歪歪漫画

OLIVIA, Minn. 鈥� Bail was set at $1 million for the Watson man who surrendered to law enforcement after a standoff with a SWAT team outside of his home on Jan. 11.

The Chippewa County Attorney鈥檚 Office filed a felony charge of ineligible possession of ammunition and two felony charges of threats of violence against Joseph Mark Rongstad, 41, on Thursday, Jan. 18.

Contributed / Chippewa County Sheriff's Office

District Judge Laurence Stratton set bail after a brief hearing Thursday in district court in Renville County.

Rongstad remains in custody in the Chippewa County Jail.

He became the focus of statewide attention after on Jan. 11. According to the complaint, he allegedly began making threatening posts on his company鈥檚 Facebook page at 12:38 a.m.

Law enforcement had begun searching for him the day before. Social media posts he made on Jan. 10 suggested he was possibly having a mental health crisis.

The criminal complaint alleges that after his arrest, Rongstad told an investigator at the Chippewa County Jail that he did not have a gun, nor did he have any plans to travel to the University of Minnesota campus, as stated in the social media posts.

The complaint alleges that he told the investigator he wanted to get the attention of the Secret Service and 鈥渢he Klein family.鈥� He referred to the family as being involved with the National Security Agency; although he did not know anyone in the family, he told the investigator.

Early in the interview, Rongstad 鈥渢alked about how back when he was the Mayor of Watson, he started catching onto government stuff, such as mind reading, MK Ultra-mind control, and shadow government,鈥� the complaint stated.

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Rongstad has prior criminal convictions for erratic behavior, including firing a rifle through the sunroof of a vehicle 鈥渢o stop corpses,鈥� and burglarizing the former mayor鈥檚 home as he and his family slept.

A search of Rongstad鈥檚 home in Watson following his arrest led to the seizure of these items:

• Letters written on paper (as seen in the Facebook posts)
• A black case with unidentified pills
• Handmade envelopes with writing on them
• Several boxes and rounds of (shotgun) ammunition

The social media posts by Rongstad that are cited in the complaint also include references to the district judges in Chippewa and Yellow Medicine counties, as well as law enforcement officers.