Star Tribune
Man charged with detaining, sexually assaulting 15-year-old in St. Paul
A St. Paul man has been charged with detaining a teen in his apartment and sexually assaulting her for days.
The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged Sebastian Jenkins, 52, with first- and third-degree criminal sexual conduct and false imprisonment on Monday. Jenkins reportedly kept the teen in his St. Paul apartment between Jan. 30 and Feb. 2, preventing her from leaving while sexually assaulting them at least a dozen times.
Another 15-year-old, who was reported missing, witnessed the assault — and prosecutors say Jenkins also coerced that teen into sex.
According to the charging documents and search warrants:
Officers were called Feb. 2 to Wendy’s on University Avenue West for reports of a potential kidnapping and sexual assault. There they met a 15-year-old girl who appeared “highly traumatized.” She had burn marks on her stomach, fresh slash marks on her right wrist, and told officers that she was kept captive and sexually assaulted.
The girl explained that she and another 15-year-old teen, identified as AN, ran away from a shelter program that provides supportive services for at-risk youth. The victim’s mother believes they left at around 10 p.m. on Jan. 30. The teens met Jenkins and another man at a gas station, and the men offered to party and get them high. The teens rode in the men’s car and smoked methamphetamine before going to Jenkins’ apartment.
They all had sex, the girl told police, before Jenkins pulled her aside and said ” I don’t think I want you guys to leave.” She responded “OK” because she did not think he was serious. The next day she said Jenkins got her and AN high with meth again before having sex with them, burning her with a lighter and meth bubbles during intercourse.
Although the girl tried to leave the apartment, Jenkins would not let her leave. She took Jenkins’ phone and tried messaging people for a ride, but said that Jenkins found out and yelled at her. That’s when the girl said she cut herself with one of his kitchen knives. The act “freaked him out” and prompted Jenkins to walk her out of his apartment. Surveillance video showed him walking out with both teens and returning with AN.
She then called her mother and told her she had been kidnapped and sexually assaulted multiple times, and that AN was still in the apartment.
The first teen estimates that Jenkins sexually assaulted her a dozen times during the four days she was held captive in his apartment. She told police that sex would sometimes begin with her consent, but said Jenkins would refuse to stop when she told him to.
Officers went to Jenkins’ apartment within an hour of the teen’s escape. He refused to open the door without a warrant, and said he was the only occupant inside. Authorities entered after returning with a valid warrant, finding Jenkins inside with AN and numerous items that included a black and silver knife, four comforters, and multiple backpacks with personal items.
Jenkins was arrested, telling police that he met AN at a gas station and allowed her to stay because he had been homeless before. He admitted to being with a friend at the time, but claimed that he forgot their name. Authorities are still searching for that man. Jenkins denied using drugs or having sex with AN, adding that nobody else was in his apartment while the teen was there.
He asked for a lawyer after investigators pressed further about whether another girl was with AN at Jenkins’ apartment.
In her interview with police, AN confirmed that she and the other girl ran away rom the shelter on Jan. 30 before meeting Jenkins and his friend. AN said she and the other teen were provided with meth, cocaine and alcohol while at the apartment, estimating that she had sex with Jenkins at least five times. She added that she was free to leave the apartment if she wanted to.
Jenkins’ criminal history in Minnesota does not include previous instances of sexual assault and is limited to misdemeanor convictions for domestic assault and possession of burglary tools. Prosecutors asked Judge Sophia Vuelo to set Jenkins’ bail at $60,000. His next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 28.
The sexual assault case is among those charged by this office this year, which also include a Blaine woman for sexually assaulting youth hockey teammates visiting from Colorado, and charged a St. Paul man for drugging and sexually assaulting multiple victims he met on a dating app. Their court proceedings are expected to continue in the coming months.
Anti-police brutality activists interrupted a Minneapolis City Council meeting Thursday to call for Police Chief Brian O’Hara’s firing, saying his department failed a Black man who begged police for help for months, to no avail, before he was finally shot in the neck by his white neighbor.
John Sawchak, 54, is charged with shooting Davis Moturi, 34, even though three warrants had been issued for his arrest in connection with threats to Moturi and other neighbors.
