"Former Mille Lacs Band Police Chief Found Guilty of Child Sexual Assault"

Former Mille Lacs Band police chief, Russell J. Bankey, has been convicted of sexually assaulting a child from 2009 to 2015 and is accused of abusing another child in the early 1990s. Bankey, now 75, was charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct after a woman came forward with allegations. Evidence included a recorded phone call where Bankey admitted to the abuse. The jury found him guilty, and he is awaiting sentencing. Bankey served as a deputy and later as police chief for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe before resigning from his part-time court security officer position in 2021.