Brown County District Court

• Four counts felony harassment restraining order – violate within 10 years of 1st of 2 previous convictions/adjudications were filed May 22 against Lazarous Lazaro Thomas, 26, 308 S. Front St., New Ulm. A Zoom hearing was set for 8:30 a.m. June 20, 2023.

According to court documents, New Ulm Police Sgt. Aaron Lewandowski got a call from an alleged victim Jan. 2, 2023 regarding a possible protection order violation Jan. 1, 2023 in New Ulm. The victim said she was contacted by a phone number she didn’t recognize but believed it to be Thomas. She took a screen shot of the texts and sent them to Sgt. Lewandowski.

The victim said she didn’t know where Thomas was living but that he recently got out of jail. New Ulm Police Investigator Tara Martin learned Thomas was released from the Scott County Jail Dec. 30, 2022 and listed his address in St. Peter.

An harassment restraining order (HRO) was issued Nov. 16, 2021 in Brown County that is in effect until Nov. 15, 2023. The order prohibits direct or indirect contact with the victim by Thomas. He was served the HRO Feb. 4, 2022.

On Feb. 19, 2023, Investigator Martin executed a search warrant on Thomas’ phone that New Ulm Police Senior Investigator Jeff Hohensee authored and used to seize Thomas’ phone Feb. 15, 2023.

Investigator Martin completed a digital extraction of Thomas’ phone and took photos of various screens. Viewing the phone, two email accounts were associated with Thomas.

On March 13, 2023, Investigator Martin got a call from Thomas who wanted to retrieve two cell phones police had in evidence. When asked, Thomas declined to give a statement about the harassment investigations.