Celebrity chef Justin Sutherland charged with threats of violence against girlfriend in St. Paul

Mara H. Gottfried, Pioneer Press
Updated ·7 min read

Ramsey County prosecutors charged celebrity chef Justin Sutherland Monday with pointing a gun at his girlfriend and threatening her, but his attorney said that never happened nor was there any physical attack.

Sutherland’s girlfriend told police that during an argument on Friday, he “grabbed her neck with both hands and squeezed for approximately five to six seconds,” according to a criminal complaint charging Sutherland with one felony. “While strangling her, Sutherland said, ‘I could kill you.'”

The 24-year-old woman called her sister and Sutherland, 39, ripped the phone from her hand and broke it on the counter, so the woman ran to a neighbor’s house to use the phone, the complaint said.

When she walked back to the house, Sutherland was standing in the back door with a handgun pointed at her, made a comment about her “talking to their racist neighbors” and said, “Take two more steps. I dare you,” the complaint continued.

The woman said she slowly walked toward Sutherland because he still had the gun pointed at her, and he told her, “I’m not kidding. I’ll shoot you. This is my property,” according to the complaint. The woman said she knocked the gun from Sutherland’s hand.

Attorney John Daly, who is representing Sutherland, said the complaint is “riddled with lies” and he said Sutherland is “looking forward to the truth coming out.” There was an argument between the couple “that didn’t involve physical violence whatsoever,” he said during Sutherland’s first court appearance Monday morning. A friend of Sutherland’s who was present said he didn’t see a gun, according to the complaint and Daly.

The only conviction on Sutherland’s record is a 2008 DWI charge, Minnesota court records show. He has no history of assaultive behavior, according to Daly.

“Justin Sutherland is a staple in the culinary community,” Daly said outside of court. “The person he is on TV is the person he is: warm, caring and compassionate.”

Criminal complaint: Broken phone, threat

Police responded Friday, just after 8 p.m., after a 911 caller reported he saw a person with a gun enter a vacant building at the back door. He later told police that “he saw a female standing with her hands in the air with a look of fear on her face” and saw a man walking toward the building’s back door with a firearm in his hand, the complaint said.

Another person contacted police and said she was Facetiming with her sister, and her sister said her boyfriend was trying to kill her. The woman said she heard the male tell her sister, “I wish you were dead right now,” the complaint said. She said she saw Sutherland slam her sister’s phone down and then she could no longer reach her sister. Police later found the broken phone, the complaint said.

An officer saw a man, identified as Sutherland, walk out of the back of the address and told him to put his hands on his head. Sutherland screamed, “I called 911 and (you’re) trying to (expletive) arrest me?” the complaint said, adding that he yelled “racially derogatory remarks at the officer” but complied with verbal commands and was taken into custody.

Another man who came out of the building told police he’s Sutherland’s best friend. He said the building at Front Avenue and Milton Street, in St. Paul’s Como neighborhood, is a place that Sutherland is planning to turn into a restaurant. Sutherland and his girlfriend moved into the building a week earlier and were living in the onsite apartment.

Sutherland and the woman were in a relationship for over a year, but the argument was between people who were at the end of their relationship, Daly said.

The woman told police that they argued because he told her they were no longer going to a music festival, and that Sutherland was upset about neighbors being racist toward him and she believed he “took his anger out on her,” the complaint said. She reported “ongoing verbal abuse from Sutherland, and that he can be violent when angry,” the complaint said, adding that she reported he broke her car windshield two days earlier.

Guns were his grandfather’s

Sutherland’s best friend said Sutherland texted him Friday and said he and his girlfriend had a fight earlier in the day, so he was going to take a walk. While on his way to St. Paul, he said Sutherland called and screamed that his girlfriend went to the “racist neighbor” about him and Sutherland said something to the effect of, “If I need to get my guns, I will,” the complaint said.

Daly said in court that Sutherland was in fear of the neighbor because he flew a Confederate flag and had previously used a racial epithet.

Meanwhile, Sutherland’s friend said he told Sutherland not to do anything with his guns. He said when he arrived and walked inside, Sutherland and the woman were screaming at each other and trying to fight, so he “had to physically get in the middle of them and push them apart,” the complaint continued.

Police carried out a search warrant at the address and found a gun case on top of the bed with two firearms inside. Police located eight additional firearms, which they also collected. Police saw what appeared to be “a blood-like substance” on one of the guns and Sutherland’s hands had blood on them when police had contact with him, the complaint said.

Most of the firearms are Sutherland’s grandfather’s and are family heirlooms, Daly said. Ramsey County Judge Nicole Starr ordered that Sutherland surrender his firearms while the case is ongoing, and Daly said they would have them transferred to his family.

About 90 minutes before police went to the Front Avenue address, they’d been called to the same location, the complaint also said. Sutherland’s girlfriend called 911 and reported her boyfriend choked her and was trying to kick her out of the apartment; she was crying and wouldn’t provide his name “because she did not want to get anyone in trouble,” the complaint said.

Officers spoke with Sutherland’s girlfriend then, who said they “had a disagreement about something stupid,” they “were in each other’s faces” and he pushed her in the upper chest, but she said she was fine and didn’t need police assistance, according to the complaint.

Daly said it was Sutherland, not his girlfriend, who made the earlier call to police.

Released from jail

After Sutherland’s arrest, an investigator went to talk to him at the Ramsey County jail. He asked what he was being charged with. He was told he was being held on threats of violence and assault. “Sutherland said that was a lie and requested a lawyer,” the complaint said.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged Sutherland with threatening to commit a crime of violence in reckless disregard of the risk.

Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Ann Kahn requested bail be set at $50,000 or $25,000 with conditions. She said there were safety concerns because of the allegations in the complaint that Sutherland was threatening his girlfriend with a firearm, that he threatened to kill her, and that 10 firearms were found at the address.

Daly said the allegations in the complaint weren’t true. He said Sutherland’s friend told them that the woman has removed all of her belongings from the address, and their relationship is over.

“These are serious allegations,” Judge Starr said, but she added that she takes into account that they are allegations. Based on Sutherland’s DWI case being far in the past and prior instances of Sutherland returning to court, Starr released Sutherland without having to post bail. His next court appearance is scheduled for August.

The St. Paul chef has been featured on “Iron Chef,” “Fast Foodies,” “Top Chef,” “Taste the Culture” and a judge on several other food-focused TV shows and talk shows such as “Good Morning America.” He is a Food Network “Iron Chef” winner and season finalist on “Top Chef.” He also is the author of a cookbook, “Northern Soul,” and won an Emmy for “Taste the Culture.”

He opened his first restaurant, Handsome Hog, in St. Paul’s Lowertown. Sutherland is no longer affiliated with that restaurant but owns Big E, an egg sandwich shop on Grand Avenue.

Earlier this year, he announced he was going to help reopen the beloved Rondo community restaurant Golden Thyme Coffee and Cafe. Sutherland and his dad, Kerry Sutherland, are partnering with the nonprofit Rondo Community Land Trust to open the restaurant.

Domestic violence help

Help is available 24/7 through the Minnesota Day One crisis hotline by calling 866-223-1111 or texting 612-399-9995.

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