Anoka County appeals light sentence for ex-Minneapolis cop for sex crimes with minors

The Anoka County attorney's office is appealing as too lenient a sentence given to a former Minneapolis police officer who used the Internet to lure adolescent girls into sexual encounters.

Bradley Schnickel, 34, was sentenced in May to 30 months in prison, minus 197 days for time already served. According to the state's sentencing guideline, the presumptive sentence was 10 years.

Many who were in the packed Anoka County courtroom in May, including victims and their families, were stunned when Judge James Cunningham sentenced Schnickel to less than one-fourth of the nearly 12-year sentence that prosecutors sought. Authorities had said there were 18 known victims, including two girls with whom Schnickel had sex, one 14, the other 16.

But Cunningham said he was convinced that Schnickel, who had been in counseling for more than a year, demonstrated that he is amenable to treatment. He didn't give further explanation.

In 2013, Schnickel was sentenced to a year in the Hennepin County workhouse in a plea agreement, for sending nude photographs of himself to two teenage girls in that county.

He still has time left on his sentences.

"None of the judge's reasons for deviating from the presumptive sentence are valid," said Assistant Anoka County Attorney Bob Goodell, who wrote the brief submitted to the Minnesota Court of Appeals. "We don't believe he complied with the law when making sentencing decisions."

In his brief, he wrote that the sentence wasn't proportional to the severity of the crimes. Schnickel relentlessly groomed minors for potential sexual encounters on the Internet, sent nude photos, offered alcohol in exchange for sex and obtained unauthorized background information on his victims, the appeal said.

Fred Bruno, Schnickel's attorney, said he will ask the Court of Appeals to dismiss the county's challenge. Cunningham had the case for nearly a year and knew the case "inside and out," Bruno said, adding that the judge understood that the plea agreement had a sentencing range from probation to 142 months.

"We all knew this," Bruno said. "We hope the judge will pick the low end and the prosecution hopes for the high end. This happens all the time. Now it's buyer's remorse."

Sending a police officer to jail or prison for even one week is cruel and unusual punishment, Bruno said. There were multiple victims, and the prosecution could have decided to have a trial for each, he said.

"If he was convicted in every trial, he would have been in prison for life," Bruno said. "If they wanted a harsher deal, they wouldn't have gone with a deal."