Keri-Anne Ruzin
Keri-Anne Ruzin

A woman who struck a retired police officer and ran over his dog as she fled an estate sale she had burglarized was sentenced Thursday, Nov. 15, to eight months in jail.

The former police officer, Sgt. Thomas Foss, 73, was knocked to the ground in the incident on June 28. He was walking his dog, a miniature dachshund named Callie, when he realized Keri-Anne Ruzin was trying to escape.

She was hurrying out of an estate sale in the 2200 block of Selby Avenue in St. Paul, where she'd stolen the wallet out of a purse, she admitted at her Oct. 2 plea hearing.

"And you know this event led to other unfortunate things?" Ramsey County District Judge Robyn Millenacker said at the plea hearing.

"I know -- the poor dog!" Ruzin, 33, said. "I'm a dog lover. My mom has dogs."

She apologized for her actions.

"I cannot be certain why something so foolish seemed like a good idea," Ruzin said at her sentencing in Ramsey County District Court.

Police were called to the house about 1 p.m. the day of the incident.

A man reported the family was having a garage sale with items from a relative's estate. Everyone was in the garage. When he went inside to get something, he saw a woman there who was later identified as Ruzin. She claimed she didn't know she wasn't supposed to be in the house.

The man got worried when he saw a purse on a counter. The woman who owned it discovered that her wallet was missing. They confronted Ruzin.

Ruzin was attempting to flee in her pickup truck as Foss walked by with the dog. He told her to get out and reached through the window, but she started driving. He was knocked down. Ruzin hit him and the dog. Foss went to the hospital for treatment of knee and hand abrasions. Callie had to be put down.

Ruzin, of St. Paul, was to have received a four-month sentence. But prosecutors charged her with other crimes after her guilty plea, including financial transaction card fraud in Dakota and Washington counties. Because of those alleged offenses, the judge was no longer bound by the plea agreement in the Ramsey County case.

Ruzin said she had no recollection of an arrest in Stillwater. She said her ID had been stolen.

Millenacker also ordered Ruzin to remain law-abiding, get mental health treatment and pay a $250 fine. If she violates terms of the sentence, she could be sentenced to 28 months in prison. She will remain on probation for up to 10 years.
