Star Tribune
Over victim’s objections, ex-Ramsey County public defender, assistant AG spared prison for sex abuse
Over his victim’s objections, a former Ramsey County public defender and assistant attorney general convicted of criminal sexual conduct for multiple assaults on his onetime romantic partner was sentenced to four years of probation and 90 days of electronic home monitoring.
Adam Kujawa, 38, of St. Paul received the term Monday in Washington County District Court. He had entered an Alford plea in March to charges of felony sexual predatory conduct and gross misdemeanor fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct, which allowed him to maintain his innocence while acknowledging that a jury would have likely found him guilty at trial.
He will have to register as a predatory offender and have no direct or indirect contact with his victim.
As part of the plea, what is known as a “global plea agreement,” other criminal sexual conduct charges related to the same victim were dismissed in Ramsey, Cook and Crow Wing counties, and Aitkin County prosecutors also agreed not to file or prosecute a first-degree criminal sexual conduct charge it had prepared.
Kujawa resigned from the Ramsey County public defender’s officer earlier this year after entering his plea. Kujawa was sworn in as assistant attorney general in 2013 and stayed with the office until 2017. That year, he joined Ramsey County as a public defender.
Court documents portray a toxic relationship full of sexually explicit text messages, infidelity and accusations of sexual abuse from the woman who says she felt trapped in the relationship with Kujawa for four years and was frequently forced to have sex with him. She told police that initially in the relationship the sex was consensual. But eventually, she said, if she refused, he would get violent and torment or stalk her. Two witnesses told police they observed Kujawa verbally and sexually assault her.
The woman was not present in court. A victim advocate for Ramsey County read her impact statement detailing the effects of Kujawa’s “psychological, physical and sexual abuse for over three years.”
“I want to make very clear that what Adam Kujawa did to me is something that words cannot ever capture,” the statement read. “The depths to which he destroyed a kind and happy person cannot ever be expressed justly in text.”
The impact statement also alleged that Kujawa was given preferential treatment in the legal process due to his previous employment as a public defender and assistant attorney general — specifically that Judge Siv Mjanger allowed Kujawa to chose his own psychosexual evaluator.
“I have been mortified to see that Adam was right, he, a wealthy white attorney will not face consequences and will receive special, extremely lenient treatment,” the statement read. “My voice was squashed, just as Adam had said it would be.”
The Star Tribune does not identify sexual assault victims unless they consent to being named.
Mjanger pushed back on the allegation that there was preferential treatment given, and asked Washington County probation officer Tracy Dillard if the process had been routine through Canvas Health, a certified community behavioral health clinic in Stillwater.
“That is correct, they are an entirely neutral entity and not affiliated with the defendant in this case at all,” Dillard said. “It was a neutral agency that conducted that psychosexual evaluation, at my direction.”
His attorney, David Lundgren, noted that while Kujawa was not a victim in this case he found it unfair to say his client had received preferential treatment in the legal process.
“Mr. Kujawa is a good man,” Lundgren said, mentioning Kujawa’s family sitting behind him along with six of his former colleagues from the Ramsey County public defender’s office. “He is not a violent person, he is not a manipulative person. He is someone that cares about others first.”
Later, Kujawa stood and addressed the court, “I hope to be able to continue to serve my community,” he said.
Kujawa’s victim wrote in her statement that her sense of community and belief in the legal process had been shattered. She wrote that she carries mace with her at all times, to the grocery store or the mailbox and that she had spent years waiting for justice while being subjected to “excruciating medical appointments, interviews, collecting and submitting painful evidence.”
“He has taken much from me and I know I am not alone,” the statement continued. “I truly look for the best in everyone, but this experience has taught me that this person is something I can find no good in.”
Star Tribune staff writer Kim Hyatt contributed to this story.
The lead pastor of Lakes Area Vineyard Church in Detroit Lakes said that a missionary was killed in an act of violence Friday in Angola, Africa.
