A Ramsey County judge has dismissed a sexual assault case filed against a St. Paul man nearly two decades after the alleged incident.

The judge cited a stalled police investigation, the state’s “excessive pre-charge delay” and that the statute of limitations, as applied, violated the state Constitution’s equal protection clause.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged Shawn Phillips Skie, 49, by warrant with first-degree criminal sexual conduct on Oct. 4, 2023, after his DNA came back as a match through a statewide initiative to analyze a backlog of untested sexual assault kits. Nearly 18 years earlier, in 2005, the attorney’s office declined to charge Skie in the case, citing insufficient evidence.

Skie’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case in March. Assistant public defenders Sarah Prentice-Mott and Zachary Van Cleve argued in court briefs that Skie’s right to a speedy trial was violated and the pre-charge delay violated his right to due process.

They pointed out that while the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension retained the woman’s intimate swabs and blood and urine samples, other items in the kit — Polaroid photos, 35mm film, clothing — were destroyed by the police department in 2009 per the “Ramsey County Attorney’s Uniform Evidence Retention Policy”  in effect at the time.

Skie’s attorneys argued the charging delay was not because of a shortage of DNA testing resources, an inability to identify a suspect or “any of the other considerations which legitimize the exception in the state law” that establishes the time limits for bringing criminal charges for certain crimes.

“Rather, the delay is a result of a conscious decision on the part of law enforcement not to investigate (the alleged victim’s) allegations and on the part of the County Attorney’s Office to decline charges,” they wrote.

In the state’s response to the motion, Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Andrew Johnson said there is a well-established framework for evaluating whether pre-charge delay requires dismissal. “That is, the defense must show that the delay was an intentional act to gain a tactical advantage and that the delay caused the defense actual prejudice,” he wrote. “The defense has not made that showing.”

The defense’s other arguments are “largely just different and somewhat tortured ways of reframing its pre-charge delay argument,” Johnson wrote. “The delay was unfortunate, but it was also understandable, and the reality is that it likely benefited the defendant because it allowed him to avoid charges for 20 years.”

Judge Kellie Charles sided with the defense last week, writing that the statute of limitations as applied violated the equal protection clause and that state law authorizes dismissal due to the state’s “excessive pre-charge delay,” which “caused irreparable prejudice” to Skie.

“The government’s decision not to investigate, not to test and not to charge Mr. Skie in a timely manner in this case has resulted in the destruction of evidence, loss of potential evidence (and) irreparable harm on his ability to defend himself,” Charles wrote. “As such, this case must be dismissed pursuant to Minn. R. Crim. P. 30.02.”

On Thursday, Mark Haase, spokesman for the attorney’s office, told the Pioneer Press the office is “still reviewing the judge’s order to determine appropriate next steps.”

Prentice-Mott said Thursday it was “an injustice” that Skie was charged 20 years after the fact “and the judge’s order appropriately reflects that.”

Court records show Skie was arrested three days after he was charged and that he spent two days in jail before being conditionally released.

Woman provided names and addresses

According to the “factual background” in the case, which is outlined in Charles’ order issued last week:

Police responded to a St. Paul hospital around 9:30 p.m. Dec. 29, 2003, and met with the woman, who said Skie sexually assaulted her in a car in the early morning hours that day near the Brown Derby Bar on the West Side. She also alleged that $2,000 had gone missing from her purse.

A sexual assault examination revealed bruising on her body. Forensic samples were taken and given to the BCA for analysis.

She told police she met Skie, who was a longtime friend, after he invited her out because he was moving to California. She said she had two drinks over a three-hour period. After the second drink, she began to feel lightheaded and disoriented.

She said she did not remember leaving the bar, but had “vague recollections” of being inside her truck with Skie afterward. She recalled that Skie was smoking marijuana and blowing the smoke into her mouth. She said she told him to stop, but he pulled down her pants, reclined her driver’s seat and sexually assaulted her.

She told police Skie was in California near his parents or could be staying locally with the mother of his child or with his brother. She gave police addresses, but they did not attempt to locate Skie at either known address, Charles wrote.

Police issued a 24-hour “pick up and hold,” a law enforcement tool to detain a suspect for further investigation and questioning.

An investigator met with the woman for a follow-up in January 2004. She repeated her allegations and again provided names of people who might know Skie’s whereabouts. She said she’d later call the investigator with contact and location information on Skie, but never did.

BCA drug lab results showed no alcohol in the woman’s blood. A metabolite of THC, the active ingredient found in marijuana, was found.

In December 2004, a year after the alleged assault, police learned that semen was identified on swabs. The report noted that DNA analysis could be performed if blood or saliva samples from Skie were submitted to the BCA.

