MN - Deal may be near in case of ex-cop (Bradley Schnickel) accused of soliciting girls

Bradley Schnickel

Original Article

02/07/2014

By Sarah Horner

A settlement may be coming in the case against a former Minneapolis police officer accused of soliciting young girls on the Internet for sex.

After meeting Friday in Anoka County District Court, both Bradley Schnickel's defense attorney and the prosecution said the two sides are close to reaching a resolution.

They will meet in a settlement hearing Monday, the same day the trial against the 33-year-old father of two was set to begin.

"We are working it out... We're getting close," said Fred Bruno, Schnickel's attorney. "This will most likely be resolved Monday."

Schnickel faces more than 21 criminal counts alleging criminal sexual misconduct, lewd exhibition, furnishing alcohol to a minor and other accusations.

Using various aliases, Schnickel is accused of logging on to Facebook and other social networking sites and engaging in sexually charged conversations with more than a dozen young girls. In some cases, he exchanged naked pictures with the minors. In a couple instances, he allegedly met them in person and had sex.

The youngest alleged victim was 11. Several others were 12 to 14.

None of the conduct took place while Schnickel was working as a cop.

The Minneapolis patrol officer since 2008 received a medal of commendation for his work in 2011. He was placed on "home assignment" last January after the allegations surfaced.

He was fired the following month.

Monday's hearing comes just over three months since he pleaded guilty in Hennepin County Court to two counts of Internet solicitation of children for similar crimes.

Schnickel was sentenced to a year at the Hennepin County Adult Corrections Facility in Plymouth and mandated to undergo therapy.

He is already enrolled in a sex offender treatment program at Alpha Human Services in Minneapolis.

Schnickel's hearing Monday will take place at 2 p.m.

MN - STATE v. HANSON

Original Article

Excerpt:
In 1996, appellant Hanson was charged with rape, misdemeanor indecent exposure, and first-degree burglary in California. The rape charge was dismissed, but appellant was convicted of misdemeanor indecent exposure and first-degree burglary. On this basis, appellant is allegedly required to register as a predatory offender in Minnesota.

Appellant moved to Minnesota in 2004 and registered with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) as a predatory offender. In February 2009, he was incarcerated for domestic assault. He was paroled in January 2010 and registered his change of address with the BCA in February 2010. In April 2010, he moved to the Cochran halfway house in Hastings, allegedly at the direction of his corrections officer, but did not register his new address. When asked by Cochran counselors, appellant twice denied being a sex offender. In June 2010, Cochran informed local police that appellant's corrections officer reported appellant as an unregistered predatory offender. Police met with appellant, who claimed that he thought his corrections officer had registered his recent change of address, as the officer had done in the past. Appellant's corrections officer advised the police that he had not registered appellant's change of address and that appellant was responsible for doing so. The state charged appellant with failing to register as a predatory offender.

Appellant pleaded guilty. The transcript of the guilty plea hearing reveals that the parties and the district court believed that appellant was required to register because he had been convicted of a crime in California arising out of the same set of circumstances for which he was initially charged with rape, and he violated the registration statute by lying to Cochran counselors about his status as a sex offender. Accordingly, appellant testified that he (1) knew he was required to register as a predatory offender, (2) never notified the BCA of his new address, and (3) falsely told Cochran counselors that he was not a convicted sex offender. The district court accepted appellant's plea and convicted him of the charged offense. This appeal follows.

Read the rest of the article

MN - Tough thing, isn't it, this 'due process'?

Original Article

02/03/2014

By D.J. TICE

This month a federal judge may issue a long-awaited ruling on the constitutionality of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program. Along with national controversies over vast government surveillance programs, MSOP’s troubles raise a basic question that we should occasionally challenge ourselves to answer:

Why should Americans respect constitutional rights that get in the way of government keeping us safe?

First, some background, courtesy of Gov. Mark Dayton:

Two months ago, Dayton released a remarkable document (PDF) — a letter to Department of Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson that told the MSOP story with almost embarrassing candor.

“[F]or many years,” the governor wrote, Minnesota “has kept its most serious criminal sexual offenders locked away with virtually no chance of release.” And like “most Minnesotans,” Dayton added, he is just fine with that.

“As Governor, however,” he went on, almost with a note of regret, “I am responsible to carry out the laws … .” And the laws, he explained, say that offenders are eligible for release once they have served the prison sentences required at the time of their convictions — even under the “weaker laws” that applied to sex offenders years ago.

