Unnamed Boy - 8 yo (2002)/ Accused: Joseph L Larson - St Paul MN

Foster father goes on trial in sex abuse case

May 1, 2011 - 11:39 PM


Two boys who were in his care say Joseph L. Larson sexually abused them. His lawyer termed the allegations "horrible," said he "dedicated his life to helping troubled kids."

For nearly a decade, the boys from St. Paul lived with what authorities say was a terrible secret. Last summer, authorities were finally able to shine a light on the boys' allegations: They'd been sexually abused as foster children by the man entrusted to care for them.

Joseph L. Larson, 34, will go on trial Monday over the allegations, which prosecutors say are very rare. Because of his position of authority, prosecutors have already filed a motion to seek an upward departure from state sentencing guidelines if Larson is convicted.

Larson said through his attorney that he is looking forward to his day in court. Jury selection in the case concerning one of the foster children is scheduled to start Monday in St. Paul. Larson also is faces more recently filed felony charges in Anoka County of possession of child pornography.

"While these allegations are horrible, Joe has never and would never hurt a child," said Katie Rindfleisch, Larson's attorney. "In fact, he had dedicated his life to helping troubled kids."

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi declined to comment about Larson's case. Speaking generally, he said, "Kids in foster care are already victims and highly vulnerable, and the system needs to protect them."

Before he was charged last August, Larson was investigated twice by a child pornography task force but not charged. He also had had his foster care license closed after one of the youths in the current case made an allegation against him, according to court documents.

Larson is charged with one count each of felony criminal sexual misconduct. One of the former foster children, now 17, was in his care from 2002 to 2005; the other, now 23, was with him for three months in 2003.

Monday's trial is for the case involving the 17-year-old.

Licensed in 2002 Larson became a licensed foster parent through a private agency, PATH Minnesota Inc., in Monticello in 2002.

Private and county agencies process all foster care applications, and the requirements are the same for each. Background studies are submitted to the state's Department of Human Services, which completes the inspection of the prospective foster care home.

Larson cared for four children, including two brothers, while licensed with PATH Minnesota.

In November 2004, a state task force received a report from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about information discovered during an Internet child pornography investigation. Investigators found credit cards issued to Larson had been used to buy access to child pornography websites in 2002 and 2003, court documents said.

Two officers assigned to the state's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force looked into the report but didn't have enough for a warrant to search his computer, said officer John Keating, a spokesman for the St. Paul Police Department.

PATH Minnesota wasn't informed about the report, said George Hendrickson, PATH's CEO. "Had we known about the allegations, we would have been mandated to take action," he said.

In January 2006, the Internet crimes task force again investigated Larson, going to his house. He told investigators the credit cards used to access child porn websites were stolen in 2004 but he hadn't reported it to police, court documents said.

Larson told police he wouldn't consent to a search of his computer because it contained private information about foster children, according to a police report. He also questioned whether the investigators were really police officers, the documents said. Before leaving, one investigator told Larson he was bothered that someone involved in foster care "would not do everything in their power to work with law enforcement in order to show non-involvement with this offense," the document said.

By this time, the 17-year-old and his brother were no longer in Larson's care and were with a foster parent in Hennepin County, court documents said. Larson told the police he wished to adopt the children and repeatedly said he would not hurt children, according to the document. But in February 2006, the 17-year-old, then age 12, told his new foster mother that Larson did inappropriate things to him and also said Larson kissed one of the boy's friends, a different document said.

He and the friend later repeated the allegations to social workers. The allegations were investigated, but no case was brought against Larson.

Because of the pending investigation, PATH Minnesota closed Larson's foster care license in May 2006. His attorney said a letter she received from the agency stated the license was closed at Larson's request. The letter, signed by a PATH Minnesota regional director, also said "Joe has been a kind and caring foster parent and has given good service to PATH."

Larson served on the agency's board and was a member of the education committee.

Sought new license

Larson applied for a new foster care license through Ramsey County in fall 2007. It was approved but revoked a year later by the Department of Human Services when the county learned Larson had not disclosed that he had been previously licensed and that there was a pending investigation by law enforcement, according to a department revocation letter.

