3 federal prisoners charged with attacking 2 officers at Sherburne County jail

Three federal prisoners with violent histories have been charged with ambushing and assaulting two corrections officers at the Sherburne County jail.

Indicted Tuesday in federal court in St. Paul were Ira L. Goodwin, Michael S. Luedtke and Edward M. Robinson on charges of conspiracy to assault federal law enforcement officers and assisting an assault of law enforcement officers during the Feb. 8 attack.

Jesse P. Kipka was assaulted with a chair and hit on the head with his own pepper spray can, leaving him with a concussion, according to prosecutors. His colleague, Jesse J. Overlie, was struck with a chair. Both were "extensively bruised" while assisting U.S. marshals at the jail, said U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman Jeanne Cooney.

The Sheriff’s Office declined to field any questions about the case, including whether or not the two officers have missed any time on duty.

Cooney said the public case file against the inmates did not address whey the attack occurred.

Robinson, 28, was being held while his trial continues on charges involving an arson and double murder on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. He’s one of four accused of stealing money and drugs from a reservation couple, fatally stabbing them and then leaving their bodies to burn in their torched home on New Year’s Day 2011.

Goodwin, 26, an admitted member of the Native Mob gang, was being held pending federal court sentencing after pleading guilty to charges related to a conspiracy trial now underway for several fellow gang members.

Prosecutors describe the Native Mob as a disciplined criminal organization with more than 200 members operating in Minnesota, Wisconsin and elsewhere. Authorities say the gang sells drugs and commits assaults and drive-by shootings and murders to silence witnesses and fend off rivals.

Luedtke, 25, was in the jail awaiting transfer to a federal prison to begin serving a 25-year sentence after admitting to holding up three sandwich shops two days apart at gunpoint in late December 2011, two of them in Roseville and the other in Newport.

All three remain in the Sherburne County jail, a major regional facility with space for 667 inmates. The majority of its bed space is rented to the federal government.