Charges in the rape of a 17-year-old runaway more than 18 years ago in Minneapolis have been filed thanks to investigators reopening the case in 2010 and securing a DNA match that revealed an incarcerated serial rapist as the perpetrator.
James E. Williams, 59, of St. Paul, was charged last week in Hennepin County District Court with third-degree criminal sexual conduct in the August 1996 attack on a 17-year-old girl he had met that evening at the Dakota County fairgrounds, where both were working.
Williams, now residing at the state's secure Moose Lake treatment center after his commitment in 2006 as a sexually dangerous person, has four other sex assault convictions on his record, three occurring in Milwaukee and another in Ramsey County.
According to the charges filed in this latest allegation:
The teen moved out of her mother's Dakota County home and was working and camping at the fairgrounds. That's where she was introduced to Williams, who was 41 at the time.
She got into Williams' vehicle with another man and drove to Minneapolis to buy marijuana. Williams and the girl "ended up alone together," however, and he pulled over and raped her before returning his victim to the fairgrounds.
The victim told a friend and the Sheriff's Office what happened. She went to Hennepin County Medical Center, where evidence was collected for a sexual assault kit, and police interviewed her.
In March 2010, as part of a law enforcement cold case initiative, the evidence in the kit was tested for DNA. Results six months later showed a match of the semen taken from the teen to a match with Williams' DNA on file in the convicted offender database.
