Local News

27-year-old Trey Ertl of Litchfield was sentenced on Monday to 20-years in prison for beating and stabbing a man during a robbery near Litchfield in June of 2024.  Ertl was given credit for 478 days he has spent behind bars since his arrest. 

The 240 month sentence handed down by Judge Stephanie Beckman in Meeker County District Court was for his August conviction on a charge of Attempted 2nd Degree Murder, and will be served concurrently with sentences of 192 months and 132 months for convictions of 1st Degree Assault and 1st Degree Aggravated Robbery.  
 
Ertl and two others brought an Olivia man to a rural area to look at a camper for sale, then stole the cash the victim had with him, hit him with a car, beat and stabbed him, but he survived. 
 
Ertl was also going to go on trial this week on assault charges for beating a fellow inmate in the Meeker County Jail in February, but entered into an Alford Plea of Guilty last week.  He was sentenced to 33 months in prison Monday. And last week, Ertl pleaded guilty to 1st Degree Assault for beating a man during a robbery in Litchfield in March of last year, and four other charges, including Attempted Murder, were dismissed.  

On Monday Ertl was sentenced to 12 years and 2 months in prison but will serve that sentence, along with the inmate-beating sentence, at the same time as his sentences in the camper assault case.  He was also ordered to pay his victim nearly $30,000 in restitution. 

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The Litchfield City Council has approved of the first reading of an ordinance authorizing a sanitary sewer rate increase. Rates will increase 3% for residential and commercial customers.

City Administrator Dave Czoik says the City is looking at wastewater projects totaling 40-to-60-million dollars, and some of the industrial customers will bear much of the cost, but the rates need to increase for all customers to help pay for the needed wastewater infrastructure for the next 10 years, beginning in 2026. Residential customers 70 and older can apply at City Hall for reduced rate increases.

Cziok began a discussion about future equipment purchases. Council member Darlene Kotelnicki then introduced a resolution for the staff to purchase a couple of pieces of equipment that are needed in the immediate future. Council member Malinda Larson amended Kotelnicki’s resolution to allow staff to purchase items on the equipment list that were under $25,000 each. The amended resolution passed on a 3-to-2 vote with Kotelnicki and Council member Bob Powers opposed.

A resolution was also introduced last night to allow people to get a $50 membership at the new Litchfield Area Recreation Center just to use the walking track from November through March in the coming year from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day. It passed on a 3-to-2 vote with Kotelnicki and Powers opposed.

Also last night, the Litchfield City Council designated the Litchfield Rail as the official newspaper and approved of spending $4,680 to install lights on a deciduous tree in Central Park again this holiday season.

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The Litchfield High School Hall of Fame induction ceremony for 2025 is coming up this Friday at 7 p.m. in the Litchfield High School Commons. This year’s inductees include Andrew Revering, Donald Schreifels, the late Mark Wood, and Debra Freitag Baker.

Debra Freitag Baker, daughter of Jerry & Judy Freitag, graduated from Litchfield High School in 1981 and says she has wonderful memories of growing up in Litchfield where she worked at Red Owl and was on the swim and track teams, among other high school activities. She says she went to Bemidji State after high school and got a degree in aquatic biology in 1985 and then decided to enlist in the U.S. Navy.

Freitag Baker says she traveled all over the world and lived in places such as Japan, Fresno and San Diego, California before retiring in 2018. She says it can be difficult – especially in a small town, to take that first step, but her advice to young people is to get away and see the world.

Freitag Baker says she now lives in Remer – in Northern Minnesota – and is involved in the VFW, the community garden where produce is raised for the food shelf, is on the Longville Area Food Shelf Board of Directors, and is in a quilting organization that provides quilts for the sheriff’s department, for children’s homes, the VA home in Bemidji and for various shelters. Debra says she’s very excited and honored to be in the Litchfield High School Hall of Fame and she will be in Litchfield on Friday for the Hall of Fame-related events at the High School.

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The Minnesota State Patrol responded to a one-vehicle crash on Saturday morning at 12:50 on Highway 22 at mile post 137 in Greenleaf Township in Meeker County. A 2024 GMC Sierra – driven by 55-year-old William Bernard Deadrick of Litchfield – entered the ditch and crashed.

The GMC was traveling southbound on Highway 22 at the time of the crash. Deadrick received non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to Meeker Memorial Hospital. Alcohol is believed to be a factor in the crash. Also responding were the Meeker County Sheriff’s Office and Mayo Ambulance.

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