Activists showed up at the council meeting and asked for time to talk about the case. Instead, the council recessed and activists took the podium and castigated the city for failing Black people, even as state and federal officials are forcing the police department into court-sanctioned monitoring because of past civil rights violations.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, founder of the Racial Justice Network, said O’Hara needs to be held accountable.
“This is not the first time instance where the community has raised concerns about his poor judgment, poor leadership, blaming the community and excuses. It’s completely unacceptable for him to get away with it,” she said. “How many Black people’s doors have they kicked in for less?”
On Thursday the council voted to request the city auditor review the city’s involvement in and response to the matters between Moturi and Sawchak.
Mayor Jacob Frey released a statement in response saying he supports the council’s call for an independent review of the case, but O’Hara “will continue to be the Minneapolis police chief.”
Protesters also questioned why the public hadn’t heard from Community Safety Commissioner Toddrick Barnette, who called a news conference within hours to say he’s not going to fire O’Hara and the city leadership supports him.
A Girl Scout from Troop 58068 told the Woodbury City Council recently that they should allow backyard chickens in the city: They cheer people up, she said.
It turned out that chickens were on an upcoming agenda and, perhaps pushed a bit by the scout’s lobbying, the Woodbury City Council at their next meeting passed a new ordinance allowing for backyard hens.
The new ordinance went into effect on Oct. 23, the night of the council meeting, and will allow people who live on property zoned R-2, a “rural estate” district, to have backyard chickens. A typical city lot is zoned R-4 and those areas still cannot have chickens, the council said.
The city has received requests “here and there” for the last several years about backyard chickens, City Council Member Andrea Date said.
Backyard chickens come have home to roost — and never leave — in a host of other Minnesota cities that allow them, from Hopkins to Thief River Falls. It’s long been allowed in both St. Paul and Minneapolis, and new cities started approving backyard coops during the pandemic, when interest spiked.
In Woodbury, it wasn’t until the question was included on the city’s biannual survey that city staff knew how people felt. The survey found less support for chickens on a typical city lot — just 13% of respondents said they strongly approve of the idea while 43% percent strongly disapproved — but a majority approved of backyard chickens on lots of 1 acre or more.
The city’s rules until recently only allowed chickens on “rural estate” properties of five or more acres.
The new ordinance allows up to six hens, but no roosters, on property less than four acres that meets the zoning requirements. Larger properties can have an additional two chickens per acre above four acres. The ordinance also sets a height limit for chicken coops of 7 feet. No license or permit is required in Woodbury for backyard chickens.
Star Tribune
Anonymous donor pays overdue bill for Fergus Falls home where town’s first Black resident lived
A $10,000 overdue special assessment bill threatening tax forfeiture of a historic Fergus Falls home was paid off this week thanks to an anonymous donor.
Prince Albert Honeycutt lived at 612 Summit Avenue East, renamed Honeycutt Memorial Drive in 2021. Not only was Honeycutt the town’s first Black resident — settling there in 1872 from Tennessee — he was the state’s first Black professional baseball player, first Black firefighter and first Black mayoral candidate.
He was an early pioneer and prominent businessman who owned a barbershop in town. Missy Hermes, with the Otter Tail County Historical Society, said Honeycutt and his wife were likely the first Black people in Minnesota to testify in a capital murder trial of a man who was convicted and hanged in Fergus Falls.
“In other places, you would never have a Black person testifying against a white person, especially a woman, too, before women could vote even,” Hermes said. “Obviously he was respected enough.”
Nancy Ann and Prince Albert Honeycutt with their children inside the now-historic Honeycutt house in 1914. Photo from the collections of the Otter Tail County Historical Society.
When dozens of people from Kentucky moved to Fergus Falls in April 1898, known as “the first 85,” Honeycutt helped integrate them into the community.
He died in 1924 at age 71 and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Fergus Falls.
Up until 2016, several owners lived in the Honeycutt home. But the city bought and sold the house to nonprofit Flowingbrook Ministry for $1 to take over the tax-exempt property and operate the ministry.
Ministry founder Lynette Higgins-Orr, who previously lived in Fergus Falls, moved to Florida several years ago and little activity has been going on in the historic home since. But she said there are plans to make it into a museum.
