Only 30 Days in Jail and Probation for Child Molester Who Had Sex with Lake Elmo Child

In March of 2017 a Lake Elmo mother reported to police her child was possibly having a sexual relationship with an "older adult." In the criminal complaint she explained she had found her child's iPad showed sexual communication between the two. Detectives went to an inpatient treatment facility to talk to the child who was being treated there for depression and self harm.

Child Predator Jeff Fesler

The child victim stated, in the criminal complaint, Jeff Fesler, age 61, had been communicating; apparently showing the officer the evidence on the iPad. In May of 2016, Fesler picked the child up from their home in Lake Elmo and went to the Hilton Garden Inn in Oakdale where the two had sex. The child was 15 at the time.  

Detectives went to the house of Jeffrey Lampert Fesler. He invited them in and explained he had met the victim several times in Stillwater and they had sex once. He thought the child was over 18. Fesler said he works at One Twelve Treatment center in Minnetonka and knew the child was now being treated for depression and self harm because he had communicated with the child recently.

The Washington County Attorney's office charged Jeff Fesler with weak 3rd degree criminal sexual conduct with a child age 13-15 a month later in April of 2017 because the crime happened here. Typically child rapists convicted of 3rd degree CSC have very weak sentences for example:

Only 3.5 Years for Man Who Held Down and Raped Bayport Child While Taunting Her 

Hennepin County Prosecutors charged Fesler with sexual communication with a minor as that crime was committed in their jurisdiction. Neither county asked for him to be detained so he remained free in the public until he was convicted a year later it appears. This is evidenced in the criminal complaint with the "summons to appear", the court documents, and at sentencing recorded from the BCA. If he did serve jail time before conviction he'd been awarded credit for the number of days detained. He was given one day credit (below). He plead guilty to both charges it appears.

Side note: The attorney who defended this now convicted child rapist was Lauren Campoli it appears. Her office appears to commonly defend child rapists: https://campolidefense.com/practice-areas/sex-crimes/

Some would say he raped the child as by definition it is sex, with or without force with someone without their consent. Children do not have the capacity to consent. Either way, for this sex crime on this 15 year old child who apparently went into severe depression to the point of self harm, Jeff Fesler is only serving 30 days in jail and 15 years of probation it appears. The max length on the sex offender registry is only 10 years. He can appeal to lower the length of time on probation. The list is NOT public. 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." The rest were killed in the Senate by the lead of Senator Limmer and Julie Rosen in conference committee. Both refused to comment.

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

The problem is further explained in our related article: Watchdog Review of Each of the Fifty States Sex Offender Laws Finds Minnesota Ranked the Most Unsafe

It's clear that just because a rapist is convicted with level 3 child rape does not mean they'll serve prison time. Therefore, if the punishment for ALL criminal sexual conduct crimes is raised than plea deals will be less weak. 

Tell legislators to also make the sex offender list public like nearly every other State in the County does. All but MN 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.

To subscribe for email updates on new offenders and rapist suspects added and other

updates go to: 

http://wcwatchdog.com/subscribe/

DATE: 3/8/2018 

DEFENDANT: Jeffrey Lampert Fesler 

DOB: 8/31/1954 

CITY/RESIDENCE:

1962 Malvern Street

#1

Lauderdale, MN 55113

MN AGENCY: Washington County Sheriff's Office 

JUDGE: John C. Hoffman 

CONVICTION(s):
1. Criminal Sex Conduct-3rd Degree-Victim 13-15 Actor greater than 24m older (Not applicable - GOC)
05/28/2016 (FEL) 609.344.1(b) (6093441b)
2. Prostitution-Actor Hires or Agrees to Hire and Reasonably Believes Under 18 but at least 16
11/01/2016 (FEL) 609.324.1(c)(3) (6093241c3)

SENTENCE: 30 days in Jail. 15 years of probation; Stay of imposition, 180 days jail with 1 days credited (serves 180 days if refuses to go to treatment) , 150 stayed until in sex offender treatment; $750 fine.

