Man accused of stalking Minneapolis council member Koski has decade-long record of harassment

A man with a history of mental illness has been accused of threatening and stalking Minnesota elected officials for more than a decade, according to interviews and court records.

The man’s pattern was thrust into the open Tuesday afternoon, when Minneapolis City Council Member Emily Koski went public with something she’d kept mostly to herself for over two years: She has been the target of escalating harassment by a man who caused her and her family stress, anxiety and an “unshakable sense of being unsafe.”

“It was a deliberate, relentless, escalating pattern of behavior,” Koski wrote in an email to constituents, noting that she’s obtained a restraining order in court.

Koski was not the only target. Jamison Whiting, Koski’s successor-elect, Hennepin County Commissioner Angela Conley and state Rep. Emma Greenman told the Minnesota Star Tribune they’ve experienced similar problems with the man, who is 58 years old and lives in the south Minneapolis area they represent. Whiting has also sought court intervention.

Other elected officials have also had run-ins with him, but they declined to speak about their experiences on the record.

The behavior became more alarming in light of a spate of political violence in Minnesota this summer, including the murders of former state House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and shootings of shooting of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, as well as the slaying of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.

In court documents and her email, Koski described the man appearing at public and private events and following her and her staff afterward.

Because the man has not been charged with a crime, the Minnesota Star Tribune is not naming him. The Star Tribune generally doesn’t name people who have not been charged with a crime.

It’s unclear how far back the man’s behavior goes.

In 2014, the man’s former wife petitioned Hennepin County District Court and won a protection order on behalf of herself and their daughter, who was 8 years old.

She alleged he repeatedly gave the girl spankings that left bruises, slapped her face and pulled her hair. The filing said her former husband blamed the corporal punishment on her and the “police state.”

Court records show the man admitted to threatening a “county official” in September 2014, according to an order, sought by his ex-wife later that month, that he be involuntarily committed to a mental health facility.

The involuntary commitment was stayed under the condition that he voluntarily remain at the Hennepin County Medical Center until discharged, take all medication prescribed, and not engage in “assaultive, threatening, intimidating or self-injurious behavior, including behavior which results in destruction of property.”

Koski sought a restraining order in March against the man, who lives in her council ward, alleging he has “continually harassed myself and staff” beginning in July 2023 with a string of troubling emails that continued and escalated for the next year-and-a-half.

He was told by a sheriff’s deputy to leave a town hall meeting she was hosting at the Lake Nokomis Community Center, according to Koski’s petition.

He also showed up at other public events that Koski attended, her petition alleged, including a fall festival in September 2024 at the Minneapolis home of a state representative and a monthly ward meeting on Jan. 7 at Pearl Park Recreation Center. He allegedly distributed the message “mayor silence violence” handwritten in red, according to Koski’s petition.

Further allegations against the man came out in October during an evidentiary hearing: During a March mayoral campaign event, he handed out “Silence = Violence” flyers in the parking lot, with “Violence” written in red and set up signs that included “Koski Keeps Kids Sick” and “Koski Stole Our Voice.”

A judge granted an emergency two-year restraining order the next day, according to court records, ordering the man to stop harassing Koski and stay away from her home and City Hall.

In her email to constituents, Koski spoke of the toll the repeated episodes took. “Each incident chipped away at the sense of safety I once felt,” Koski wrote.

She and her staff tried “everything we could,” listening, offering resources, de-escalating.

“Again and again, the answer was the same: There’s nothing we can do — call 911 when it escalates.”

Koski questions why the city — with all the policing and behavioral crisis response resources at its fingertips — couldn’t do more to protect and support them.

Asked to comment, a city spokesperson released a statement saying, “The City Attorney’s Office does not have legal authority to provide representation to individuals in the (harassment restraining order) process, even if they are council members.”

Minneapolis City Council members do not have security details; only the mayor has a security guard who doubles as his driver.

After Koski abandoned her run for mayor and decided not to run for re-election to the council earlier this year, Jamison Whiting began campaigning for her seat. Immediately, Koski’s alleged harasser began targeting him, too.

In an interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune, Whiting said the man showed up at his campaign kickoff one year ago, wrote him “creepy emails,” and appeared at public events like caucuses and town halls.

After Whiting got a temporary restraining order, the man threatened to “protest” at Washburn High School, where Whiting coaches.

Whiting tried talking to the man, but said “it goes off the deep end” at a certain point, with the man spewing conspiracy theories.

Court records show Whiting filed a petition in May for a restraining order, which was ultimately vacated.

Even though Whiting is a lawyer who worked for the City Attorney’s Office before being elected in November, he’s thinking about hiring a lawyer to help him.

On April 8, at a caucus at Justice Page Elementary School, Whiting said while he posed for a photo with Mayor Jacob Frey, Whiting was hit in the back of the head and shoulder with a pole the man held up behing them with attached signs that included language saying “Civil Rights – Whiting – Die Here."

A copy of a judge’s emergency order granting the restraining order was given to the man two days after the petition was filed. However, a follow-up hearing requested by the man led the court to vacate the restraining order in September.

As for the man hitting Whiting, a “security and logistical support” provider for the man said he was there and saw no assault, and Whiting acknowledged he was not injured, the order said.

After the slayings of Hortman and her husband and shootings of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church, and the killing of Charlie Kirk, Whiting paused his campaign for about a week to decide with his wife whether they wanted to press on.

Whiting said the shootings and this experience have been especially difficult for him because his father, who struggled with addiction, was shot and killed outside a Salvation Army late at night in Arizona when Whiting was 7 years old.

Conley, the Hennepin County commissioner, said she and her office workers have also been targeted, to the point where sometimes she is escorted by security to events. He showed up to a county convention in 2022 and community events hosted by Conley and Koski.

“This is something that we face as electeds, particularly women,” Conley said. “We want to be visible in the community but we also have to be safe.”

Public events were a cornerstone of her campaign, she said, but she stopped holding ward meetings.

“I stopped showing up in the way I once had, not because I wanted to, but because it became the only way to keep residents, my staff and myself safe,” she wrote.

Koski said several of her council colleagues are dealing with similar experiences.

“It is a sobering reminder that harassment, intimidation, and threats are being normalized in our politics. And unless we confront this reality, good people will continue to be driven out of public service, silenced, or harmed,” she said.