Minnesota Man Charged with Threatening a Witness in the Aaron Schaffhausen Trial

A 31-year-old Andover, Minn., man was charged with threatening a witness this week after he allegedly made vague threats toward witnesses and St. Croix County prosecutors involved with the Aaron Schaffhausen trial.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested Joseph Aaron Rollag inside the St. Croix County Government Center on April 5 after he allegedly called a psychiatric evaluating nurse and told her he was having “thoughts of harming or killing” the prosecutors and other witnesses testifying against Schaffhausen.

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Rollag worked with Aaron Schaffhausen and testified last week as a witness in the ongoing insanity trial.

According to the criminal complaint:

Rollag allegedly called a nurse from his pickup truck, and made vague threats toward prosecutors and other witnesses testifying against Schaffhausen.

The nurse called the county dispatch center, in turn, alerting officers at the courthouse, the complaint states. Deputies approached Rollag, who reportedly said, “bad things would happen” unless he immediately spoke with Schaffhausen’s attorney.

Deputies escorted Rollag into a conference room, where they found two knives on his person, the complaint states. A third knife was located in a truck he bought from Schaffhausen that was parked in the government center lot.

Rollag now faces a felony charge of battery or threatening a witness; as well as misdemeanor charges of possession of a switchblade knife, carrying a concealed weapon and disorderly conduct.