Area teen arrested in Sauk Rapids assault
Published Thursday, April 10, 2008
A 16-year-old Fergus Falls teen was charged in Benton County Court Tuesday with first-degree criminal sexual conduct after allegedly assaulting a girl at Sauk Rapids High School.
Ashten Nelson, 16, Fergus Falls, who is living in a Sauk Rapids foster home, was arrested Monday at Sauk Rapids High School in connection with the sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl. He was charged Tuesday.
According to Sauk Rapids School District representatives, the incident occurred near the end of the school day near the school store operated by the school’s DECA class.
Media reports state Nelson was caught on a store surveillance camera entering the store and approaching the girl. He took his belt and hit the girl over the head. He then pulled his pants down and started to attack the girl.
Court records state the camera footage shows that the girl tried to escape multiple times. The girl was able to make her way to the doorway of the school store where she was able to summon help, the St. Cloud Times reported in its Tuesday edition. But before the incident was over the girl’s pants were ripped and she sustained a sprained wrist, the paper reported.
Sauk Rapids Police Chief Curtis Gulleckson declined to comment on the specifics of the incident this morning, but said that to the best of his knowledge the facts reported in the media are correct.
In a letter to parents posted on the school district website, high school principal Erich Martens states that students rushed into the high school office to report what they described as the start of a sexual assault. Staff raced to the scene, halted the incident, apprehended Nelson and provided immediate care to the girl.
A court petition obtained by the St. Cloud Times outlining the sexual assault allegations indicates that Nelson has been convicted previously of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in Clay County in July 2005, when Nelson would have been 13.
When discussing the incident with one of his foster parents, Nelson said he attacked the girl because he "wanted sex," according to the petition. He also said he bent the victim's neck back but didn't kill her because "he was not a murderer."
