An early morning 911 call for one with a possible medical issue in a Minneapolis park inadvertently netted a predatory offender with a history of convictions for violent offenses.
Just after 8 a.m. Friday, police and medical responders were dispatched to Currie Park in the Cedar-Riverside area of Minneapolis following park staff’s call to 911 about an unresponsive person inside of a tent in the park.
Upon arrival responders from the Minneapolis Fire Department made contact with the “unresponsive” person and found that he was just sleeping and proceeded to wake him up, according to police dispatch audio. The 911 dispatcher at that point cancelled the police responders. Dispatch audio indicated that a Minneapolis Park Police officer would continue to respond stating that the park had ongoing “homeless issues, camper issues” in the park.
Shortly after the officer arrived at the park, he requested the dispatcher to send another squad to assist in arresting one on site who had a felony warrant, per the dispatch audio.
The Hennepin County Jail booking record posted a short time later shows that Julius Britten, 43, of St. Paul, was arrested by Minneapolis Park Police on a Felony warrant out of Ramsey County for violating registration requirements as a predatory offender.
Britten was charged in 2013 with eight felony counts including kidnapping, assault and burglary stemming from an incident in Austin, Minnesota, during which he reportedly attacked his ex-girlfriend in retaliation for requesting an order for protection against him a few days earlier.
After spending nearly a year in Mower County Jail, unable to meet the quarter-million dollar bail that had been set by the court, Britten pleaded guilty to just one felony charge: first degree burglary. The remainder of the charges were dismissed and Britten was released from custody on conditions, including registration as a predatory offender. No further jail time was required at the time of his sentencing.
Britten has over a dozen other criminal cases in Minnesota including felony convictions for domestic assault, violation of a domestic abuse protection order, and failure to register as a predatory offender.
Britten’s other cases include three additional convictions for violation of protection orders, misdemeanor domestic assault, and driving after revocation or suspension.
Britten, whose aliases include Eric Britten and Julius Britton, is currently in custody in Hennepin County Jail on a felony hold for the Ramsey County warrant, for which $25,000 bail is required. It’s unclear from the dispatch audio whether Britten was the person sleeping in the tent at Currie Park or whether he was another individual at the park.
Follow the Ramsey County warrant case #62-CR-19-2662.
Photo credit: 2019 Ramsey County Sheriff website
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