Man Caught on Surveillance Fondling 13 y/o Child in Oakdale Fleet Farm now Charged

See more articles like this warning you of released sex offenders in our area: http://wcwatchdog.com/local-sex-offender-articles/

He's now convicted. See:
Fleet Farm Fondler Convicted of Groping 13 y/o. In Rare Occurrence, No Plea Deal but Sentence Still Weak

-------------------------------------
Jesse Garrett Erdman of St. Paul was charged with 2nd degree criminal sexual conduct -Victim under 16 for "allegedly" touching all the private parts you can think of on a 13 year old female in the Oakdale Fleet Farm in Washington County in Late April 2017. He is related to the victim, but to protect the identity of the victim we have withheld what the familial relation is. 

According to the criminal complaint he was caught on video recorded surveillance allegedly stealing merchandise and fondling the child. From the report: 

"Law enforcement viewed store surveillance of the interactions between DEFENDANT ERDMAN and Victim 1, which showed: DEFENDANT ERDMAN walking through the store with his hand in the back pants pocket covering the buttocks of Victim 1; DEFENDANT ERDMAN kissing Victim 1 on the lips; DEFENDANT ERDMAN hitting Victim 1 on the buttocks multiple times over her clothing; DEFENDANT ERDMAN grabbing the genital area of Victim 1 over her clothes in a cupping and fondling manner; DEFENDANT ERDMAN's hand on the genital area of Victim 1 over her clothing;"

Date: 5/2/2017

Pic of Jesse Erdman, same DOB & city from public facebook

Jesse Garrett Erdman
DOB: 4/20/1989
Residence:
1461 Dale St NSt Paul, MN 55117
Agency: Oakdale PD
Charge: Criminal Sex Conduct-2nd Degree-Significant Relationship-Victim Under 16 yrs

Minnesota Statute: 609.343.1(g), with reference to: 609.343.2(a)

Maximum Sentence: 25 years and $35,000

Offense Level: Felony

Typically in cases like this the Washington County Attorney gives the accused child predator a plea deal. If for some reason Erdman was not offered a plea deal and he was trialed and convicted of this 2nd degree felony, based on past examples, he will likely only have a sentence of 2 years in prison, no fine, and the max allowed probation by law of only ten years and 10 years max allowed by law of sex offender registration. Yes the law says he could get 25 years; but sentencing guidelines dictate the sentence. It could say the punishment is the death penalty and he'd still only get 2 years if convicted because of sentencing guidelines.

Please check out our sex offender bill ideas and contact your legislators. Public awareness and contacting law makers is the only way to get them to change weak MN law:
http://wcwatchdog.com/local-sex-offender-articles/

We encourage you to contact your legislators to fix the law; but most important is providing help to the local victims. Many groups are out there doing great work across the State. At WCW our focus is local, sharing Washington County related stories to emphasize the reality that sex crime is too common here. But our work doesn't help the shattered victims. So we highly recommend helping local victims through a local group called EmpowerSurvivors. They are a peer led 501(c3) non-profit group for those affected by sexual abuse. One of the many ways they help is by holding free weekly meetings in Stillwater as a safe place. They

also host free and private online support on their website and blog. The founder, Elizabeth Sullivan, is a survivor of child sexual abuse and has devoted her life to helping victims here in the Washington County area. Every cent donated goes to their mission of "survivors helping survivors." Their new location in downtown Stillwater could use office supplies such as a printer, pens, paper and more.  Of course any donation amount helps. You can also use Paypal for a one time gift.

While the public can find hope and security if laws and sentencing guidelines can improve; the victims of sex crime in Washington County are left shattered by the crime even if the offender is punished to the fullest extent of the law. Contact elected officials; but also consider the important step of supporting victims. Please consider donating to EmpowerSurvivors here in Washington County. Find out more at www.EmpowerSurvivors.net 

