When Jill Duderstadt, an Oak Grove mom, learned that a Level 3 sex offender was moving into her community, she shook. "He's free," she said. "It's our lives that have changed forever.
"Do we dare leave our homes?" she asked Thursday.
Joshua Joe Dexter, who turns 28 next week, is expected to move to Oak Grove on Sunday, officials told a crowd of about 125 area residents Wednesday night at a special meeting at the Cedar Creek Community School.
Dexter, who was released from jail 18 months ago and has lived without incident in Coon Rapids since September, had sexual contact, including penetration, with two girls, 13 and 14, said Anoka County Deputy Brian Fuerst.
Both girls knew him, according to the Minnesota Department of Corrections. The offenses, in Kanabec County, occurred in 1999 and 2000.
Dexter may be the first Level 3 sex offender to move to this small, northern Anoka County community, said Fuerst, who has been the county's sexual-assault coordinator for 11 years. Of the other three Level 3 sex offenders living in Anoka County, two are in Ramsey, and one is in the Regional Treatment Center in Anoka, Fuerst said.
"We can't tell him where he can or can't live," Fuerst said of Dexter. "He served his time. In a smaller community, there's a lot of scrutiny."
But a perceived lack of curiosity has shocked at least one mom. Terri Swanson, a mother of three, said 225 chairs were set up at Wednesday night's meeting, but nearly half of them were empty. Duderstadt estimated an even smaller crowd of about 100. Residents living within 2 miles of the house Dexter plans to share were notified by the sheriff's department last week.