Beau Shroyer moved there in 2021 with his wife, Jackie, and five children. They were working with the missionary organization SIM USA, founded in 1893 in Charlotte, N.C. SIM USA president Randy Fairman shared in a message to the Lakes Area Vineyard congregation that the Shroyers were one of the first families to move to Angola after pandemic lockdowns eased.
Fairman said many details are still unknown about Shroyer’s death. He said he got a call Friday “informing me that Beau Shroyer was killed while serving Jesus in Angola and is now with his Savior.”
“It is my belief that from his vantage point, he can see how his family will be cared for, and it is not hard for him to trust our good Father,” Fairman wrote. “From our perspective and the perspective of Jackie and the kids, we now must trust Jesus in a season that we never imagined. We must trust Him without requiring Him to give us an understanding of why He allowed this. It is difficult and stretches our faith.”
Troy Easton, lead pastor of Lakes Area Vineyard Church, said in a message to congregants that “Moments like these create so many unanswerable questions for us and it adds to the pain to know that we may never understand why our Father has allowed something like this to happen.”
“As more details became available regarding what’s next for the family, what arrangements are being made to celebrate and honor Beau’s life, and practical ways you can love and serve them, we will be certain to share them with you.
Along with his wife, Shroyer, 44, a former Detroit Lakes police officer and real estate agent, leaves behind children Bella, Avery, Oakley, Iva and Eden.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
This year, its jump-scares and lore landed it on Forbes’ list of “7 of the World’s Scariest Haunted Houses” alongside a 160-room mansion in California filled with “occult oddities,” a house built on an old cemetery near Chicago, and a haunted theme park in New Zealand built on the grounds of an old psychiatric hospital. The Haunted Ship, as the Irvin is known in October, is open just one more night — from 6:30 to 10 p.m. on Halloween.
“But this isn’t just a manufactured scare factory,” according to Forbes’ scare scouts, who reportedly visited the ship and had the VIP experience — which includes controlling the dialogue of a disembodied skull as visitors stream past. “In 1964, a sailor died on the ship during a boiler room accident, prompting the Duluth Paranormal Society to investigate the ship. Employees have reported seeing unexplained shadows, hearing phantom footsteps, and had objects thrown at them while doing maintenance work.”
The pilot house of the William A. Irvin is covered in cobwebs during October, a stop on the VIP tour of the seasonal Haunted Ship. (Jana Hollingsworth / The Minnesota Star Tribune)
The tour twists through the ship’s nooks, crannies and areas specific to its life on the Great Lakes — like a few gruesome dining areas where bloodied limbs are scattered about. There are creepy clowns and Victorian-era beings who stare wordlessly. A sink runs with bloody-colored water and a skeleton sits in a muddied bathtub surrounded by its innards.
The VIP experience offers a chance to roam through the ship’s living quarters alongside an ethereal character in the role of Irvin’s second wife. She sashays through the space with tales from the past, then allows you entry into private spaces where a saw blade rests in a sink and a body meant for the morgue vibrates with electrical waves on a bed. It offers a chance to dip into the pilot house, where wheels and gears are draped in cobwebs, offset in the opposite direction by a fresh perspective on the Aerial Lift Bridge.
The view from the Haunted Ship offers a new perspective on the Aerial Lift Bridge. (Jana Hollingsworth / The Minnesota Star Tribune)
There are countless dark corners for jump scares, strobe lights and tight spaces with hidden exits. There is a place designed to trigger claustrophobia. And there are mind-bending questions: Is that a person in that chair or isn’t it? Who is making that growling-moaning sound? What is that smell?
The final question is answered at the exit of the ship, where there is a running tally of how many people haven’t been able to finish the tour (90 as of Friday night) and how many have wet their pants (35).
How many people have opted out of the Haunted Ship? (Jana Hollingsworth / The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Police said they will be releasing details Monday about the shooting death of a 23-year-old man last week in New Hope.
Carnell Mark Johnson Jr., of Bloomington, was shot in the chest Thursday in the 7300 block of Bass Lake Road and died that same day at North Memorial Health Hospital, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said.
A police official said more information will be released about the shooting later Monday. No arrests have been announced.
