MARSHALL — Witness testimony continued Friday in the lawsuit against the owners of the Broadmoor Valley mobile home park in Marshall. However, one part of the day’s court proceedings happened without a jury present.

The morning started out with attorneys from the Minnesota General’s office moving for a mistrial in the case.

After hearing arguments from attorneys in the lawsuit, District Court Judge Tricia Zimmer denied the motion for a mistrial.

Members of the jury were then called in to hear testimony from several more witnesses, ranging from residents of Broadmoor Valley to an investigator working for the Attorney General’s Office.

The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office sued Broadmoor Valley owners Schierholz and Associates and Paul Schierholz in 2021. The Attorney General’s Office alleged the owners failed to maintain the park to state standards, charged unlawfully high fees for late rent, and retaliated against park residents.

On Friday, attorneys from the Attorney General’s Office said they were calling for a mistrial because some of the testimony heard this week would unfairly influence the jury. In particular, attorneys said that jurors had learned Residents United, a residents’ association at Broadmoor Valley, had already had an unsuccessful court case against the park owners in 2022. Some of the witnesses questioned over the past two days had also said they testified for the Residents United lawsuit.

Attorney Alex Baldwin said the jury would be “permanently prejudiced” by having heard that information.

After taking a recess to consider the argument, Zimmer denied the motion. Zimmer said the Attorney General’s Office had brought the issue of the previous lawsuit into this trial, through its claims that Broadmoor Valley owners Schierholz and Associates had retaliated against park residents.

Testimony continued, with jurors hearing from witnesses including Broadmoor Valley residents, businesspeople who had interacted with park owners, Marshall Fire Chief Quentin Brunsvold, former city building official Ilya Gutman, and an investigator with the consumer protection division at the Attorney General’s Office.

During part of Friday’s testimony, Thomas Hey of Southwest Coaches said the bus company has not had school buses pick up students inside Broadmoor Valley for about 12 years. Hey said after bringing up concerns about being able to navigate around potholes in the roads at the park, the company was requested not to enter Broadmoor Valley.

Hey testified that Southwest Coaches had received permission to enter the park again two or three years ago, but the poor road conditions had not changed. He also said he was aware that buses for disabled students do pick children up inside Broadmoor Valley.

Residents of Broadmoor Valley also testified about conditions at the park. Louise “Pat” Schmidt testified about problems getting trees overhanging her home trimmed, and issues with plowing roads in the park, and an abandoned home next door to her.

During another part of testimony, investigator Nina Grove with the Attorney General’s Office spoke about the condition of roads and vacant homes at the park over the past few years. Grove also explained a spreadsheet of information she compiled about late rent fees charged to Broadmoor Valley residents. Grove testified that the information came from Broadmoor Valley’s transaction data from 2015 to 2022.

Grove said instances of residents being charged late fees of more than 8% of their rent continued all through the time period the data was collected.

At the end of Friday’s court proceedings, one juror who had a conflict with part of the scheduled trial dates was excused from her duties. The juror was instructed not to talk about the trial until after Feb. 4, the last scheduled day for the trial.

Testimony will continue on Monday, Zimmer and attorneys said. Attorneys said Broadmoor Valley owner Paul Schierholz is planned to be called to the witness stand next week.