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.       

Homicidal Rapist in Forest Lake Found With Child Porn Who Self Recorded Rape Now Convicted, Only 4 years

This is another article about the combined issue of weak charges, weak sentencing, and it all revolves around weak MN sex offender law. Over two dozen examples just like this and worse in just two years and in Washington  County alone. Check out http://wcwatchdog.com/local-sex-offender-articles/ and subscribe for free sex offender updates like this post.

Rapist, Alan Douglas Running, from Forest Lake, is finally behind bars... but only for

just over four years. With good behavior, even less time it appears. He will have the maximum of 10 years on the sex offender registration after release it looks like. The sentence alone is alarming. However, what's worse is how he remained free over 90% of the over a year it took to convict (this is common throughout the state). The only reason he spent 42 days in jail, as opposed to none, was because he had two conditional release violations and a total of three warrants out for his arrest during this period of time it appears. Yet time after time the judicial system and weak MN sex offender law let him back out. It appears it all started with the weak charges of only 3 degree criminal sexual conduct of a mentally impaired or helpless victim, stalking, and burglary. The final two charges were dropped to add insult to injury for the rape victim and rape victims across the state. The lawyer representing him was Kevin McHugh Morrison.

Read Criminal Complaint 1 and 2 on how an anonymous tip lead investigators to obtain a search warrant on Al Running in April of 2017 for his house and computers. Detectives were lead to a woman who had a restraining order on him for stalking her in 2015. He was convicted of violating that order in 2016. Police discovered videos Alan Running self recorded with hidden cameras he secretly placed inside her home. In one video he stated how he wanted to kill the woman for ruining his life. Another showed him sexually assaulting her when she was unconscious. He was arrested in June, two months after the discovery, and charged with only 3rd degree criminal sexual conduct, burglary, and stalking. Later, as investigators further searched the "over 100,000 files" of porn on his computer they found 2 files of child porn and confirmed the images were of real children with the center of missing and exploited children. They arrested him again and charged him with two counts of possessing child porn (innocent until proven guilty on those two counts).

If our weak laws and justice system can't detain a man who: video recorded himself raping a woman;
video recorded himself threatening to kill the victim;
broke into her home;
stalked her;
was found with child porn videos;
and violated condition of release twice... not to mention his criminal past of multiple DWIs and violating restraining order... What rapist can our system serve justice to?

It's a fact MN has the weakest sex offender laws in the Country:

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

The sex offender list is NOT public in MN; but 47 states do share the data. There are nearly 20,000 registered sex offenders in MN and only about 700 are level 3 offenders that you occasionally hear about moving into the "general area" of a city.

Last year and this year not one sex offender bill passed. Half the bills to make stronger sex offender laws were held back in the house. Senator Warren Limmer called them "non starters" and refused to discuss them in conference committee. The rest were killed in the Senate by the lead of Senator Limmer and Julie Rosen in conference committee. Both refused to comment so far.

If you hope to see any law change continue to contact law makers, especially Warren Limmer. 

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

It's clear that just because a homicidal rapist is convicted and sentenced to just 4 years, doesn't mean justice has been served. Therefore, if the punishment for ALL criminal sexual conduct crimes is raised than weak charges and convictions will be stronger. 

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

For the growing list of the last know location of convicted sex offenders in Washington County: 

Washington County Sex Offenders. Names, Photos, Addresses.

DEFENDANT: Alan Douglas Running 

AKA: Al Running, Alan Douglas, alface47

DOB: 9/9/1947 

CITY/RESIDENCE:

23877 Forest Drive N

#7

Forest Lake, MN 55025

MN AGENCY: Forest Lake Police Department 

DATE: 6/12/2017 

CHARGES:

I: Criminal Sex Conduct-3rd Degree-Victim Mental Impair/Helpless; 

II: Stalking - Pattern of Stalking Conduct; 

III: Burglary-2nd Degree-Dwelling 

Article in Forest Lake Times:

http://forestlaketimes.com/2017/06/28/man-charged-with-stalking-sex-crime/

DATE: 7/3/2017 

CHARGES: 

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

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

DATE: 7/25/2018
DEFENDANT: Alan Douglas Running
DOB: 9/9/1947
CITY/RESIDENCE: Forest Lake, MN
AGENCY: Forest Lake Police Department

JUDGE: Gary R. Schurrer
CONVICTION: Criminal Sex Conduct-3rd Degree
SENTENCE: Committed to the Commissioner of Corrections for 53 months; 42 days credited;

