Brown County

District Court

* Justin J. Larson, 33, 206 Summit Ave., Hanska, was the defendent for charges filed Tuesday including felony violating a harassment restraining order (HRO) within 10 years of two previous domestic violence convictions/adjudications.

According to court documents, New Ulm Police received a phone call at 11:31 a.m., Sunday, May 10 from a woman who said she received a phone call while driving on Minnesota Street in New Ulm in which she heard heavy breathing for about 20 seconds. She agreed to met with police with a witness who recorded the phone call.

The HRO against Larson through Nicollet County is active until Sept. 11, 2021, and reads that Larson is not to have direct or indirect contact with the woman unless its through text message and about the welfare of their children.

The woman told police she believes the person breathing heavily in the call is Larson, due to his calling her and breathing heavily in the past. The woman said she exchanged test messages with the phone number she believed to be Larson. Police photographed the text messages and saved them.

The text messages mentioned the names of people the woman visited the previous night while looking for firewood. The woman texted Larson to “stop harassing me.”

The woman told police she could not explain how Larson knew she was in New Ulm, since she doesn’t live there and said she thought Larson was pretending to be another person that she just met in the last week.

The woman told police Larson is continually using created phone numbers to contact her. In the phone recordings between the woman and Larson, he believes his phone is tapped and she believes he is upset because she is dating someone else.

Later in the day, the woman and a witness returned to the LEC as Larson continued to contact her after she left the LEC. The witness offered police two photos of Facebook notifications that Larson requested their friendship.

The woman confirmed Larson’s profile as belonging to him, despite his having multiple accounts with the same profile and that Larson was on the woman’s blocked list.

Listening to a call, police recognized Larson’s voice from when the woman called him earlier that day.

Police executed a search warrant at Larson’s residence, knocked on the door, got no answer, and forcibly entered the residence. Larson was not located.

A review of his criminal history showed multiple convictions of domestic violence-related offenses including fifth-degree assault convicted May 6, 2013, and on Jan. 23, 2018. Based on that, a complaint-warrant was requested at any time of the day or night in Minnesota.