John F. Knudson was every parent's nightmare as he stood in front of Ramsey County District Judge Gary Bastian on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to sexually molesting a 9-year-old girl whom he had lured to his side in Iris Park in St. Paul.
Knudson, 69, has been convicted of at least seven other sexual offenses in three states since 1963.
Under questioning from his attorney, Katherine Pruitt, and prosecutor Juan Hoyos, Knudson said that he and another man had consumed two bottles of vodka and that he doesn't recall everything that happened the afternoon of Oct. 3. But he didn't dispute anything when Hoyos recited the allegations.
Knudson was sitting on a bench in the park near University and Prior Avenues about 6 p.m. when the girl walked past the park and he yelled for her to come to him.
When she hesitated, he picked her up and carried her to the bench. When she tried to leave, he held tightly to her hand and restrained her.
"When all this happened, I was pretty well blacked out but that's probably what happened," Knudson said.
Knudson grabbed the girl's wrist and led her south to Prior Avenue, then toward a railroad overpass. He walked into a "more wooded area," Hoyos said, then into a clearing surrounded by grass and trees.
There he unbuttoned and unzipped her pants, pulled her pants and underwear down and molested her.