“Until now,” wrote Dayton, “the State’s tactic to avoid releasing … offenders after they had served their criminal sentences has been to commit them to a ‘treatment program’ … . In practice … these civil commitments have turned into virtual life sentences.”

MSOP is the “treatment program” — those quotation marks, by the way, are the governor’s — that is really just a tactic to impose retroactive life sentences on people who have served their time. After repeating that he rather prefers this arrangement, Dayton acknowledged that “this method of locking people away for life” might be found “unconstitutional.” This would put him, Jesson and the current Legislature “in the position of having to do what previous [state leaders] have avoided …”

Like their duty, for instance?

But there’s no sense rushing into anything. Noting that Jesson had “courageously begun to implement the current … laws” — actually allowing a few MSOP patients to move toward closely monitored provisional release (as other states do with offenders like these) — and after adding that he has “great confidence” in her judgment and processes — Dayton then ordered Jesson to call the whole thing off and for the time being “oppose any further [release] petitions …”

Why? Because of “political grandstanding” and “gamesmanship” in the wake of news reports about one of the proposed releases. (Several 2014 candidates for governor and the state’s attorney general had publicly condemned the proposed release.)

Dayton’s letter could be Exhibit A for the unconstitutionality of MSOP. To review: The governor of Minnesota orders his administration to drop its new, experimental efforts to actually “implement the laws” governing MSOP releases — which, in case you missed it, the governor doesn’t like anyway ­— and to do so expressly because the political heat is on.

Dayton is right, of course, that none of this is new; this isn’t really about him. On MSOP, Minnesota politicians have displayed bipartisan grandstanding, gamesmanship and gutlessness for 20 years. That’s how the state has come to have, per capita, the largest “treatment program” of this kind in the country (with about 700 clients at a cost of $120,000 per head, per year).

The question for Judge Donovan Frank is whether this state of affairs can possibly suffice as the due process of law guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.

If so, we had better start calling it “due process.”

But why should we care about the constitutional rights of MSOP inmates, who truly are frightening?

The first reason is that if America doesn’t stand for the rule of law — and for equal legal rights for everyone — then it simply doesn't stand for anything. Or at least it stands for nothing more inspiring than the world’s best shopping.

If such an appeal to principle and civic dogma has lost influence, we may face a different kind of danger. The practical reason to respect constitutional rights — even when, like the governor, we’d really rather not — is apparently hard for many modern Americans to take seriously. Constitutional boundaries have weathered enough storms in our history (albeit not without breakdowns) that the threat of tyranny now seems far away and unreal.

But “enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm,” as James Madison warned in the Federalist Papers.

The power of “locking people away for life” is a fearsome thing that must itself be kept in a strong cage built of law and procedure. There is no guarantee that everyone who comes to wield that power will be well-intentioned, much less courageous in the face of the extreme political pressures that can arise from extreme circumstances.

This is where the issues surrounding MSOP bear a resemblance to the controversy over the federal government’s secretive surveillance regime in the war on terror. That too is awesome power that in the wrong hands could be a tool for despotism.

Mark Dayton is no tyrant. Neither is Barack Obama. Neither was George W. Bush. But America’s founders deliberately designed a government that contains no unchecked discretion that could be readily abused should a would-be tyrant ever actually appear at the helm. We should keep it that way.

DE - Sex offender restrictions ineffective

Original Article

01/31/2014

By Paul Smith

Regarding sex offender residency restrictions:

Patty Wetterling, whose son Jacob was kidnapped and never found, posted the following statement on the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center website: “Because residency restrictions have been shown to be ineffective at preventing harm to children, and may indeed actually increase the risks to kids, the JWRC does not support residency restriction laws.”

In 2009, the Broward County Florida Board of County Commissioners Sexual Offender and Sexual Predator Residence Task Force reported they had reviewed available research about the effectiveness of residence restrictions and “found no empirical evidence to indicate that these laws achieve their intended goals of preventing abuse, protecting children or reducing reoffending.”

The Minnesota DOC analyzed 224 sex offenders released from Minnesota prisons between 1990 and 2002 who were re-incarcerated for a sex offense prior to January 1, 2006. There were only two where the offender contacted a juvenile victim at a park, and both offenders lived more than 10 miles away. They concluded that not one of the offenses would have been affected by any residency restriction.

In 2007, the Kansas Sex Offender Policy Board reported to the legislature: “Although resident restrictions appear to have strong public support, the Board found no evidence to support its efficacy.” Kansas Department of Corrections Secretary Roger Werholtz stated: “Residence restrictions don’t contribute to public safety. In fact, the consensus of experts in the field of sex offender management supported by available research and experience indicates they do just the opposite. Right now, it appears that the best alternatives are in the form of community wide education and training regarding steps that can be taken to educate parents . . .”

