Cop killer to remain locked up

On the morning of July 5, 1988, Jim Jensen, then a Dodge County deputy, was first on scene after Claremont Police Chief Greg Lange was shot.

“That moment was the worst thing that I had to do in my 37 years of law enforcement was when I called out on the radio 'officer down,'” Jensen recalled.

Jensen was working the night shift with another deputy when a call came in to back up Lange on a domestic. Lange was off duty at the time.

“I was the first officer to arrive on the scene, and as I pulled into the alley where the house was located, I saw Chief Lange laying on the ground,” Jensen said.

Thirty-seven years later, he was seated in the front row as Andrew Salinas, the man convicted of killing Lange, was denied parole for a fifth time, on a 3-2 vote.

Recalling Lange

Jensen, eventually retired as Dodge County Sheriff. He was a resident of Claremont when Lange started working there.

“Chief Lange would stop at my house when he was working to ask questions about residents in Claremont,” Jensen said. “Chief Lange and I were law enforcement friends. I shared much of my knowledge of Claremont with Chief Lange.”

Jensen also described Lange as a “very easy-going law enforcement officer.”

“He could be considered a community police officer and fit in very well in the small town of Claremont,” Jensen said. “He earned the respect of most of the citizens of Claremont.”

Second Chance?

During his parole hearing on Friday, Salinas spoke about restorative justice and what it meant to him.

“Restorative justice to me is being accountable for what I did, facing up for what I have done, and understanding the impact of what my actions have done,” he told the Review Board.

He explained his daughter was only a few months old when he went to prison. Now, 37 years later, he wants a second chance to spend time with his daughter, his grandkids, and great-grandkids.

His proposed release plan was to spend six months to a year in a minimum-security facility in Red Wing or a medium-security facility in Faribault and then join a work release program at the Damascus Way re-entry facility in Rochester.

He said he chose those places “because all of those facilities are close to where my family lives.”

Once established at  Damascus Way, he said, he would look for a church to join.

“I believe I have the ability to give back to the community,”  Salinas said, explaining he could help in the kitchen with cooking and baking. 

Salinas also said he would go to juvenile homes to give his testimony about his time being incarcerated and how, among other things, restorative justice has helped him turn his life around. 

“The reason I would like to talk to juveniles is because I'm hoping I can change their way of thinking while they're young,”  Salinas said. 

Community outrage

Ahead of the hearing, the Review Board received many letters opposing Salinas' parole, including from current Dodge County Sheriff Scott Rose. Rose also encouraged people to send in their own letters.

“I would respectfully ask that the panel deny parole or early release of any kind for Salinas.

Andrew and his brother Robert brutally beat, shot, and murdered Chief Greg Lange from the Claremont Police Department in 1988,” Rose wrote in his letter.

When asked about people’s reaction to his possible release,  Salinas said he has changed his thinking, has attended Alcoholics Anonymous and participated in the restorative justice program for years.

“For one thing, I am not a violent man, sure, I committed a violent crime, that was 37 years ago, that's not who I am today,” he said. 

The phone call 

The five-member Life Sentence Review Board, chaired by the Commissioner of Corrections, started reviewing and voting on parole requests in 2024. Prior to that, the Commissioner of Corrections was responsible for granting or denying parole. 

Current commissioner Paul Schnell said that, before the last hearing, he received a phone call from someone in a relationship with Salinas.

During last week's hearing, Salinas was asked what he learned from that experience.

“The main thing I learned about that is to not trust people right away,” he said. “I believed everything she was saying to me.”

Salinas said it was his fault for not finding out who she really was before forming a relationship with her. He thought she was trying to help him, before finding out she contacted Schnell and, allegedly, others.

Salinas said he told her not to worry about what people were saying about him and not to contact anyone

After the 2023 hearing, Salinas said, he ended the relationship.

Asked about concerns over his ability to make individual decisions, Salinas said, “I am going to surround myself with more positive people” who would keep him on the right track. He said he has connected with people in the community through a spiritual advisor.

Someone asked whether it struck Salinas that he wants to connect with his family, when that's exactly what he took away from the Lange family. 

“I’m sorry for that, I can’t undo that,” Salinas said. “I don’t know what else I can do to repair that harm other than trying to help people out.”

Salinas also noted he had met all his directives given to him from his 2023 hearing, and he has dealt with the issues which landed him in prison.

“I know I’m not perfect but I have worked on becoming a better man,” Salinas said.

Differing opinions 

During the deliberations, the Review Board asked Schnell to explain more about the phone call.

He said the person, who was not identified during the hearing, talked about how Salinas wouldn’t get a fair shake because he killed a cop.

“It was quite contentious and challenging,” Schnell said.

Board member Jo C. Earhart said she thought Salinas has made meaningful change while behind prison walls for close to four decades.

“His institutional behavior over the last two decades reflects some very meaningful and sustained commitment to change,” she said. “He’s taken responsibility for his actions, he’s addressed the factors that lead up to it and shown he’s capable of making a safe transition toward a structured return to society.”

While he said he didn’t want the phone call to sway any of the other Board members' decisions, Schnell said he still has concerns about Salinas' relationships when he gets out of prison. 

Earhart disagreed.

“I can tell you it's very, very common for people in prison to have connections with somebody on the outside and then discover they’ve been deceived… and to allow one person to overturn the work done during the… last 20 years, it does not seem like a good decision to me,” she said. 

Salinas’ next parole hearing will take place in two years.