Crime & Safety

60-Year-Old Woman Tries to Fight Police, Loses

Officers wanted to arrest Linda Berneta Hart on suspicion of violating her release conditions.

A Hopkins senior is accused of fighting police who tried to arrest her Monday at Hiawatha Court apartments.

A man told police who went to the apartment at 7:25 p.m. that his mother, 60-year-old Linda Berneta Hart, had been drinking in violation of her release conditions in a Hennepin County assault case, Detective Renee Meuwissen wrote in the charging documents. The man said he went to the apartment to get his property since Hart had been evicted.

Officers could smell alcohol on Hart, and she admitted drinking. A breath test showed a reading of .054 percent, and officers arrested her for violating her release conditions.

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As they were walking, though, Hart began screaming that she didn’t want her son in her apartment and started to “kick her legs into the air and jerk and thrash her body in an effort to escape,” according to the court documents.

After the officer got her on the floor to control her, Hart continued to kick her legs, Meuwissen wrote. She refused to stand and continued kicking her legs when officers tried to stand her on her feet.

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Police put her legs in a hobble to keep her from kicking.

Hart has been charged with obstructing the legal process with force—a gross misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $3,000 fine. She also has been charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduction, which has a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.


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