*In no way do we wish harm to the convicted sex offenders outside the judgement of the law. Posting each criminal's data allows the public to decide from the evidence if they appreciate knowing such data. Such as what these sex offender's last known address is. No representation is made that the individuals listed here are currently on the state's offenders registry. All names presented here were gathered at a past date. Some persons listed might no longer be registered offenders and others might have been added. Some addresses or other data might no longer be current. Owners of Washington County Watchdog assume no responsibility (and expressly disclaim responsibility) for updating this site to keep information current or to ensure the accuracy or completeness of any posted information. All data was only accurate at the time of posting per Government sources provided. Accordingly, you should confirm the accuracy and completeness of all posted information before making any decision related to any data presented on this site. The information on this web site is made available solely to protect the public. Anyone who uses this information to commit a crime or to harass an offender or his or her family is subject to criminal prosecution and civil liability. Message us if you can verify us of an address or change in data.  Washington County Watchdog is not responsible for the accuracy of the content shared, refer to our linked government sources. 

Speaker Daudt Blindsides Transportation Omnibus and Takes Out Met Council Oversight

Yesterday on 5/9/2017, in the dark of night at 10pm, the ten legislative members of the House and Senate Transportation Conference committee came together and made more adjustments to the Transportation omnibus bill. The meeting was scheduled for the morning and than moved later and later into the night. This $5.8 Billion dollar bill has a lot of needed funding for roads; but it's growing worse and worse with each meeting. Our last post covered this: GOP Caves on Mass Transit, Offers Dayton Dream Budget for the Met Council to Continue Transit Lines

As the title states, the GOP is not only funding the Met Council a raise to a total two year budget of $210.8 million, they are no longer taking away their power to keep bypassing the legislature regarding mass transit corridors. Before this action the meeting was going as planned. The committee members were rubber stamping small changes to the Bill passing "A17-0443.pdf" unanimously. They also approved unanimously the "DE amendment as amended". These amendments included things like the requirement for the Met Council to do a vibration study for the South West Light Rail (section 151). They also added that the Governor can appoint 1 member to the Met Council. There appears to be more items to work through before the house and senate versions fully match according to this DE document.

The meeting took a turn for the worse when Senator Newman introduced a request to approve an oral amendment to remove sections 125, 128, and 138 from the omnibus bill, starting on p.111. These measures were Representative Runbeck's and Senator Osmek's bill HF418/SF150 that was later included into the omnibus bill under these sections. The proposal was a requirement that no light rail corridor can be "studied, planned, designed, or constructed unless the legislature has explicitly authorized the particular project." This common sense measure would have returned the power to build these multi billion dollar white elephant transit corridors back to the State tax payers who fund them (with their elected legislators). 

The vote appeared to only take representative Runbeck and Senator Osmek by surprise. They were the only two no votes. Runbeck said in the meeting she spoke to the Transportation Commission Chair Representative Torkelson on the House floor earlier in the day and he stated to her the plan was to keep the measures in place. She asked for clarification and the room was silent as she and Osmek appeared to realize they were intentionally left out of the discussion. When it came time for representative Koznick to vote he "passed" and after the rest of the yes votes were counted he too sold out his principles to Speaker Kurt Daudt's selfish political ambitions and voted yes with the others. The reason the vote was put on the agenda was because House Speaker Kurt Daudt had it arranged according to one of the legislators on the committee. It is also the only explanation as most of the legislators on this 10 member conference committee were co-authors on the now removed bill to reign in the Met Council power.

Last month Speaker Daudt emailed me "Matt, Your posts are full of shit and you know it.  Is that clear enough for you?" in response to my article documenting the lack of leadership from Daudt to take a stand against mass transit: Four GOP Legislators are Silent After Attempt to Sneak Funding for Mass Transit in Omnibus Bill I had reminded him the party would be doomed in the 2018 election if the party can't get something as simple as to stop expanding failed mass transit.

No one is sure yet if Speaker Daudt will put his name in the running for Governor; if he is, I wonder what party he will run under. With his 9% budget increase offer to Dayton's 11% budget increase proposal and the pork filled Bonding bill, there's not a fiscal conservative I know of who's impressed with Daudt's leadership. 

 -$1.6 BILLION 2017 Bonding Bill. Legislators Say They Refuse to Cut Any Pork.

