Woman exposes Shoreview man's cache of alleged sexual assault videos

A woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted by a man she met on a dating website helped expose similar acts he allegedly committed against other women, according to court documents.

Jeffrey M. Eldred, 32, of Shoreview was charged Monday in Ramsey County District Court with one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct for allegedly assaulting the woman. It's unclear how many different women were allegedly captured in the videos. Becqi Sherman, a spokesperson with the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office, said the agency is still investigating and looking at the possibility of more victims.

"The scope of this case is yet to be determined, but our investigators have noted that the evidence gathered so far is extremely disturbing," Sherman said.

The alleged victim discovered at least 40 videos on Eldred's computer that "appeared to show Eldred putting his penis in different women's mouths and vaginas as they slept," the criminal complaint said.

The woman took screen shots of the videos, which she couldn't get to play, and showed them to authorities.

Eldred has not been charged with other crimes related to the alleged videos, and no other cases have been presented to the county attorney's office. Court documents show that authorities are trying to identify the women in the videos, and the location where they were filmed.

According to the complaint: On Nov. 16 the woman told the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office that Eldred had assaulted her a few weeks earlier.

The woman said she awoke to Eldred allegedly putting his penis on her face, and that he tried to penetrate her vaginally at least 10 times after she said no.

The next morning, Eldred loaned the woman his computer for class. That's when she discovered the videos, which allegedly included the initials of each woman depicted.

"[The woman] reported the incident to police because she was worried that it was going to continue happening to other women," the complaint said.

Authorities searched Eldred's home on Nov. 21., and recovered a cellphone that allegedly contained a video of the woman naked, and "sexually explicit" videos of a second woman whom Eldred dated on-and-off for about a year.

"It was apparent that neither woman knew they were being videotaped," the complaint said.

The phone allegedly contained video of the first woman sleeping naked and then waking up as Eldred flimed her genitals. It also allegedly contained several videos of the second woman sleeping as Eldred digitally penetrated her or placed his penis by her face.

The second woman told authorities she dated Eldred, and that he had threatened to send nude photos of her to her new boyfriend. She was shown a photo that allegedly depicted a sex act, and said she did not recall it and did not consent to it.

Authorities recorded a phone conversation between the first woman and Eldred in which he apologized to her, denied videotaping the other women and denied that his actions constituted rape. He also denied sharing the videos with anyone, and said he was sorry he had not deleted them, the complaint said.

Eldred allegedly told the woman he did not rape her, and said he was blackout drunk at the time.

Chao Xiong • 612-270-4708