In February 2010, St. Paul police were again alerted when the 17-year-old told a social worker about sex abuse incidents that allegedly occurred during his time in Larson's care, according to a criminal complaint filed against Larson.

After speaking with the boy, police interviewed the foster child who is now 23 and who had lived with Larson for three months in 2003 when he was 14 or 15.

Larson was charged with criminal sexual misconduct in August. The child pornography criminal complaint in Anoka County was filed four months later.

In a short statement, Rindfleisch said her client has provided foster, respite and personal attendant care for more than 20 children in need. Larson also "serves our country in the National Guard and has since 2007," she said. At trial, she said, she plans to call several witnesses who will testify that Larson is caring, trustworthy and honest.

"Some of our witnesses have known Joe for over 10 years and some are former foster children and will share how Joe saved their lives," she said. "This has been a terrible and emotional time for Joe. Although he regrets there has to be a trial, Joe looks forward to proving his innocence in court."

Looks like this trial is the first of many.

Coon Rapids man pleads guilty to abusing foster children


4:25 PM, May 2, 2011


ST. PAUL, Minn. -- A Coon Rapids man pled guilty Monday to sexually
abusing two of his foster children while living in St. Paul.
Joseph Leonard Larson, 34, entered guilty pleas to two counts of
first-degree criminal sexual conduct in Ramsey County District Court.
According to the press release, Leonard did not acknowledge the abuse
in court, but admitted there was sufficient evidence for a jury to find
him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The criminal complaints state that a victim, who is now 17, reported
to authorities that Larson sexually abused him more than once from
August 27, 2003 to January 1, 2006. A second victim, who is now 23,
reported that Larson sexually abused him in 2003 when he lived as a
foster child in Larson's home.
Larson faces 12 or more years in prison when is sentenced June 28, 2011.

Ex-foster father gets 12 years in prison for sexually abusing two boys in his care

Two say they were abused as boys
Updated: 05/02/2011 2:32:25 AM



He took young children into his home as a foster parent.
Then he abused them.

A former St. Paul foster father pleaded guilty Monday to sexually abusing two boys in his care.

On the day his trial was to start, Joseph Leonard Larson, 34, of
Minneapolis submitted Alford pleas to the charges, meaning he did not
directly admit guilt but agreed that the state had enough evidence to
convict him.

He will be sentenced June 28 to at least 12 years in prison.

Speaking softly, Foster offered simple "yes" or "no" answers to questions by Ramsey County Prosecutor Eric Leonard.

Two former foster children — one now an adult — disclosed
separately that Larson had abused them when they were living at his home
in the 600 block of Charles Avenue.

The first boy lived with Larson from about April through July
2003, when he was 15, Larson agreed. No one besides Larson and his
foster children lived at the house.

In May 2010, the boy told a detective in Hartford, Conn., that
Larson had approached him in the bathroom at one point and performed sex
acts.

According to the criminal complaint, the boy said "he did not
like the defendant and he was afraid of him." Larson would hug him "a
lot" and French-kiss him. The boy said he eventually ran away from
Larson's home.

The second boy lived at the home from late August 2003 through
Jan. 1, 2006, when he was ages 9 to 11, Larson agreed. His older brother
lived there for a time, too.

The boy told a nurse and others at the Midwest Children's Resource Center
in St. Paul in February 2010 that Larson had raped him on more than one
occasion.

The criminal complaint quoted the boy as saying, "It made my body
feel weak and hurt." He didn't tell anyone about the abuse earlier, he
said, because he was afraid.

A third boy, who visited Larson's house occasionally, might also
have been called as a witness had the case gone to trial, Leonard said.
That boy told investigators that Larson kissed him and placed him on his
lap "or otherwise made him uncomfortable," Leonard said.

Larson was licensed to provide child foster care in Ramsey County
from December 2002 to May 2006, according to the state Department of
Human Services.

He applied for another license in December 2007, but it was
revoked a year later. He did not house any children during that time.