*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.    

Contact The Five Senators Who Will decide if MN Gets Tougher on Child Rapists. Last Year They Said No.

Update: All the sex offender bills were killed in the Senate. Awaiting comment from the 5 members for upcoming article.

With about a week left in the 2018 legislative session it looks like the important sex offender bills that did not pass last year, will likely again fail to pass. Several (below) have died already. The fate of the remaining bills rests in the hands of 5 State Senators on whether or not they will agree to include the bills that passed in the House version of the public safety omnibus bill. As with all bills, both the house and senate versions have to pass matching before going to the Governor to potentially sign. Each committee chooses members from their group to go to conference and negotiate the differences.

Last year Senator Limmer, chair of the senate public safety committee, refused to pass the public safety omnibus bill with all the sex offender bills saying they were "too sweeping," but did not work on the bills when they sat ready for the senate to review for months. From what we're heard it doesn't look like the Senate is going to cooperate yet again for this same reason. Clearly, there are other interests likely at play and not the excuse the bills are "too sweeping". In a recent article we covered why this accusation is anything but true and explain the real local consequences of what is happening because these bills did not become law:

Predator Who Went to Hotel to Rape Two Children Will Walk With a Clean Record Because Representative Grossell’s Bill Did Not Pass 

The reason for this article is a plea to voters to call and email these five Senators ASAP and tell them to include all the bi-partisan sex offender reform bills that passed in the house. We know it sounds cliche' and it often falls on deaf ears. Many people assume that other people will take the time to contact the legislators; or that there can't be much of a difference if one person calls. The fact is, the legislators who are trying to get these bills passed tell us the resounding problem on why the bills don't get further is the opposition is so strong. The special interest groups like the County Attorney's Association (prosecutors) call the weak sex offender laws "tools for prosecution." The defense lawyers for sex offenders lobby that sex offender laws are too severe. On and on there are groups who are fighting against tougher laws and in the absence of facts and opposition the law makers don't agree and the laws don't pass. The truth is Minnesota 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

Meanwhile, in the real world, nearly an article a month comes out from our page about a child rapist walking with little to no prison time and probation. This is just from Washington County, let alone what's happening in the other 86 Counties in the State. At the end of the post we list some of these articles. For the complete list follow: 

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

Another reason this is so important you contact these five Senators is prosecutors are giving weak charges; offering insane plea deals to avoid trial; and sentencing guidelines are so weak for sex crime that this rapist (for example) served more time (23 months) for burglary than he did for holding, beating, and raping a woman (15 months):

Man Who Held Woodbury Woman Captive 2 Days and Raped her Released After 15 Months and Now Charged With Stillwater Sexual Assault  

Call and email the legislators and tell them in your own words why these bills need to pass ASAP, there are only days left in session. If you need help thinking of more reasons just browse the titles of the articles below. You can copy and paste the list of emails into your "to" for the recipients of the email:

sen.warren.limmer@senate.mn;  sen.scott.newman@senate.mn; sen.mary.kiffmeyer@senate.mn; sen.julie.rosen@senate.mn; sen.michelle.benson@senate.mn 

Remember, this isn't a republican vs democrat issue because republicans and democrats in the Senate don't want to pass this. Representative Matt Grossell is a republican and he's the only one who's writing sex offender bills the last couple sessions. 

It's so hard to pass good sex offender bills because of the opposition. Here are the bills that died in the House this session when Senator Warren Limmer refused to discuss them calling the "non-starters":

HF2944 Sex offenders required to serve 50-year conditional release or probation terms, and intensive probation for sex offenders established.

HF2943 Reunification of parents and children after the parent sexually abuses a child restricted.

HF2905 Criminal sexual conduct prosecution team established in the Office of the Attorney General.

