the officer was Squires, who had special prominence after several years of uniformed duty at the Winona High School.. And none of the four reporters pressed for details on what was presented as a mundane incident on what was an otherwise busy Monday morning briefing after a busy police weekend.
> In his briefing, Deputy Police Chief Jay Rasmussen also slid quickly over the Squires case, saying another agency had jurisdiction in the case. Based on what Mueller had said at the previous briefing, just moments earlier, reporters assumed Rasmussen meant the sheriff’s office was the other agency and that there likely was some delayed and inconseqential mix-up on the word getting a around on which agency was in charge. Besides, neither Mueller nor Rasmussen offered enough information to catch reporters’ attention. This all was out of character for Mueller and Rasmussen. Both are media-savvy with a good feel for what’s newsworthy. They knew better.The reporters at the briefing:
> Winona Daily News: Jacob Shafer.
> Winona Journal: JohnVivian.
> Winona Radio: Jake Litman.
> Winna Post: Cesar Salazar.
Williams. Winona police officer since 1987. Chief since 2020.
Ganrude. Forty-two years in law enforcement, mostly in Winona. Sheriff since 2015.
> January 12: Police Chief Tom Williams placed Squires on administrative leave with his $80,000 a year salary in tact for the time being. There was no public announcement of Williams’ decision.
> To avoid bad appearances, the county attorney in neighboring Wabasha, Matthew Stinson, was asked to take prosecution responsibility for the case.
> The two Winona County District Court judges Mary Leahy and Nancy Buytendorp recused themselves from the case. Both have close ties and working relationships with the Winona police agencies.
> The district judge in neighboring Fillmore County, Jeremy Clinefelter in Preston, was assigned the case by the state’s chief Third Judicial district Court judge in Rochester.
> Squires was scheduled for a court appearance late in March.
> February 2: The Winona Post, in an article by editor Chris rogers, printed the first account on the case
> Squires was scheduled for a court appearance late in March.