-Four GOP Legislators are Silent After Attempt to Sneak Funding for Mass Transit in Omnibus Bill  

-GOP Caves on Mass Transit, Offers Dayton Dream Budget for the Met Council to Continue Transit Lines

Rampant Sex Crime on Children. In Just 2 years, 10 Cases From County Alone, 8 Simple Laws to Update

 Due to the massive post lengths and sizes we could no longer list them on our  blogger page here. Stay up to date on the latest additions to the lists on our facebook and twitter pages.
--------------------------
From Washington County alone, in just two years time, we have uncovered ten cases of the horrible results of our

completely broken Minnesota criminal justice system regarding child predators. We have 8 simple bill ideas for legislators. 

The citizen volunteers at WCW have been posting the public data on arrests and convictions of child predators; all while urging members of the legislature to improve MN law to combat this epidemic.

We are making painstakingly slow progress despite having the facts, evidence, and common sense supporting. This needs awareness to motivate change. We're not the only one who have noticed. From Kare11: “We know of no other state in the union with sentencing as weak as Minnesota’s for child sexual exploitation.”Report: MN weak on protecting children from exploitation data from protect.org. Fortunately, it seems when the main stream media does a story on something tragic like a sex offender who is driving a bus up in Anoka MN... the news gets out, the public picks up the phone and calls the legislature, and the law changes for the better. Loophole allows sex offender to drive school bus

We hope the news of these 10 cases will help empower you to help contact legislators to get justice for the child victims and deter future child exploitation. Nothing else. We've got a total of four bipartisan bill ideas passed into law so far thanks to legislators like Cindy Pugh (R), Joann Ward (D), Kathy Sheran (D), Tony Cornish (R), and Tim Miller (R). However; this year, 2017, did not share the same success. Starting before session began, we had eight bill ideas to improve sex offender law. All of them exist as law in many other States; however, none of them got traction. No we're not lobbyists, no we don't have (or want) a budget, all we are is just citizens and parents like you. One of whom's child was a victim of one of the previously convicted child predators in Washington County.

Legislators please see the detailed list of the 8 bill ideas with reference to the exact existing law to update. They couldn't be easier bills to write.

Politicians are politicians. No mater what political party, they are great at looking you in the eye and saying they'll help write your idea to a bill and try to get it passed into law. They'll say they will work on your idea to make Minnesota the 24th state to require sex offenders to register for life and then do nothing. Or worse, find time to write a useless bill like making the State color purple; to give $13 million to purchase snow making machines for film makers; or to write useless legislation condemning China for organ harvesting, as if the communist super power will listen to Minnesota law. 

Why do stupid ideas make it to law and great bi-partisan bill ideas to get justice for children who are sexually assaulted do not? The answer is simple. Aside from having paid special interest at the legislature like the MN film industry... you need to have an idea that is being called on by the public. Overall, the public has no clue how bad sex offender law in MN is. Even we had no idea, until it hits you like a ton of bricks when your child is sexually assaulted. 

You can tell law makers about your child being violently sexually assaulted and give them the exact law to fix to prevent it from happening to someone else's child; but they are unmotivated it seems until the public catches on. One example of many horror stories, we emailed them about of a recently convicted rapist in Woodbury who admitted unapologetic to police he raped a 13 year old girl "over 130 times;" but was only sentenced to 8 years. Convicted of having a significant relationship with someone under 16 and not child rape as he probably should have been tried. His name is Eric Duncan, DOB 8-31-1984; but you won't find him if you google his name... The legislature and the media ignore this news.

There are 87 counties in MN and it's extremely disturbing that in just two years we can give you 10 examples from just our County alone of grossly under punished child predators. There are many more we didn't list.  "Innocent until proven guilty" See all the sex offenders from public record we've found, nearly all of them are similar examples (see above).

​

1.)
Marques Williams of Stillwater, was just convicted with DNA proof, of raping a 15 year old child. He lives by two Stillwater Schools. He was sentenced to only 90 days in jail; just a $50 fine, 5 years of probation, and to register as a sex offender for 10 years. The county ignores requests to provide details as to what happens with all these cases like this with offenders getting weak punishments. Are they giving out plea deals to avoid a trial? Is it weak charges? Is it weak sentencing guidelines? If so what are they doing to increase the punishment? email our elected county attorney, Pete.Orput@co.washington.mn.us, and if you get a response let us know through our facebook page. We highly respect the County and the difficult job they have. It is unfortunate they do not communicate with the public or legislators on what laws could be changed.

