Only a Few Years of Probation and Registration for Woodbury Man with Library of Child Porn

Steven Rask

In September of 2016, police conducted a search warrant of 9669 Bluegill Road Woodbury. The unassuming home near Target in Woodbury was owned and occupied by Steven Donald Rask. It is unknown if he continues to live here. The police found over 150 documents of child porn on multiple computers and hard drives. He appeared to cooperate with police and explained how he typically searched for his expanding collection of child porn on the dark web. The investigation took almost two years to go through all the child porn to determine the extent of the case. According to the criminal complaint, 41 of the child victims were recorded or known with the center for missing and exploited children. The child advocacy group Protect.org identifies Minnesota as a crisis area for child porn given the weakness of our current laws. Our recent article with them and their new safety tool for parents explains more how our weak laws feed this industry of child trafficking.  

In April of 2018 the Washington County prosecutors charged Steve Rask with only 3 counts of possessing child porn. The county has been known to charge with up to seven counts in one case in the last two years with a man that had hundreds and hundreds of files of child porn; however, as in this case, Pete Orput's County Attorney office gave the child predator a plea deal and all charges except one were dropped in exchange for one guilty plea. In December he was sentenced to just 5 years of probation and if he follows the terms of probation he will only do two thirds of the sentence. Is a few years probation enough? Is only a few years on the predatory offender registration going to keep the public safe? 

The fact is the predatory offender registration list is not public in Minnesota and the maximum time on the offender list is only 10 years. In extremely rare cases offenders are registered for life as a level three sex offenders, but are still held privately on the list with where their address is. Level one and two offenders can't even be looked up by the public and only two other states (Maine and D.C.) have laws that weak. But these states don't have over 20,000 sex offenders like MN. 

To see dozens of examples in the last two years of insane plea deals from Washington County prosecutors and the weak MN sex offender law letting the public down see: http://wcwatchdog.com/local-sex-offender-articles/

In Minnesota, law makers and prosecutors believe child rapists can be "rehabilitated," do not need to be monitored, and can become good members of society. The evidence is the fact no bill has passed to make sex offender law more tough in the last two years. Also, Only several hundred of the over 20,000 convicted rapists in Minnesota are confined in prison. Most only do a couple years and then are released. More information here:

Watchdog Review of Each of the Fifty States Sex Offender Laws Finds Minnesota Ranked the Most Unsafe  

If you hope to see any law change, continue to contact law makers, especially Senator Warren Limmer who has refused to pass the sex offender bills in his key special committee in the Senate. 

Find your legislator here: https://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/districtfinder

It's clear that just because a child rapist is charged or convicted, doesn't mean justice will be served after sentencing if convicted. Therefore, if the punishment for ALL criminal sexual conduct crimes is raised than weak charges and convictions will be stronger. With the raised bar there won't be a thing as an outrageous plea deal to lesser rape charges or a weak sentence.

Tell legislators to also make the sex offender list public like nearly every other State in the Country does. All but MN, DC, and Maine have public lists. Maine only has 2,700 sex offenders in their state though. Compared to over 20,000 in MN. 

DATE: 4/19/2018 

DEFENDANT: Steven Donald Rask 

DOB: 2/28/1950 

CITY/RESIDENCE:

9669 Bluegill Road Woodbury, MN 55125

MN AGENCY: Woodbury Police Department 

CHARGE: 

I: Possess Pornographic Work-Computer Disk/Electronic/Magnetic/Optical Image w/Porn; 

II: Possess Pornographic Work-Computer Disk/Electronic/Magnetic/Optical Image w/Porn; 

III: Possess Pornographic WorkComputer Disk/Electronic/Magnetic/Optical Image w/Porn 

DATE: 12/13/2018  

CONVICTION: Possess Child Porn 

SENTENCE: Stay of imposition; 5 years of probation; 45 days jail with 1 days credited

*In no way do we wish harm to the convicted sex offenders outside the judgement of the law. Posting each criminal's public data anyone can get 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.