A really great sex offender bill died last session when it reached the senate:
The bill was HF1572/ SF1895 sponsored by Representative Matt Grossell and had over 30 other legislator co-signers combined. It eliminated the loop hole called Stays of adjudication and stays of imposition in criminal sexual conduct cases, sex offenders required to serve lifetime conditional release or probation, intensive probation for sex offenders established, child pornography penalties increased, mandatory minimum sentences created, and Sentencing Guidelines Commission directed to modify the sex offender grid.

When you call and email you are still fighting to pass what did survive. If we don't convince them there's no telling if the bills will get a second chance next session. Matt Grossell is up for re-election, if he is not re-elected there is little indication that anyone will step up and write sex offender bills and fight for them to pass as hard as he does. 

The bills that need the approval of the five state senators:

HF2906  Closes the loop hole that allows convicted sex offenders to obtain a clean record after probation

HF2934  For those who have gone through the loop hole, their records must show their offenses on background checks and they must not be allowed to be bus drivers

HF2904 Child pornography offenses penalties increased, mandatory minimum sentences created, and Sentencing Guidelines commission directed to modify the sex offender grid.

We will have a follow up article on how each of the five legislators handled these bills... who was pushing to include the bills, if senator Limmer again made every excuse possible to push back or further scale back the reform of the bills even more than they've already been.

Here's the info to contact each of the five legislators:

Warren Limmer (34, R) 3221 Minnesota Senate Bldg. 651-296-2159 E-mail: sen.warren.limmer@senate.mn

Scott J. Newman (18, R) 3105 Minnesota Senate Bldg. 651-296-4131 E-mail: sen.scott.newman@senate.mn

Mary Kiffmeyer (30, R) 3103 Minnesota Senate Bldg. 651-296-5655 E-mail: sen.mary.kiffmeyer@senate.mn

Julie A. Rosen (23, R) 3235 Minnesota Senate Bldg. 651-296-5713 E-mail: sen.julie.rosen@senate.mn

Michelle R. Benson (31, R)  3109 Minnesota Senate Bldg.  651-296-3219  E-mail: sen.michelle.benson@senate.mn

To subscribe for email updates on new offenders and rapist suspects added and other updates go to: 

http://wcwatchdog.com/subscribe/

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

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

local offender articles by date:

2016:

First Two Men Convicted from Child Trafficking Sting Walk with a Misdemeanor and Just Probation

2017:

Fleet Farm Fondler Convicted of Groping 13 y/o. In Rare Occurrence, No Plea Deal but Sentence Still Weak

No Mandated Jail time for Convicted St Paul Park Man who Sexually Assaulted a Child

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

Serial Rapist Caught Living in Woodbury. Broken MN Law Only Requires Him to Register until 2020

Three Time Convicted Rapist in Woodbury Now Convicted of Trying to Meet Child for Sex. Will be Released Next Year.

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

Man Who Gang Raped Woodbury Child Only Gets 5 years Probation and 10 Months Prison

Only 3.5 Years for Man Who Held Down & Raped Bayport Child While Taunting Her

2018:

Predator Who Went to Hotel to Rape Two Children Will Walk With a Clean Record Because Representative Grossell’s Bill Did Not Pass

Man Who Repeatedly Raped a Child in Oakdale, Raped another Child While on Probation and Will be Out in 2 Years

Fleet Farm Fondler Convicted of Groping 13 y/o, Gets Weak Sentence

Fugitive Child Predator Who Police Report Says Was Caught With Pants Down and About to Rape Child, Found Living at Woodbury Hotel

Man Who Tried to Have Sex with 14 and 12 year old at Lake Elmo Park, Only gets a Year in Prison and 5 years Probation

Only a Year in Jail for Man who Gang Raped 14 Year Old Child in Woodbury

No Justice: Man Who Held Woodbury Woman Captive 2 Days and Raped her Released After 15 Months and Now Charged With Stillwater Sexual Assault 

Predator Who Went to Hotel to Rape Two Children Will Walk With a Clean Record Because Representative Grossell's Bill Did Not Pass

John Duc Pham

Convicted last week, child predator John Duc Pham is #24 on our Washington County Watchdog list. See: http://wcwatchdog.com/stings/  Read the Criminal Complaint how on April 6th 2016 John Pham arranged to meet who he thought was a 15 year old child and her “little sister” for “straight sex” with the children at a hotel in Oak Park Heights. Pham was arrested when he arrived to the hotel room and later charged with agreeing to hire a child for prostitution it appears.