2.)
Michael John Quesnel, of Hugo MN, convicted of violent sexual assault on 4-19-17 to the point of vaginal bleeding on a 3 year old with cerebral Palsy. Only received 7.5 years in prison with over a year credit for time served. Only has to register as a sex offender for 10 years. Write your legislators to change sentencing guidelines and increase severity of punishment for child predators like this.












3.)

Jeremiah Turner of Cottage Grove, Convicted of raping a deaf 15 year old child. In the criminal complaint it states he held down and sexually assaulted the child. The victim's disturbing account of the incident ishorrifying... unfortunately the county attorney's office decided to only charge him with "Significant Relationship, victim under 16" instead of child rape. The County attorney pete.orput@co.washington.mn.us and prosecutor Jessica.Stott@co.washington.mn.us did not respond to our request to clarify. Why was this case treated as if he had consensual sex with a minor when clearly she was violently raped?

4.) 

Caleb Wolfgram of Forest Lake, Convicted of spying on minors in a Woodbury Gap store and another conviction of spying on minors in a tanning bed in 2014 and 2015. Strikes a third time in broad daylight in the Forest Lake Target sexually assaulting a 12 year old. The attack was captured on surveillance camera. He was charged with 2nd degree sexual conduct which could have had a max penalty of 25 years in prison; however the County appeared to exchange a plea deal down to 4th degree and he only has to serve a minimum of 2 years. It's his third conviction of this, he's escalating, yet the county gives a plea deal?


5.)

CORWIN THOMAS MOOSE, was turned in by a 16 year old female with concerns regarding this child predator. Police set up a child trafficking sting offering sex with a minor. Moose showed up and was arrested and they found a tarp, an empty suit case, and rubber gloves in the trunk. He was convicted and only has to serve 5 years probation and a year in jail. Will be back on the streets in July 2017.










6.)

Luis Ponce of Cottage Grove. Number 1 on our list as one of the original men caught in the first child trafficking sting in 2015. Accepted a too good to be true plea deal from the county it appears. All we know is he admitted at the scene he knew the ages of the children, yet his conviction got him just 60 days in Jail and 3 years probation. Again, weak Sentencing guidelines?

7.)

Nick Nehring of Forest Lake lives just Yards away from the Forest Lake high school and junior high school. Parents of a 13 year old had police investigate after they found their daughter was allegedly receiving sexual texts from Nehring. The criminal complaint indicates he seeks victims through dating aps. The County charged him with charges so weak that he won't even have to register as a sex offender if convicted. Email the County on why they didn't charge him with soliciting a minor or a real child predator charge that'd at least have him monitored.  
Appears the County upped the charges and he was convicted in August 2017 of 3 degree criminal sexual conduct. Has to serve 180 days in Jail, 15 years probation, and only 10 years as a registered sex offender. see:

Child Predator by Forest Lake Public School Convicted on Stiffer Charges, Sentence Still Weak

8.)

CHRISTOPHER SCOTT HENDERSON, was caught red handed in a Washington County child sex trafficking sting when he tried to meet what he thought was a 32 year old "mother" and her "deaf" 14 year old "daughter" for sex. He's number 8 on our list. Convicted in August 2016 and only served 60 days in jail and has 5 years probation. Contact legislators to have child predators monitored for life instead of just 10 years max.

9.)

Randy Oldeen of St. Paul Park.  "innocent until proven guilty" Parents of a child reported to police he allegedly sent and received sexual messages with their child since she was 11 years old. Police report states the child said they met and had sex "multiple times" when she was 13. Police found sexual communication with the child on his computer. He's only charged with communication with a minor it appears.  Please contact and write your legislators to make the sentencing guideline more harsh and to make this crime have to register as a predatory offender if convicted. "Innocent until proven guilty"










10.) Like the example of number 9:

Both of these men on our list had the exact same crime of being caught in child trafficking stings by showing up to have sex with a child, both charged with child prostitution, and both were convicted in the same month almost. Yet Charles Manley Anderson and many others on the list have the charge of child prostitution/solicitation dropped and only get convicted of "sexual communication with a minor" or other charges that do not require sex offender registration. Then very few like Kevin Michael Aylward get the conviction that requires offender registration. Why? Especially in light of the fact Anderson has been convicted twice in the past soliciting minors according to his criminal complaint.

