After 2 teens' life-changing falls in Minneapolis, attorneys investigate property owner liability

A fall at abandoned properties changed two teenagers' lives forever. Now the law firm representing them is investigating whether the property owners could be held responsible.

One of the accidents happened at an old grain elevator that's now the centerpiece of a new Minneapolis park. Upper Harbor Park, located on the city's north side next to the Mississippi River, opened in September.

The park is a mix of industrial history, greenspace and walking paths. But a year before it became a public destination, urban explorers, like Madison Frey, climbed into the graffiti-covered abandoned structure.

"They entered through a fence that had a hole in it that was the size of a human being," said John Gorey, an attorney who represents Frey through his firm Romanucci and Blanding.

In September 2025, when Frey was 18 years old, Gorey said she fell five stories and severely hurt her spine. At one point she couldn't walk. Today, she needs technological assistance to do so. 

"She's on an upward trajectory," said Gorey, before adding that Frey will be disabled going forward.

Urban exploring is a popular trend in which young people, often teenagers, trespass onto sometimes abandoned properties to record content for social media.

Romanucci and Blandin, along with Riach Law, also represent Ash Ranallo-Korbell. The 18-year-old fell 20 stories in August after climbing the Checkerboard Grain Elevator in south Minneapolis. He also suffered life-changing injuries.

The lawyers are asking for the properties to be better secured, while investigating whether property owners or the city might be responsible for not keeping people out.

"In taking on Ash's case, we began investigating and saw that there were numerous citizen complaints to the city to take action in order to close the penetrations and the fence lines around that property," said Gorey.

A neighbor WCCO talked to this summer, Vox Payne, is one of those citizens. 

"We've talked about it plenty with the city, and with other neighbors and with the police, and we kept warning them something terrible is going to happen; we know something is. And sure enough, the first thing we thought of when we heard those screams were the teenagers are up there," said Payne back in August.

Through their investigation, Gorey said the hope is to improve community safety around the properties "by ensuring that the people that are responsible for these properties shut them down in a way that is meaningful and is not penetrable by these kids." 

Gorey added that lawsuits could be possible based on the evidence they find.

WCCO talked with Derek Stewart, a Minneapolis attorney who is not affiliated with these cases, to learn how a property owner could be held liable if a trespasser was hurt.

"Maybe there were prior complaints or maybe there was prior law enforcement involvement. There's also some concerns about the level of warning. Is there just a fence? Are there [no trespassing] signs? Have those warnings proven to be effective over time and over the years? Or does the property owner know that they're not effective?" said Stewart. "Ultimately, what will end up happening is this all will go to a jury, and a jury will be able to determine it."

Stewart said Minnesota has a law called comparative fault. Both parties, the victim and the property owner, could show some responsibility for the injury, but it comes down to which party is more at fault. 

"What we expect in Minnesota and what the law requires is that we have reasonable property owners, property owners that maintain or keep their properties in a safe, reasonable manner," said Stewart. "If the property owner knew that people were trespassing, there had been prior injuries, or they had been told that they needed to better safeguard their property, then those are circumstances where a jury could consider significantly the fault of the property owners."

Back in August, Minneapolis police said they had investigated about 100 urban explorer cases this year and made 15 arrests. On Oct. 25, police said they arrested seven people who broke into the Basilica of St. Mary, four of whom were minors.

Romanucci and Blandin have represented clients in several high-profile cases for the Twin Cities, including the families of Renee Good, George Floyd, Amir Locke and Daunte Wright.