In a revocation order sent to Larson, the department said Larson
had not been truthful in his application for the second license.

The department had found out after approving Larson that the
previous license had been closed "due to a pending investigation of you
by law enforcement." Larson also said in his application that he had
never held a previous license.

A 2004 background check on Larson disclosed that the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency had discovered that two of
his credit cards were used to buy access to child pornography websites
in 2002 and 2003 and that his email address was connected to those
purchases, the criminal complaint said.

It was not clear from the complaint why the background check was being conducted.

When investigators came to Larson's home with questions, he said
his credit cards had been stolen. He believed his email address was
compromised as well, he told them.

In February 2010, after the first boy's allegations came to
light, police executed a search warrant for the Coon Rapids home where
he lived at the time. They found "many thousands of images of child
pornography," according to the criminal complaint.

Larson acknowledged that the state would have presented that
pornography evidence at trial. The porn charge will be dropped as part
of the plea agreement.

Larson is out on bail.

The plea agreement calls for Larson to be permanently registered
as a predatory offender. After his prison term ends, he'll be on
conditional release for at least 10 years and possibly for life.

After all the bluster from him and his mouthpiece, he admits guilt. Even then he couldn't be a man about it, taking Alford pleas instead.

I don't know why his sentence will be so light. In Florida he would get 25 to life. POS. Hope he gets all the sex he wants in prison. And then some.

Ex-foster father gets 12-year prison term for sexually abusing two boys in St. Paul

"I'm sorry," Joseph Leonard Larson said today in Ramsey County District Court as he was about to be sentenced for sexually abusing two boys he was supposed to care for as a foster parent. "The impact of my crime on everyone is untold. I've lost family, friends, my sense of self."

Judge Joanne Smith responded that it wasn't much of an apology.

She sentenced Larson, of Coon Rapids, to 12 years in prison and told him if he hadn't pleaded guilty to the crime and reached a plea agreement with prosecutors, he probably would have been convicted by a jury and she would have given him a harsher sentence.

Larson, 34, then of St. Paul, was accused of molesting a 15-year-old boy who lived with him from April through July 2003 at a house on the 600 block of Charles Avenue.

He also was accused of having sex with another boy who lived at his house from late August 2003 through Jan. 1, 2006, when the boy was age 9 to 11.

Larson was licensed to provide foster care in Ramsey County from December 2002 to May 2006, according to the state Department of Human Services.

"He put himself in a position to have a position of trust and authority over young boys," Ramsey County assistant prosecutor Eric Leonard said. But instead of protecting the foster children, he preyed on them and abused them, Leonard said.

Larson was also charged with possession of pornography after a February 2010 search of his home in Coon Rapids turned up "many thousands of images of child pornography," according to a criminal complaint.

On May 2, 2011, Larson submitted an Alford plea to the charges, meaning he did not directly admit guilt but agreed that the state had enough evidence to convict him.

Leonard said that in the pre-sentencing investigation, Larson asserted the boys were lying.

"It appears his manipulative and dishonest behavior is continuing," Leonard said.

In his pre-sentence statement, Larson called the victims his "accusers."

"They had such a difficult time in life," he said. He said he wished them "stability, peace and serenity."

Smith said Larson didn't seem to fully accept responsibility for the crime. She said he seemed more concerned with the impact his crime had on himself, his friends and family than on the two victims.

"I really hope and pray these young people can heal as much as possible," she said.

Along with the 12-year prison sentence, Smith also imposed a five-year conditional release period after Larson's incarceration and a requirement that he register as a predatory offender for the rest of his life.

The pornography possession charge will be dropped as part of the plea agreement.

http://www.twincities.com/ci_18370110

What this POS meant was "I'm sorry I got caught".

I think bedause of all his lies and calling the abused boys liars this excuse for a man should not have been allowed an Alford plea.

In addition, after what he put these boys through, his sentence was way too light.

Thank God the one boy persevered in pursuing charges after the state let this man lie his way out of it for years, and allowing him to continue to abuse and rape young boys.