*In no way do we wish harm to the convicted sex offenders outside the judgement of the law. Posting each criminal's data allows the public to decide from the evidence if they appreciate knowing such data. Such as what these sex offender's last known address is. No representation is made that the individuals listed here are currently on the state's offenders registry. All names presented here were gathered at a past date. Some persons listed might no longer be registered offenders and others might have been added. Some addresses or other data might no longer be current. Owners of Washington County Watchdog assume no responsibility (and expressly disclaim responsibility) for updating this site to keep information current or to ensure the accuracy or completeness of any posted information. All data was only accurate at the time of posting per Government sources provided. Accordingly, you should confirm the accuracy and completeness of all posted information before making any decision related to any data presented on this site. The information on this web site is made available solely to protect the public. Anyone who uses this information to commit a crime or to harass an offender or his or her family is subject to criminal prosecution and civil liability. Message us if you can verify us of an address or change in data.  Washington County Watchdog is not responsible for the accuracy of the content shared, refer to our linked government sources. 

​

GOP Caves on Mass Transit, Offers Dayton Dream Budget for the Met Council to Continue Transit Lines

Also: Speaker Daudt Blindsides Transportation Omnibus and Takes Out Met Council Oversight

On Monday 5/1. The House and Senate Transportation committee's met, with five members from each side. They discussed the differences in their two version of the Transportation Omnibus bill to form one version to send to the Governor to sign. More here: GOP Senate Passes $5.8 Billion Transportation Bill with $180 Million to Met Council & Mass Transit a Huge Raise

The biggest difference in these two versions of the bill was the House called for just $61.5 million to fund the Metropolitan Council and the Senate had $180 million. Multiple times over the last month and a half we contacted all ten legislative members (9 GOP & 1 DFL) and received no response. Then we urged other citizens to also contact and encourage the legislators to agree on funding the them the lower number from the house of $61.5. Stating there is no reason to fund the Met C more than $100 million; using 2006 (pre-mass transit) funding as evidence that less than $100 million was more than adequate to continue funding traditional bus service the Met C had threatened to cut if they didn't get more than this $61.5 million. More here: 

House & Senate Differ on Future of Met Council in Mass Transit. Billions at Stake.

None of the legislators responded to us or anyone else in our circle, about what they planned to do.  It's now no surprise they didn't respond because it turns out they did the exactly the opposite. The bill they came up with to send to the Governor has an insane $210.8 million dollars for the Met C! This ridiculous amount is everything that tax payers have feared regarding the continued ability for the Met C to keep back door funding white elephant mass transit corridors that do nothing to relieve congestion, boost the economy, save on emissions, and all the other promises they give. (Back door because this money is not direct funding from the legislature.)

There are fourteen corridors the Met C hopes to build across the metro. Four are built so far and the brilliant strategy of the Met Council has been is to invest millions in planning for as many corridors at a time. This strategy allows the slow development of many corridors to the point that tens of millions are sunk into the study and engineering of each corridor. This fosters reputations of "there's so much money invested, it'd be a waste not to build it." So is the case in Washington County with the 3 corridors that have been in planning since before 2008 when CTIB formed to plan mass transit lines, (Rush, Red Rock, and Gateway Corridor).

The GOP legislators perhaps think the other parts of their bill will stop the Met C from continuing to fund bad corridors. At a glance, an uniformed person could see that the proposed law change to require Met C members be elected County board members instead of unelected appointees by the Governor is a good thing. It is a start; however, if you are aware of the history of the County Transit Improvement Board (CTIB), with it's elected county board members, it made no difference to stop bad transit corridor investment. We saw the Red Line in Apple Valley get built and it has just 850 riders a day for the last four years since it's completion, with a horrible self funded operating cost of just 6%, the Country's average is 30% according to MNDOT.

