Meanwhile in Mankato (5): The Acquittal That Exposed Minnesota’s Blind Spot

By the early 1980s, Brian Lee Hendrickson was still working at the Minnesota Home School in Sauk Centre, supervising teenage girls. When one of them—Michelle—spoke up, she was dismissed as unstable and her accusation brushed aside. Hendrickson walked free again.

In this episode, Michelle tells her story, while Hendrickson’s brothers and Michelle’s husband reflect on how this could have happened. Dakota Spotlight revisits a Minnesota courtroom case where no one seemed to realize that the man on trial had already been convicted of murder years earlier.

Through careful investigative journalism, this true crime podcast examines how blind faith in rehabilitation allowed history to repeat itself—and how one survivor’s courage brings long-overdue clarity to a broken justice system.

Meanwhile in Mankato was written, researched, edited, and produced by James Wolner. Additional research assistance by Mari Zoerb Hansen.

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