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Failed to show for early April hearing

 

A bench warrant has been issued for Kristofer Karl Luiken, 49, the man who held his daughter in a standoff with Austin Police in July of 2024.

According to court records, the warrant was issued by Mower County District Court Judge Kevin Siefken on Monday after Luiken failed to show for an April 2 hearing. An order for conditional release was issued on Nov. 27, 2024 of last year with several conditions including a requirement he make all future court appearances.

Luiken has been charged in Mower County with felony charges of endangerment of a child, obstruction of the legal process-interfering with a peace officer and threats of violence as well as a single gross misdemeanor of false imprisonment of a child.

In July of 2024 he was ordered to undergo a psychological examination. The examination’s report indicated that Luiken had been diagnosed with a major mental illness “which is considered to be a substantial psychiatric disorder of mood, thought, perception orientation or memory.”

In the findings of fact, it was stated that this would have impaired judgement, behavior, capacity to recognize reality, or to reason, or understand. It would have also posed a substantial likelihood of physical harm to self or others.

It was then found that Luiken presented a danger to himself and his daughter by driving at a high rate of speed and a paranoia that others were after him during the July incident.

The court then ordered that he was incompetent to stand trial in the case and that the charges were to be suspended until such time as Luiken was ruled competent to stand trial.

He was then ordered to be placed at the Anoka Metro Regional Treatment Center for in-patient services.

However, it was also ruled that the suspension of proceedings was not to exceed three years, at which point the case would have been dismissed.

A review hearing had been scheduled for Thursday afternoon in Mower County District Court.

According to the court complaint of the original incident, Owatonna Police were dispatched to a Kwik Trip in the 1000 block of Frontage Road West at around 9:47 p.m. on July 8 for a report of an adult male screaming at a child.

OPD made contact and questioned Luiken, observing that he appeared nervous and scared. After more time, an OPD officer, concerned about the relationship, asked Luiken to get out of the vehicle at which time Luiken became agitated. He then reached for a can of pepper spray in the vehicle and again was instructed to get out of the car.  

Luiken rolled up the windows, locked the doors and fled the scene, striking one of the OPD squad cars in the process.  

Luiken fled south on Interstate 90, exiting at Highway 14 and then going south on Highway 218. While OPD terminated the pursuit, Luiken was picked up again by the Minnesota State Patrol, Blooming Prairie Police Department and Mower County Sheriff’s Office.

The State Patrol was able to deploy stop sticks, deflating the tires on the vehicle he was driving.  Luiken continued into Mower County and then into Austin, where he pulled into the driveway of his mother’s house in the 1700 block of Fourth Avenue NW.   

Luiken was eventually taken into custody at around 9 a.m. on July 9.