With the help of two buddies, a 19-year-old man kidnapped a 15-year-old girl and raped her in the back of a pickup, then asked her for gas money before letting her go, according to charges filed Wednesday.
Joshua W. Lanerd was charged in Pine County District Court with first-degree criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping and two other related felonies. Charged with similar felonies were alleged accomplices Daniel W. Soderberg, 24, and Cody E. Pokela, 18. Lanerd and Soderberg are from Cambridge, Minn. Pokela is from North Branch, Minn.
The girl said she had known Lanerd for a few months when she was pulled into the pickup truck on Sunday afternoon at a park near Pine City Elementary School, driven to a remote location near the Snake River Dam and then raped as Soderberg and Pokela stood by smoking cigarettes.
All four drove back to the park, where the girl was freed. It was then that Lanerd requested his victim help pay for gas.
After her release, the criminal complaints against the defendants read, she was examined at a hospital in Cambridge for evidence of a sexual assault.
All three defendants remain jailed following their arrest Sunday shortly after midnight outside a Wal-Mart.
The arresting deputy noted that the three "did not seem concerned about their arrest and were joking with each other on the way to the jail," according to the charges.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
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