Man who raped 2 teen girls in Rosemount gets less than a year

A 19-year-old man was sentenced Monday to less than a year in jail — time he's already served — after admitting to raping two teenage girls in separate attacks in Rosemount.

Michael L. Stucky Jr., of Northfield, pleaded guilty in Dakota County District Court to two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and was sentenced to 361 days in jail.

That is the number of days since Stucky's arrest on Aug. 15, 2013, meaning his immediate release on 15 years of supervised probation. Stayed — not imposed, at least for now — were prison terms of four years for one of the rapes and three years for the other.

Stucky, who was 18 at the time of the assaults, confessed to raping a 15-year-old girl in the middle of the night in her home and a 13-year-old girl months earlier at a different residence.

County Attorney James Backstrom said he is comfortable with the plea agreement, approved by Judge Jerome B. Abrams. It was supported by the girls' families, who understand that Stucky would be freed, he said.

"We believe this serves the interests of justice and the victims of these crimes," Backstrom said.

The plea eliminates the prospect of the families "having their daughters traumatized" by being compelled to testify in a trial, he said.

Stuckey's defense attorney, Nicholas Gegen, said that if Stucky had gone to trial and been convicted, he could have received at least four years in prison for each offense and possibly been sentenced to serve that time consecutively, meaning an eight-year term.

Gegen said Stucky did not plead to a charge of using coercion in the assaults but "that he knew or should have known that they were underage."

A violation of his conditions would put him at risk of the stayed prison terms being imposed. The conditions include: providing a DNA sample to authorities, attending a sex offender program, submitting to lie-detector exams as directed and random searches, and registering as a predatory offender.

He is also forbidden from taking any prescription medications "designed to improve sexual functions," unless approved by his probation officer, according to court records.

Gegen said the provision to abstain from sexual enhancement drugs such as Viagra is "a little different" than probation conditions in most other sexual assault cases.

On Aug. 6, 2013, a 15-year-old girl told police that Stucky came to her home about 4 a.m. that day after the two had exchanged messages on Facebook. Stucky began kissing her, prompting her to say stop and push him away.

Stucky became more aggressive, stripped off her clothes and "began having sexual intercourse with her." She told Stucky no several times and pushed him away with her foot.

Stucky told police he had sex with the girl but said that it was consensual and that he didn't know her age.

"Predatory behavior targeting children similar to what occurred in this case is a far bigger problem than most parents realize," Backstrom said in a statement announcing the guilty pleas.

In the earlier rape, a 13-year-old girl told authorities that during spring break in March 2013 she and a friend were picked up in Eagan by a teenage boy and Stucky for a trip to the Mall of America. They then went to the teenage boy's home in Rosemount.

Despite the girl's resistance, Stucky had sexual intercourse with her. The girl said she told Stucky she was 13 and in eighth grade.