Over the years, Bluestem's been following the ongoing legal troubles of Jeremy Giefer, once of Vernon Center, now a resident of St. Peter.
We'd last touched on the Giefer saga in MN pardons sitenote: Giefer guilty on 3 counts of criminal sexual conduct involving a minor. Many years ago, Giefer was pardoned during the Pawlenty administration for a statutory rape conviction, while more recently faced another underaged rape charge which was dropped when the victim recanted.
His son appears to have followed his father's legacy, as Bluestem reported in Prairie gothic meets rococo: Jonathan Giefer convicted of sexually assaulting girl under 13.
And he's not even a drag queen, as the scamps say on the X platform.
At the Mankato Free Press, Brian Ariola reports in Previously pardoned man gets jail time in sexual misconduct case:
ST. PETER — A St. Peter man who received a pardon for previous sexual conduct with a minor is set to serve jail time for a 2021 incident with a 13-year-old girl.
Jeremy Alan Giefer, 50, was sentenced on felony second- and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct charges and a gross misdemeanor fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct charge Thursday in Nicollet County District Court.
A judge found him guilty of the three charges, while acquitting him on a felony fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct charge after a bench trial in September.
The girl accused Giefer of inappropriately touching her at his residence in August 2021, according to court records.
Giefer will reportedly serve 150 days in jail minus 39 days credited to him for time already served. A 36-month prison sentence is stayed, and his terms of probation will last 15 years.
In a closing argument at trial, the prosecution described him as pinning the 13-year-old down on a bed before she called another girl for help. The other girl reported seeing Giefer on top of the victim when she entered the room.
“I’m glad the victim’s voice was heard and that he is being held accountable for his behavior through the criminal sentence that the judge imposed,” said Michelle Zehnder Fischer, the Nicollet County attorney, about the case’s outcome.
Defense attorney Mark D. Kelly argued at trial that there was insufficient evidence to prove Giefer committed a crime. Giefer denied touching the girl and claimed he never even entered the room.
Judge Todd W. Westphal’s findings of fact in the case stated Giefer’s denial of the incident wasn’t credible. He noted the victim and the other girl’s rendition of events to police, a forensic interview and at trial was “generally quite consistent.
“In short, the evidence does establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that an incident did occur where (Giefer) did have the claimed physical contact with (the victim),” Westphal stated.
A guilty verdict in the case required prosecutors to prove Giefer’s contact with the girl was done with sexual intent. The judge cited Giefer’s aggressiveness pinning the girl down, text message exchanged with the girl later in the evening, and previous behavior intruding on the girls’ privacy during a trip in supporting there being sexual intent behind the contact.
Giefer was previously convicted of sexually assaulting a minor when he was 19 in 1994. He received a pardon for the conviction in 2008 from former Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
In 2010 a girl accused Giefer of sexually abusing her starting when she was 9-10 years old, although she later recanted and Giefer was never convicted.
I've reprinted the entire story, with apologies to the Free Press. It's a good summary of the case files online at Minnesota Cout Records Online. (Consider subscribing to the Free Press).
The jail time seems light, while the probationary period is not. Bluestem hopes he has to register as a sex offender, so his neighbors in St. Peter know about his most recent crime.
Photo:The Nicollet County Government Center in St. Peter, Minnesota. Photo via Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository.
Related posts
- MN pardons sitenote: Giefer guilty on 3 counts of criminal sexual conduct involving a minor
- Mankato Free Press reports Jeremy Giefer accused of another child sex assault
- Prairie gothic meets rococo: Jonathan Giefer convicted of sexually assaulting girl under 13
- Johnathan Giefer arrested again in new charges of sexually assaulting minor in Vernon Center
- Mankato Free Press: Blue Earth County to drop charges against Jeremy Giefer in sexual assault case
- MFP: Jeremy Giefer's spouse charged in December 2 incident
- In one of Mankato's 2010 top ten stories, county commissioner says he was duped by Giefer
- Reader tip: Jeremy Giefer back in Blue Earth County Jail
- Pawlenty pardon update: incidents in the life of Jeremy Giefer in 2008
- Pardoned by Pawlenty board in 2008, sex offender hit with criminal sex, incest charges
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