He is one of dozens who have been caught in child trafficking stings the County used to conduct. However, they now focus solely on trying to catch pimps. Nearly all these pimps caught in the County are soliciting adult prostitutes. To best of our knowledge, the county has only caught one operation that may have been using a minor (17 years old). It's unfortunate the County appears to have completely abandoned catching child predators with stings. Some experts believe that the original approach the County was using to combat the rampant sex crime on children in Washington County is more effective than chasing Tinder, Backpage, and Craigslist ads in the "adults seeking adults" section for child victims. That is, continue stings that catch child predators. It dries up the market two fold by catching and identifying sex offenders who prey on kids while scaring off those who have not yet been caught. Better yet, do both, attack the problem from both sides. County attorney Pete Orput is one phone call away from nearly a dozen legislators in Washington County who would most certainly author a bill for any dollar amount to combat child sex trafficking. Especially when we have Representative Kelly Fenton who authored a bill to fund a park that was already fully funded privately!

Problem number one is the County Attorney Pete Orput and prosecutor Imran Ali agree'd to this insane plea deal for Pham it appears. Because he's getting off with a "stay of adjudication." Which means this guy who went to a hotel to rape a 15 year old and her "little sister" is going to have a clean record if he finishes his measly 5 years of probation. Problem 2, is the law exists. See the article on how the loophole works:

KARE 11 Investigates: Minnesota's secret sex offenders

How can this be when the law was supposed to be changed thanks to the lead of republican Matt Grossell who authored a bill first thing last 2017 session to close this loophole? The bill was HF1572/ SF1895 sponsored by Representative Matt Grossel and had over 30 other legislator co-signers combined. There were many other good sex offender reform bills that were also killed in the public safety omnibus that was finished nearly two months before session ended.

It was because Senator Limmer along with other senate leaders who killed this bill at the request of the Minnesota County Attorneys Association (MCAA). They killed this bill and several others like it because they were "too sweeping" and "needed more time for review" even though this bill and others were done months before session ended. MCAA says the plea deals are "tools" for prosecutors.

Lawmakers fail to close sex crime loopholes

Doing away with adjudication for sex offenders is not "sweeping." Even California, (arguably, the most liberal state in the Country) has done away with adjudication for sex offenders! 

Sex offenders like John Pham and many others throughout the State are continuing to walk back into the shadows because of legislators like Senator Limmer who apparently do not take child rape seriously enough to pass some common sense laws. Please contact your legislators. see: www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/districtfinder

The problem is further explained in our related article: Watchdog Review of Each of the Fifty States Sex Offender Laws Finds Minnesota Ranked the Most Unsafe

The solution is in Minnesota law makers hands to make it so no sex crime against a child goes without mandated prison time and sex offender registration. Currently most child rapists rarely do more than a year in jail and no more than 10 years on the sex offender registry. See more about the solution here: Rampant Sex Crime on Children, in Just 2yrs, 10 Cases From County Alone, 8 Simple Laws to Update

For many more examples from Washington County of convicted sex offenders still on our streets see our other posts here:
wcwatchdog.com/local-sex-offender-articles/

DATE: 1/24/2018 

DEFENDANT: John Duc Pham 

DOB: 1/1/1965 

CITY/RESIDENCE: Columbia Heights, 

MN AGENCY: Washington County Sheriff's Office 

JUDGE: John C. Hoffman 

CONVICTION: Prostitution - Actor Hires or Agrees to Hire and Reasonably Believes Under 18 

SENTENCE: 

Stay of adjudication and all other recommendations of the pre-sentence investigation. 

5 years of probation, complete 40 hours of community work service within 120 days. Pay fine of $500. 

*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.