The Blue Earth County attorney has dropped sexual assault charges against a man who was pardoned of his conviction in a 1994 case that involved sex with his underage girlfriend.
In the more recent case, Jeremy Giefer of Vernon Center, 38, was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl hundreds of times over seven years. Blue Earth Assistant County Attorney Mike Hanson said his office dropped the charges this week after the victim, who is now 18, recanted the allegations. "We didn't have the evidence we needed to continue the case," he said.
Hanson said Giefer still faces misdemeanor charges for violating a judge's no-contact order with the victim. The Mankato city attorney's office is handling those charges.
Giefer was pardoned in 2008 on a 1994 conviction of having sex with a 14-year-old girl when he was 19. A panel that included then-Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Attorney General Lori Swanson and a former state Supreme Court chief justice voted to grant Giefer's petition for a pardon.
MARY LYNN SMITH