Needless to say, when the Met C has $210 million to spend we can be assured that it is over $100 million more than they need to fund regular bus service. This is based on pre mass transit Met C funding. It's guaranteed that all the corridors will get their back door funding with this number. Yes the bill dissolves CTIB, but with the Met C going to be made up of County board members it is basically the new and more powerful CTIB. They killed one beast and created another. The legislature just took out the middle man of the Met C. The free for all on the State's General fund will continue since many of the lines are in current study and even the GOP house and senate don't have the conviction to give them a responsible budget. 

Conservatives are concerned about the South West Light Rail Line getting funded; however, that's just one corridor compared to the TEN that are getting new life with this $210 million to continue developing. Representative Hertaus calculated the expense of this mistake would cost State tax payers $13.6 BILLION dollars in ten years and that's assuming only six additional lines are built (see quote at end of post). So why are fiscal conservatives worried about a nearly 2 billion dollar line, the feds are likely not going to fund, when we have a cancer being fed and cultivated to drain billions more than the SWLRT ever would alone?

Yes republicans are the vehicle to get the State back on track to stop wasting road and bridge money on failed mass transit; however, they seem to ignore the obvious and are focused on stopping only the SWLRT. It seems they are intentionally giving the Governor tens of millions in additional funds to the Met C to get him to pass their offer with no funding for the SWLRT. This is a grave mistake. It's negotiating from behind and this same issue caused State shut downs in the past from this Governor. 

On Thursday morning, three days after the conference committee, Representative Runbeck was on AM1130, Twin Cities Newstalk, with "Justice and Drew." For the whole interview all she talked about was stopping the SWLRT. But even she said the feds responded and gave 3 reasons the corridor was dead on their end.

1.) There's an open law suit against the corridor

2.) The corridor planners can't assure the feds the State will cover their operating cost shortfall

3.) The State refuses to fund their side of the construction cost

Listen to the whole ten minute interview here: http://twincitiesnewstalk.iheart.com/media/play/27758100/

At this late point in the session with a bonding bill with tens of millions in pork and this outrageously irresponsible funding of the Met C it's easy to predict a repeat of 2011 when the GOP did nothing to reform wasteful transit spending, the backdoor funding of transit with the met council, and actually did the opposite and funded horrible transit lines like the Red Rock Corridor and Gateway Corridor.... As we know the GOP lost the house and Senate the following year. When the GOP fails to cut something simple as failed mass transit spending we can predict a similar defeat for the Republican legislature AND the Governor's seat in 2018. The fiscal conservative base, will in large part, be unmotivated to help their campaigns or even show up to vote.

Contact Representative Torkelson and Senator Newman:

rep.paul.torkelson@house.mn

651-296-9303

sen.scott.newman@senate.mn

651-296-4131

Also: Speaker Daudt Blindsides Transportation Omnibus and Takes Out Met Council Oversight
GOP Senate Passes $5.8 Billion Transportation Bill with $180 Million to Met Council & Mass Transit a Huge Raise

Four GOP Legislators are Silent After Attempt to Sneak Funding for Mass Transit in Omnibus Bill  

Representative Hertaus's comment:

"I don't think it was necessarily the legislature's intent to provide an unlimited open checkbook to subsidize at an "unkown" number of rail lines at an unkown cost. Extending the current losses funded by the legislature to the six additional proposed MetC lines would suggest (by my own calculations) the current $55 million of losses would triple to $165 million. This promises to be an endless obligation and when shouldered up against the talked about 10 year transportation funding plan, this would be a $1.65 billion dollar funding shortfall, not to mention a likely $12 BILLION dollars to construct the lines. This totals by my estimation, $13.65 billion for LRT over the next 10 years compared to $6 billion over the same period for all of our roads and bridges statewide. This is more than DOUBLE the expenditure for less than 3% of total ridership assuming the LRT ridership doubles over the same period. Further, these losses will starve the general fund for other constitutionally mandated responsibilities such as education, transportation, judiciary and public safety and will ultimately lead to yet higher taxes."