Audio Recording Sheds Light On Suspect In St. Paul Child's Sexual Assault
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- The man accused of attacking a young girl in St. Paul has faced similar charges in the past. It happened in Fridley 5 years ago.
Last week, 47-year-old Mark Meihofer was charged with kidnapping a 7-year-old girl. He's accused of taking her to his apartment in the Cathedral Hill Neighborhood of St. Paul and sexually assaulting her.
In a recently obtained audio recording from 2011, you can hear an Anoka County deputy interviewing Mark Meihofer in a squad car. Meihofer had just been arrested after he was accused of asking a 13-year-old girl to have sex with him.
The Anoka County Sheriff's Deputy starts by reading Meihofer his rights. Meihofer initially denies talking to anyone in the neighbhorhood where he'd parked his car, but then opens up about a conversation with a girl.
"I said 'I tell you what, I will give you $10,000 if you... if you have sex with me.'" Meihofer told the deputy in the recording. "She said... She didn't say yes, she didn't say no. She smiled and walked away. I said, 'Fine.'"
Meihofer reveals he heard God talking to him.
Meihofer: "I was waiting for a phone call and God told me to sit here and wait. That's what he did. He told me to sit here."
Deputy: "Were you hoping she'd come back?"
Meihofer: "Yeah, he told me wait. She might change her mind, so I waited."
The conversation turned to Meihofer's criminal history.
Deputy: "Have you had sex with children?"
Meihofer: "No."
Deputy: "Do you think about having sex with children?"
Meihofer: "True."
Meihofer later defends his character.
"I'm a good person. I have good judgment, I'm not going to harm anyone," he told the deputy.
Five years after that arrest, Meihofer was charged with kidnapping and assault after taking a 7-year-old girl in St. Paul.
"Truth is, God wrote about me 2,000 years ago in a book," Meihofer said in the recording. "He said I can do whatever I want."
That case was dismissed in criminal court because Meihofer was found incompetent to stand trial due to mental illness. He was civilly committed and has no criminal history as a result.
With the new case in St. Paul, his next court appearance is in June.