2 escapees from St. Peter sex offender facility were living in unlocked area, state says

A longtime resident who escaped from a state treatment center for sexually dangerous people tricked staff by putting a dummy in his bed and strapping it with his GPS ankle bracelet, according to charges filed Monday.

The flight of 53-year-old Steven Loren Edwards was the second short-lived getaway this month from a less restrictive section of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) facility in St. Peter, Minn.

Edwards and the other resident, Beau-Jacob Edward Zimmer, are charged in Nicollet County District Court with two felony counts each of escape from custody.

The state Department of Human Services (DHS) disclosed Tuesday that the two men fled separately from the MSOP facility’s Community Preparation Services (CPS), an unlocked treatment setting that gives residents varying levels of freedom to move about the grounds unescorted.

DHS said the escapes from CPS are a first for the program since it was established 17 years ago. Zimmer escaped on May 9, and Edwards on May 16.

CPS is for clients who are in the later stages of treatment and have progressed enough that they can safely continue treatment outside of the St. Peter facility‘s secure setting. Residents are moved to CPS only with court permission, the DHS said.

“Since CPS opened in 2008, no one has ever attempted to leave,” MSOP Executive Director Nancy Johnston said in a statement. “As is our standard practice, we’ll be conducting a thorough internal review [of both escapes].”

While the criminal counts might be identical against Edwards and Zimmer, the details of their respective escapes are far from similar, as were their travels while on the run.

According to the criminal complaint filed against Edwards, St. Peter facility staff notified police on Saturday that he was missing. His roommate told staff that Edwards, a resident since October 2011, needed to be checked on because he appeared to have been in bed for quite some time without moving.

Staff went to the room about 7 p.m. Saturday and discovered a dummy in Edwards’ bed. It was wearing his ankle monitor.

Surveillance video recorded Edwards leaving the facility Friday with a 24-hour head start.

State investigators determined that Edwards went to a laundromat that night and got a ride from a stranger to Albert Lea, Minn., with a detour to Diamond Jo Casino & Hotel just over the border in Iowa. Edwards stayed overnight in an Albert Lea hotel before buying a vehicle there. The complaint did not reveal how Edwards paid for the vehicle.

Police were alerted that the vehicle was in Missouri, where Edwards’ mother lives. Police in southwestern Missouri’s Webb City went to the mother’s home, saw the vehicle parked outside and arrested Edwards on Sunday.

A warrant has been issued for Edwards’ return to Minnesota.

Court records show Edwards entered the state‘s sex offender treatment program in 2008 while in prison for crimes including first- and second-degree criminal sexual assault and kidnapping.

According to records, in 2001 he invited a 15-year-old girl into his car and molested her. Two months later, he lured another teenage girl into his vehicle and forced her at knifepoint to perform a sex act on him, records show. Edwards pleaded guilty in both cases.

Dakota County filed a petition to civilly commit him as a sexually dangerous person in January 2011. A judge agreed, finding he was likely to engage in “future harmful sexual conduct.” Edwards appealed and lost.

According to charges against Zimmer, MSOP facility surveillance showed his escape on May 9 began when the 45-year-old cut off his ankle monitor with a kitchen knife. He pedaled away on a bicycle.

That same morning, law enforcement was told of a “suspicious male walking on a road” a few miles from the facility, the charges read. Two officers found Zimmer and arrested him without incident. The knife was in his sweatshirt pocket, the complaint said.

Zimmer remains jailed in lieu of $50,000 bail ahead of a June 9 court date. His attorney declined Tuesday to comment on the allegations.

A petition filed in Washington County District Court in 2015 to have Zimmer civilly committed to the sex offender program noted he has a history of sexual offenses that started when he was 11 and continued into adulthood.

His first victims were girls as young as 3 years old. He also sexually assaulted a 9-year-old boy he was babysitting, the petition read.

At age 14, he attempted to sexually assault a 46-year-old woman on a Burnsville walking path and also broke into two women’s homes and stole intimate apparel, according to the petition.

Additional assaults continued into adulthood, often involving lewd behavior during indecent exposure on college campuses and elsewhere, the filing said.