The California Sex Offender Management Board reported that 90% of people convicted of a sex crime have not been convicted of any sex crime before. The University at Albany [New York] School of Criminal Justice reviewed sex crime arrest records from the period 1984 through 2004 and found that more than 95% of those arrested had no prior convictions for any sex crime. More than 9 of every 10 who will harm a child cannot be on any registry or regulated by your law. They feel safer though and likely won’t be as vigilant.

I know you are concerned for the welfare of Milton’s citizens, but your ignorance of the realities and facts about sex offenders and residency restrictions threatens to place them at greater risk.

MN - Sex offender dispute gets political

Original Article

This just shows that they don't want people to get out of civil commitment and that they love to exploit ex-offenders, fear and children for their own political agenda!

11/08/2013

By PATRICK CONDON

ST. PAUL (AP) - The fate of a convicted rapist up for release from Minnesota's sex offender treatment program became a potential issue Friday in next year's governor's race.

Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton, up for re-election next year, is at odds with his fellow Democrat, Attorney General Lori Swanson, who wants to block the state from releasing _____. Dayton is backing his human services commissioner, Lucinda Jesson, who doesn't oppose _____'s provisional release from the Minnesota Sex Offender Program.

Dayton's position drew fire from state Rep. Kurt Zellers, one of the Republicans vying to run against him next year. At a Capitol news conference, Zellers said he believes _____ is still dangerous and that the state should keep him in custody indefinitely.
- So is Mr. Zellers an expert in the field of treating ex-offenders, or is he just using this for his election campaign?

Zellers, a former House speaker from Maple Grove, said the primary job of elected officials is to "protect the people you represent. Letting Mr. _____ go would be failing in that duty."
- Your job is to also obey the constitution and other peoples rights, which you are failing at!

Minnesota's treatment program allows offenders who finished prison sentences to be indefinitely confined. It's the subject of a class action lawsuit by people who say they have little chance to go free even if they successfully participate in treatment. Only one person has ever obtained a successful conditional discharge from the 18-year-old program.

Eric Magnuson, a former state Supreme Court justice, has said the state is at risk of having a judge dismantle the program in a way that's objectionable to state policymakers and residents. He's leading a state task force to recommend alternatives to state legislators.

_____, 58, was convicted three times of sexually assaulting teenage girls. After finishing prison terms, he has been civilly committed to treatment since 1991. A Department of Human Services panel has recommended his supervised discharge, which is supported by his program treatment team. Jesson did not oppose that recommendation, but asked for an independent examination of _____ before a hearing on his request before a panel of state judges.

Bob Hume, a spokesman for Dayton, said Zellers is wrong to suggest that Dayton or administration officials have the authority to hold such offenders for life. He also said it's wrong to suggest that _____'s release is imminent, noting that the new examination would happen in January and that the judicial panel would have time to weigh the findings.

The administration plans to make recommendations to lawmakers ahead of next year's session on possible legal changes related to sex offenders, Hume said.

Swanson opposes _____'s release, citing experts who as recently as 2012 found _____ was still potentially dangerous. On Friday, Swanson's office was before the judicial panel asking it to set an evidentiary hearing in the matter similar to a trial.

Zellers acknowledged the legal threat facing Minnesota's program. But he said if it were struck down while he was governor, he would push for the state to fight releases on a case-by-case basis.
- But aren't these already on a case-by-case basis?  So you'd be doing nothing new!

Zellers is one of four leading Republicans hoping to challenge Dayton next year.

Hennepin County Commission Jeff Johnson said he believed it would be a bad idea to release _____. But he said it's wrong to politicize an issue that he said needs a bipartisan solution.

"If I were governor, I would be checking politics and press conferences at the door and working overtime with leaders from both parties to figure this out," Johnson said. "The governor and the Legislature are going to need to find an alternative to the system we have or the court's going to do it for us, and I guarantee we won't like the way that looks."

The other candidates, businessman Scott Honour and state Sen. Dave Thompson, sounded similar notes. Honour said Zellers had the opportunity to do more about the issue when he was House speaker — echoing a criticism leveled by Dayton's spokesman.

"Clearly this is a dangerous person," Thompson said. "But in the long term, we are going to have to confront what is potentially a legitimate constitutional challenge to our civil and criminal commitment laws."

