Star Tribune
St. Paul man charged with drugging and sexually assaulting victim he met on dating app
A St. Paul man with an extensive criminal history spanning state lines has been charged with drugging and raping a man he met on a dating app and stealing his property.
Ramsey County authorities charged John Henry McCaster, 48, on Wednesday with first- and third-degree criminal sexual conduct in a rape reported Dec. 31. McCaster, who was arrested that night, has also been charged with vehicle and property theft.
Prosecutors say McCaster’s criminal history includes felony convictions in Minnesota and multiple drug crimes in Illinois, adding that they believe he poses a “very high” risk to public safety. He has been the subject of multiple police reports involving sexual assaults in the Twin Cities with and without the use of a gun, drugging victims, and theft of items from assault victims.
“When we announced a greater collaboration and implementation of our improvement plan on sexual assault investigations in 2019, we envisioned being able to uncover more cases like this where we would connect the dots with other victims across our region,” Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said in a statement. “We appreciate the dedication and collaboration between St. Paul police investigators and our assigned prosecutor to investigate and charge our most complex sexual assault cases.”
According to charging documents filed Friday:
At 11:47 p.m. on Dec. 31 St. Paul police were dispatched to a reported vehicle theft that happened earlier in the day on the 1500 block of Greenbrier Street. The victim told police that his cell phone, backpack, clothes and black Mercedes were missing. He also worried that the suspect may have sexually assaulted him.
The man told officers that he began talking to McCaster days before the incident on Grindr, an online dating app described as the largest social networking app for people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer. The man agreed to meet McCaster, but he said they never made plans to be intimate that night. He told police he knew he would not have consensual sex with McCaster “as soon as he met [him],” adding that the 48-year-old spoke quickly and slurred his words as if he were under the influence.
But McCaster allegedly brandished a semi-automatic handgun and knife, locking his bedroom door from the inside and playing music at an “unbearably loud” volume. The man told investigators he was too scared to speak or leave for fear of McCaster using his weapons to hurt or kill him. McCaster insisted that he drink a blue liquid from a pitcher in his fridge, pouring a cup for both of them. The man drank the liquid and lost consciousness, waking up naked on the floor with his hands tied behind him at around 8 a.m. McCaster’s cup was untouched.
Investigators have collected the blue liquid and sent it to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for tests.
The victim “said he knew he had been raped,” the charging documents said, citing evidence he reported. “[He] downplayed the sexual assault to police at the time of the initial report because he was embarrassed and blaming himself … [the victim] did go to urgent care after being advised to get a sexual assault exam but left after waiting two or three hours because he could not bear it anymore.”
McCaster was arrested that night for unlawful possession of a weapon and drugs. He had the victim’s personal belongings with him at the time. McCaster told investigators that he’s not a gun person and has not been on Grindr for around a decade, adding that he and the man had consensual sex the night of the assault. He also claimed that the victim gave him permission to use his Mercedes, which was purchased two days before the incident.
The victim denied consenting to sexual activity, or to giving McCaster permission to drive his car.
It’s unclear when McCaster’s next hearing shall be scheduled, but prosecutors asked Judge Kellie Charles to set his bail at $150,000.
This isn’t the first time McCaster has drugged and assaulted people he met online.
McCaster’s landlord said the 48-year-old has lived in the Greenbriar house since last March. He said McCaster did similar acts to a different man before, adding that he believes McCaster is into an illegal depressant commonly known as a date rape drug. The landlord said he tried to evict him, but reported that McCaster brandished a chrome handgun and forced the landlord to put his belongings back in the apartment.
McCaster has earned at least seven felony convictions in Minnesota this past decade for crimes that include violating an order for protection and violating a no contact order. Per a St. Paul police report last year, McCaster met someone from Grindr before pulling out a revolver and raping them. Another 2023 report alleges that McCaster met someone from Grindr for sex before stealing their wallet and personal items, and a 2007 report alleges that McCaster raped and beat a woman he knows.
A Minneapolis police report suggested that McCaster sexually assaulted a transgender person in 2020, and another report that year claims he drugged and sexually assaulted a man he met on Grindr. That victim woke up naked with several of their possessions stolen.
Charging documents also explained that McCaster also has an “extensive” criminal history in Illinois that includes domestic battery, larceny, and controlled substance crimes.
Star Tribune
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town
LONG PRAIRIE, MINN. — The school district superintendent dressed up as the school mascot, Thor, on football nights. He read the graduation address in both English and Spanish. He even set up office hours in the cafeteria, granting easier approachability to students.
But now, two months into the school year, Daniel Ludvigson is gone. Or, rather, “on special assignment,” according to the terminology of the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle School Board, which voted 4-3 earlier this month to remove him as superintendent. The move came weeks after voting to not renew his contract, which expires at the end of the school year in June.
Four board members — two of whom voted to oust Ludvigson, including Board Chair Kelly Lemke — are up for re-election next week.
The dismissal is the latest blow in this central Minnesota community on the edge of the prairie. Over the last nine months, the town of 3,400 residents and seat of Todd County has lost its mayor, a city manager, two school board members, and now its superintendent.
Students walked out earlier this month in support of Ludvigson. Signs in support of Ludvigson can be seen across town on the lawns of apparent Democrats and Republicans alike. And last week, hundreds packed the American Legion off Hwy. 71 to eat beef sandwiches and sign support letters for Ludvigson, who only swung by to pick up his child for hockey practice.
In a time of great divide in America, this fight has nothing to do with politics.
“You’ve got Harris buttons and Trump hats side-by-side, arm-in-arm,” said Amanda Hinson, a former local newspaper reporter who is concerned the board is not being upfront about why they placed Ludvigson on special assignment. “We want transparency in our government.”
Lawn signs around Long Prairie, Minn., now include people weighing in on the dismissal of Superintendent Daniel Ludvigson by the school board. (Christopher Vondracek)
School board members say Ludvigson has repeatedly shown he is not ready for the prime time of a school district bigger than the one in central North Dakota he arrived from two years ago. They have twice disciplined Ludvigson, but did not state the reason for placing him on “special assignment,” beyond insinuating that staff are fearful to raise official complaints.
Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.
Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.
“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.
The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.
It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.
“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.
“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.
The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.
An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.
Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.
The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.
Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.
The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.