Bathroom assault of 11-year-old brings 5-year sentence

Article by: Star Tribune
Updated: July 27, 2010 - 9:14 PM

An Inver Grove Heights man pleaded guilty to burglary after he entered the boy's home last June carrying a knife and approached the boy in a bathroom.

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An Inver Grove Heights man has been sentenced to almost five years in prison for entering a home where a boy was showering, knocking until the boy unlocked the bathroom door and then licking his belly button and squeezing his buttocks before the 11-year-old fled to a neighbor's home for help.

James A. Silbernagel, 42, pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary with assault and had two other felony charges, including second-degree criminal sexual conduct, dismissed. He was sentenced in Dakota County District Court on Monday for the June 4, 2009 incident.

That evening, Inver Grove Heights police were called at 8:45 p.m. to a home where the boy reported that a man who lived in the neighborhood, whom he knew as "Jim," had come into his home without permission and had touched and licked him. Police entered the boy's bedroom and found Silbernagel with two condoms, a folding knife and the odor of alcohol on his breath. A criminal complaint says it appeared that Silbernagel had just gotten out of the boy's bed.

Silbernagel was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison.

JOY POWELL