At the time, the BCA had a policy of not going forward with DNA testing unless they already had a known suspect sample. The reason for this policy was that the offender DNA database was smaller at the time, thereby having a lower probability of obtaining a match to the database. Over time, the database grew in response to legislative changes requiring more offenders to submit DNA samples when convicted. The BCA eventually changed its policy to allow DNA testing even without a known suspect sample.

Related Articles

Woodbury police, BCA investigating death after ‘medical emergency’

In new HBO docuseries, Lois Riess tells why she killed husband in Minnesota, Florida stranger

Northern Minnesota woman sentenced for starvation death of granddaughter, 7

Nicholas Firkus murder conviction appeal goes before MN Supreme Court for second time

‘Someone was bound to get hurt’: Shooter who started Minneapolis gun battle that killed Eagan firefighter sentenced

In January 2005, the woman told the investigator that Skie had called her several times throughout the year. She said she was certain that Skie was in Minnesota and staying at his girlfriend’s apartment by the Brown Derby Bar. She said that she could get or had updated information concerning witnesses that she had provided in her original report that had moved or obtained new phone numbers, but never called the investigator back with the information.

According to the woman’s initial report, she had a working phone number for Skie’s girlfriend. However, the investigator made no effort to contact the woman or track down Skie at the apartment, Charles wrote.

Another “pick up and hold” was issued for Skie, and the case was sent over to the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office for a charging decision.

Charges were declined in February 2005.

New DNA sample

Three years later, Skie was convicted of a felony-level drunken driving offense. His DNA was uploaded to the Minnesota offender database.

Meanwhile, the BCA retained the woman’s intimate swabs and blood and urine samples, but no further action was taken on the case for 14 years.

“During that time, Mr. Skie had several contacts with the St. Paul Police Department and other metro law enforcement agencies,” Charles pointed out. “DVS records confirm that he remained in the metro area.”

Between 2018 and 2020, the state of Minnesota received $6 million in grants from the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative to process untested sexual assault kits. A BCA analyst informed St. Paul police in August 2022 the BCA had decided to perform DNA profiling on any case that had not been adjudicated.

In August of last year, the BCA issued a report stating a major male DNA profile had been identified in the “sperm cell fraction” of the swabs. The profile was searched against the convicted offender database and determined to match the sample obtained from Skie in 2008.

Police notified the woman of the DNA match and she said she wanted to proceed with charges against Skie “as the incident has ruined her life,” the criminal complaint said.

“(She) still vividly remembers hearing the sound of her car seat moving,” the complaint said, “and feeling like she was ‘waking up from surgery’ and ‘not being in control of my mind and my body.’ ”

Statute of limitations

State law provides the statute of limitations in criminal cases. The version applicable in 2003 stated that first-degree criminal sexual conduct cases must commence within nine years of the commission of the offense. Judge Charles pointed out that state law says there is no time limit on filing this charge “if physical evidence is collected and preserved that is capable of being tested for its DNA characteristics.”

The “clear purpose of the DNA exception is to leave a door open to prosecution when an inability to test DNA evidence stalls an investigation beyond the ordinary limitations period,” Charles wrote, adding it could be either due to limitations of DNA analysis technology or because the investigation is unable to compare DNA results because it lacks a known suspect.

State law as applied to Skie does not “survive the rational basis test,” Charles wrote.

“This was clearly not a situation where an investigation stalled due to law enforcement’s good-faith inability to identify or locate a suspect through conventional investigative means,” she wrote. “The investigation stalled because of a conscious decision to end the investigation and decline charges. Therefore, the application of the DNA exception to Mr. Skie bears no rational relationship to the legitimate purpose behind the DNA exception in 629.26(e).”

Memories also fade and have demonstrably faded in the case, according to Charles. Key witnesses were available to police at the time that the woman reported the assault, “but police failed to follow up with these witnesses. For some reason, police placed the onus of investigating this case on (the woman).”

Related Articles

Woodbury police, BCA investigating death after ‘medical emergency’

In new HBO docuseries, Lois Riess tells why she killed husband in Minnesota, Florida stranger

Northern Minnesota woman sentenced for starvation death of granddaughter, 7

Nicholas Firkus murder conviction appeal goes before MN Supreme Court for second time

‘Someone was bound to get hurt’: Shooter who started Minneapolis gun battle that killed Eagan firefighter sentenced

Last year, a month before Skie was charged, a police investigator interviewed the man who drove the woman to the hospital in 2003, however, he explained that he had a hard time remembering specifics due to the passage of time.

Not only was Skie prejudiced, the woman suffered as well, Charles wrote. She noted how she immediately reported the assault, made herself available for questioning and provided statements on more than one occasion to police and to hospital staff. She also gave names and locations where witnesses could be found and potential evidence like video surveillance from the Brown Derby Bar.

“Additionally, she underwent an extremely invasive procedure to allow the collection of samples from her intimate parts to assist in the prosecution of this case,” Charles wrote. “Those items were not timely tested. (The woman) has spent years haunted by this event and the government’s inaction.”