Octogenarian jailed over junk

Under the beating rays of the afternoon sun, Ken Sederstrom and his18-year-old son Thomas sifted through 60 years’ worth of trinkets andtrash in the South St. Paul back yard of a stubborn old man who neverthrew anything away.

“That’s a lot of good luck,” Ken Sederstrom said, pointing to a box full of rusty horseshoes.

Old car parts. Boxes of decades-old empty beer bottles. Random planks of wood.

It all has to go before 88-year-old Robert George Schulze can comehome from Dakota County jail, where he has been held since Tuesday. Hisback yard was just too messy.

The city of South St. Paul had received complaints from neighborssince before 1992 about the junky yard. Letters from the city turnedinto notices, then to visits from city inspectors, then to fines andfinally to court action.

“Each time he’d appear, he’d pay the fines and not comply the next month,” said Assistant City Attorney Kori Land.

Dakota County District Judge Leslie Metzen gave Schulze 30 days toclean up, threatening him with jail time if that didn’t happen.

It didn’t happen.

…and Schultze is still in jail.  Read the rest of the story in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Ed.:  I find it distressing that a judge would imprison an elderly person due to his accumulation of  excess junk.  Dealing with someone who lives in a so-called “garbage house” calls for compassion and the careful involvement of social welfare, medical, and legal professionals–not the iron hand of the law.  What is Judge Metzen thinking???