An area man with a history of sexual contact with children has been sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to the most recent charge.
Jeremiah John Dahl, 36, formerly of Dover, was charged in May with one count each of second- and third-degree criminal sexual conduct, later amended to two second-degree counts.
He pleaded guilty in January to one of the counts; Olmsted County District Court Judge Joseph Chase sentenced him Wednesday to 60 months in prison, with credit for 769 days already served.
Dahl, who will be required to register as a predatory offender for the rest of his life, has been in prison since October 2015 after being convicted in Dodge County of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.
The latest investigation began in late June 2015, when a day-care provider reported that one of the children in her care was playing inappropriately with dolls. When the woman asked the child where she'd seen the behavior, she said Dahl had touched her genitals over her clothes several times, the complaint says.
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The child told investigators that Dahl had touched her at a family member's house, not only on her genitals, but over her clothing on her chest, court documents say. The incidents reportedly occurred between June 2014 and the time she was interviewed in early July 2015.
Dahl told authorities there was never a time when he and the child were alone together, and has no idea why the child made the claims.
Three months later — in October 2015 — Dahl was in prison, completing a 36-month prison term he'd been given in 2010. In that case, he was convicted of third-degree criminal sexual conduct after a 14-year-old girl said he'd sexually assaulted her. Dahl was originally sentenced to 120 days in jail and ordered to attend sex offender programming.
He attended sex offender treatment from November 2010 until April 2015, when he was "kicked out for dishonest conduct," court records say. It was determined that he had violated probation multiple times, and in October 2015 the judge ordered him to serve the stayed prison term, with credit for 223 days already served.
