By Elizabeth Baier

MPR, 90.1

Waseca — A day after a Waseca County judge dismissed the most serious charges against a 17-year-old charged with planning to kill his family and as many students as he could as his high school, the boy’s father said he doesn’t believe his son would have carried out the plan.

District Judge Gerald Wolf on Monday dismissed four charges of attempted first-degree murder against John LaDue, noting that prosecutors failed to show LaDue made a “substantial step, beyond mere preparation” toward committing the crimes.

His father, David LaDue, said Tuesday that police heightened the community’s concerns by holding press conferences and releasing audio tapes and other records in the case.

“I think they really oversold the story so now there’s a lot of angst,” the elder LaDue said. “There’s a lot of angry people. Angry at us, angry at the judge, angry at John. There’s people that, you know, what to put him away for life.”

Prosecutors charged his son with planning to kill his family and fellow students with a number of homemade explosives and a collection of firearms and ammunition. John LaDue, who still faces six counts of possession of explosive devices, returns to courtWednesday for a hearing on whether he should be certified to stand trial as an adult.

In an interview the night of his arrest, the 17-year-old told Waseca police that he planned to start the attack by blowing up a pressure cooker in the hallway between class periods and then throw pipe bombs into the school.

The judge’s ruling on Monday left many in the community wondering what will happen next.

“Some people are angry,” said Michelle Johnson, whose younger daughter attends Waseca Junior-Senior High School. “Some people are just concerned for the family, concerned for the kids at school.”