$50 fine with surcharge and fees;

Conviction History from BCA:

1/10/2000 Convicted Traffic - DUI - Alcohol or Controlled Substance - Definition - Gross Misdemeanor

1/10/2000 Convicted Traffic - DUI - Alcohol or Controlled Substance - Definition - Gross Misdemeanor

12/8/2009 Convicted Traffic - DWI - Operate Motor Vehicle - Alcohol Concentration 0.08 Within 2 Hours - Gross Misdemeanor

1/19/2011 Convicted Traffic-DL-Driving after cancellation-inimical to public safety - Gross Misdemeanor

7/11/2016 Convicted Harassment; Restraining Order - Violate Restraining Order - Misdemeanor

*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.    

Three Years to Charge Cottage Grove Man Caught with "Library" of Child Rape Videos and Child Porn, No Jail Time Likely

Randy Carl Rappe, age 66, birth date 07/02/1951, was found by FBI and BCA to have dozens of child porn files on a file sharing site. They notified Cottage Grove police who went to his home within the Woodland Park Apartments in Cottage Grove. This was over three years ago in May of 2014. As you read on you may be outraged that this danger to society was left THREE years without being charged it appears. He'll remain free as it's typically another year until conviction, which as you'll also find is of little consequence. Last year the County took 6 months to charge Timothy Pierre of Oakdale for sexually assaulting a 7 and 9 year old multiple times. 

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

What's worse is the WEAK sentence that awaits Randy Rappe (if convicted) like all Child porn convicts past and present in MN. That is, just probation after only a month or two in jail! In January, William Mcginnis, of May Township in Washington County was convicted of four counts of child porn and only got 10 years

Randy Rappe

probation and a weak 5 years on the sex offender registry. He was initially charged with 9 counts of child porn for having over 70 videos of child porn. His conviction took FOUR years! Not that it matters because he's on the streets again and his address is hidden on the offender registry in MN. Through it all he only served 60 days in jail. see: www.countrymessenger.com/news/man-sentenced-in-may-township-child-pornography-case

On the surface the law seems adequate. Each child porn conviction states in the law the penalty is up to 5 years in Jail and $5,000 for each offense in MN Statute 617.247.4(a); but that's never what comes close to happening, as you've just read. More here: Rampant Sex Crime on Children, in Just 2yrs, 10 Cases From County Alone, 8 Simple Laws to Update

Knowing the criminals never face anywhere close to the penalty stated in the law, why do prosecutors only charge for a few counts of child porn when dozens and dozens of files are found? This would possibly add up to an actual penalty in all these cases. According to the criminal complaint, police found nearly 1,000 videos and pictures of child porn. He initially denied knowing the age of the children. But changed his story when the officers started listing off the titles of his files such as "Webcam 12-Year-Old Boys", "Two Young Boys Making Love", and "Eight-to-Ten-Year-Old Russian Flower".

Detectives state in the criminal complaint Rappe had a "card catalog listing videos in almost a library like fashion with a check-in and check-out. Defendant stated he had been trying to catalog all of his movies at one point" Yet he's only charged with 7 counts of child porn?

The most horrifying fact of the case is at least a dozen of the videos Rappe downloaded showed children being violently raped, even infants. Often police will describe the content of the child porn they find in cases like this and the media always fails to adequately explain. Every piece is disturbing and should be remembered by law makers and the public that these men are not in possession material that was mistakenly downloaded or of people that could be considered consenting adults. 

If there's one conclusion to draw from the police descriptions of the child porn all these cases is that they are purely heinous and only the most twisted would collect such material. Yet in Minnesota we take Four years to prosecute them, give them a slap on the wrist, and send them back into society with only five to ten years on the sex offender registry that is hidden from the public. It's not all the County's fault, the pressure rests on law makers. 

It's time law makers do something to get justice and monitor these child predators for life. See:

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

Also: wcwatchdog.com/local-sex-offender-articles/

DATE: 8/10/2017 

DEFENDANT: Randy Carl Rappe 

DOB: 7/2/1951 

CITY/RESIDENCE:

Woodland Park Apartments 

7920 Hearthside Avenue S

#220

Cottage Grove, MN 55016

MN AGENCY: Cottage Grove 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; 

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

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

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

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

News story on him:

http://www.woodburybulletin.com/news/crime-and-courts/4315217-cottage-grove-man-charged-seven-counts-child-pornography

*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.