Chief reports that charges coming in case of arson to hide burglary

Criminal charges are expected from a fire at a home in Prescott that was intentionally set to cover up a burglary.

The fire was reported at 122 Borner St. No one was home at the residence, and the incident was being investigated as a burglary from the initial call to assist the Prescott Fire Department.

In his report to the Prescott City Council last Monday night, Prescott Police Chief Eric Michaels said it's been a trying year, with overall calls for service down because of COVID-19-related issues, but major crimes increasing.

Michaels told the council that there were 4,962 total calls for service in 2020, down from 5,604 in 2019.

'COVID had a lot to do with that,' said Michaels. 'I did put a moratorium on traffic stops and unnecessary contact with the public, so that kind of has a bearing on why those numbers went down.'

He noted that while traffic stops were down to 1,488 (from 2,380 in 2019), suspicious vehicle complaints jumped from 252 to 370 and juvenile complaints increased from 88 to 144.

Big increases are seen in the area of disorderly conduct.

'Last year 129, back in 2019, 67,' Michaels said of those complaints. 'That's going up considerably.'

'Burglary and thefts went down for us. I'd like to attribute that to the number of officers on patrol right now. We're trying to keep that down,' said Michaels.

He reported that criminal charges from the Pierce County District Attorney's Office are forthcoming for the Borner Street residence fire.

'That was cleared by arrest,' he said. 'I don't believe the DA has charged that yet. There was some miscommunication between some offices that I'm not really sure what happened yet but that was cleared,' he said.

He told the council that the suspicious device found in August near the Prescott Post Office that prompted evacuation of the area also led to an arrest. Reports have indicated that Brandon James Bleyle, 27, of 803 Kinnickinnic St., was charged with Possession of Explosives in that matter. On Aug. 23, the area around Campbell Street was blocked off and neighborhoods were evacuated for more than three hours until the St. Paul Bomb Squad collected the device. A man driving noticed the suspicious device on the side of the road and called police.

The home where Bleyle was residing was the site of three search warrants last year.

'There were three search warrants served at 803 Kinnickinnic Street, two of those involving drugs and the other one as a result of that bomb,' said Michaels. 'So, I've started the process for a nuisance property at 803 Kinnickinnic St.'

The major crimes take significant time to investigate, the chief said.

'What you're looking at here is a lot more things you have to do a lot of investigation on. When you look at the difference between the traffic stops from '19 to '20, there was almost 1,000 less traffic stops, but if you look at the amount of cases that are being investigated, the crimes are starting to be more major,' Michaels said. 'My investigator is also the School Resource Officer, so the investigations are being done by the officers up to the point where they can complete it and then it goes on to the investigator. So, the number of crimes is going down, but the level of the crime is starting to go up where it's taking more manpower and resources to investigate these.'

He said the burglaryarson took about 300 hours of investigation, and the bomb call was between 150200 hours.

Downtown Bar Complaints Michaels said there still are a significant amount of fights occurring after bars close downtown. The city restricted bar hours late last year and early this year in an effort to curb the problems. Public Health rules also restricted occupancy. Those restrictions are over, and the fighting problem still exists.

Council member Dar Hintz asked, 'What is happening on the weekends in the bars downtown as far as…'

Before she finished, Michaels said, 'Fights. Lots of fights. Even with Minnesota opening up 50 percent, there's been lots of fights. This weekend we had a decent one, and when I say decent, I mean involving people with significant injury. I believe two weekends ago we had a fairly large one and that involved six or seven people and injuries that required hospitalization.

'Are people being over served, or is it that people are just crazy right now?' Asked Hintz.

'I think it's a little bit of both,' said Michaels.

The chief said he talked to one bar owner who promised to do a better job of keeping an eye on the situation.