MN - VOICE FROM INSIDE: Minnesota may release 'ticking time bombs'

Original Article

10/25/2013

By Tom Lyden

An offender who knows many of the men who may soon be released from the state's sex offender treatment centers says some being considered are "ticking time bombs."

Thomas Evenstad (Blog, Google+) knows several of the civilly-committed sex offenders that may soon be freed by the state of Minnesota or the federal court considering their case, and he candidly said they may also be the most-likely to reoffend.

"You can't change the pathology of a sex offender," he said.
- We totally disagree with this statement!

According to Evenstad, those who are the most likely to be released know how to work the system. Men like _____, who has committed more than 90 sex offenses and is now 70 years old.

"_____ isn't the least dangerous," Evenstad said of those being considered for release. "He's one of the most dangerous. Same with Mr. _____."
- And are you a sex offender expert?

_____ was convicted of raping a 17-year-old girl at knifepoint after he was released from a prison term he was serving for another rape.

Both _____ and _____ are among the 700 men and one woman who are so-called "patients" in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program at the facilities in St. Peter and Moose Lake. Only one patient has ever been released, but in light of a federal lawsuit, a task force has been set up to find a way to release some of them.

"There are hundreds of low-risk sex offenders, but they're selecting the most dangerous sex offenders in the state," Evenstad insisted.

Evenstad knows them because he himself has been there. Fox 9's Tom Lyden first met him 15 years ago when he was convicted of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old girl he met on a dating chat line. Evenstad has always maintained his innocence, but he served 8 years in prison.

Days before he was set to be released, Hennepin County prosecutors filed a petition to have Evenstad civilly committed as a sexual predator. That effort failed.

"The psychologists in Minnesota are susceptible to political pressure," he said. "If you didn't commit, you were bounced off the panel."

As a voice from inside, Evenstad said he believes there are many patients who would be ideal for release, such as men who committed their crimes as juveniles or those who wouldn't be considered Level 3 offenders in the criminal system; however, he said the patients who are successful in the program are some of the most dangerous to the public.

"These people become very cunning, able to con and manipulate," Evenstad continued. "_____ is one of the top candidates in the program -- would graduate to murder."

The state's task force considering the issue has created a rough draft of proposals for dealing with sex offenders. It includes a sex offender court to determine which offenders should be selected for civil commitment and who should be released, a higher standard of proof for civil commitment and a panel of experts to be involved in screening.

MN - Patty Wetterling: 'Miracles can happen'

Jacob Wetterling

Original Article

Our hearts go out to Patty and we hope the person(s) responsible for his kidnapping will come forward and tell Patty where her son is.

10/22/2013

By Shelby Capacio and Paul Blume

ST. JOSEPH (KMSP) - The past 24 years have been filled with heartache and uncertainty for Patty Wetterling because she still doesn't know what happened to her son Jacob (Wikipedia) on Oct. 22, 1989.

"I remember so much and then it blurs," Wetterling told Fox 9 News. "I was probably technically in shock."

Jacob was 11 years old, riding his bike with a brother and a friend to his St. Joseph home when he was snatched at gunpoint, never to be seen again.

"We will never stop in our search for Jacob," his mother vowed. "We believe the possibility that he is still out there."

To this day, the case remains open -- and to this day, the Wetterlings flick on their porch light as a symbol of their hope that he will be found.

"One day, I want to look him in the eye and say, 'I never gave up,'" Wetterling said.

Knowing just how disrupting the disappearance of a child can be, Wetterling has used her experience to try to keep other families from having to endure a similar struggle.

"Our lives changed in every aspect," she said. "There is nothing that is the same."

Now, she is the chair of the board for the national Center for Missing and Exploited Children. In that capacity, she follows high-profile cases of missing children who surface and are returned to their loved ones years later -- including the case of three women released from captivity in Cleveland in May. Currently, she's keeping her eye on the little girl named Maria who was believed to be kidnapped and was found living in a gypsy community in Greece.

"They do give me great hope," Wetterling said of the finds.

Even after 24 years, Wetterling said she believes miracles can happen. In light of that, she is asking her neighbors, friends and other Minnesotans to turn on their porch lights on Tuesday night to remember Jacob and let the good in the world shine.

"There really are more good people who care about one another than bad," Wetterling insisted. "If good people pull together, it's amazing what can happen."

The Wetterlings spend the anniversary of the abduction together as a large family, and their outdoor lights will be on this evening. As is her tradition, Wetterling also baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies and delivered them to the Stearns County Sheriff's Office.

MN - Creating Flexibility in the Sex Offender Program

Video Description:
Senate Health, Human Services and Housing Committee Chair Kathy Sheran, DFL-Mankato, explains her bill that would alter Minnesota's sex offender program to create greater flexibility in treating sex offenders following their incarceration.

MN - Report: Hundreds of Sex Offenders Released Before Completing Treatment

Original Article

01/24/2013

By Steve Tellier

Hundreds of convicted sex offenders are ordered to complete treatment while in prison but are released without doing so. And even the Minnesota Department of Corrections admits those convicts are more likely to commit another sexual crime once they're back on the street.

"The department is very concerned about the risk of all sex offenders," said Steve Allen, the director of behavioral health sciences at the DOC.

That concern was clear in a new DOC report presented to the legislature last week. It states that in Minnesota, there are about 1,800 sex offenders behind bars who are supposed to complete a treatment program before being released. But only one in three ever enter that treatment, let alone complete it. A 2010 DOC report showed those who are released before participating in treatment are about six percent more likely to commit another sexual crime.

"That really is a disappointing figure," said Donna Dunn, the executive director of the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault. "We know that sex offender treatment can work and does work. We know that that is something that is incredibly important for offenders to go through. When that doesn't happen, we know that public safety is compromised."

The DOC does make sure the most serious offenders are the ones who get spots in the prison treatment program, and the ones who don't are passed on to community-based treatment and supervision after they're released.

"The research tells us to put the resources where the risk is," Allen said.

The problem is that resources are lacking.

"We would need funding to expand our treatment," Allen said.

The DOC's budget has recently remained flat, and Gov. Mark Dayton's budget proposal doesn't include any additional cash.

"Preventing sexual violence has got to be a priority," Dunn said.

The chair of the House Public Safety Finance and Policy committee, Rep. Michael Paymar (DFL-St. Paul), said the legislature is looking for ways to get the DOC more money and resources for offender treatment.

MN - Can the Public Keep Sex Offenders From Moving To Their Community?

Original Article

09/25/2012

By Ryan Gustafson

[name withheld], the Level Three sex offender who has been trying to find a place to live in our area for the past few months, has been released from the Moose Lake Treatment Center and moved to the state prison in Lino Lakes.

Department of Corrections officials say [name withheld] will remain at that facility until he finds a place to live.

But he has already been turned down from four separate locations, and there have been two notification meetings where the public was able to influence the decisions of local landlords.

Officials worry this could become a trend.

Blue Earth County Community Corrections director Josh Milow says, "I think it could get worse. I think we are setting some difficult precedent with this situation. I've worked in the system a long time, working with sex offenders, Level II and Level III sex offenders, and I haven't seen a situation like this."

The odd thing about so many of these Level III sex offender cases we've covered over the years is the offender often received no prison sentence for the sexual assault.

[name withheld], a level III moving to New Ulm last November... [name withheld], moving to Le Center back in 2008, and now [name withheld], only went to prison after violating their probation.

Jim Fleming says, "His initial sentence - he pleaded guilty and received a stayed sentence. So he was in the community."

Fleming finds many aspects of the sex offender program troubling, including the subjective nature of deciding whether an offender is Level 1, 2 or 3.

And budget restraints for a fast growing population may force the Legislature to take a closer look at how we deal with the problem.

Milow says, "We don't dictate who gets to come out of prison, or who comes out of facilities. So we have to do the best job we can do when they're in our community."

MN - Court Rules That Student’s Facebook Messages are Protected Under First and Fourth Amendments

Original Article

But when the state, county or police ask an ex-sex offender for their online ID's and passwords, it's all of a sudden constitutional?

09/19/2012

Earlier this month, a U.S. District Court in Minnesota ruled that a student’s online privacy is protected under the first and fourth amendments, and any school officials who require the disclosure of a student’s password is violating their privacy rights. The case concerns a 12-year-old in Minnesota who wrote negative remarks about an employee at her school on her Facebook page. She was disciplined by the school for her posts, and the school forced her to hand over the passwords to her Facebook and personal email pages.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the court ruled that statements made away from school “are protected under the First Amendment and not punishable by school authorities unless they are true threats or are reasonably calculated to reach the school environment and are so egregious as to pose a serious safety risk or other substantial disruption in that environment.”

The ruling has been hailed by experts as a promising first step in guaranteeing privacy rights for online content.

“Public schools that require any of their students to register their social media usernames, or to provide access to their password protected digital content via required Facebook Friending or the installation of a third-party software application for any reason are in clear violation of the 1st and 4th Amendment,” wrote Bradley Shear, an attorney who has helped states deal with issues of privacy and social media.