Should kidnapper and killer be freed?

A gray-haired Ming Sen Shiue, with sheriff deputies at his side, slowly guided his walker through the Anoka County Courthouse on Friday, the same place where he slashed a woman's neck as she testified against him nearly three decades ago.

Even before the surreal trial drama in 1981, Minnesotans had been stunned at the crimes Shiue was accused of committing against Mary Stauffer, a Roseville algebra teacher he had sexual fantasies about for years after being her student in the 1960s.

He was convicted on kidnapping charges after abducting Stauffer and her 8-year-old daughter in May 1980, repeatedly raping Stauffer and holding them hostage in his Roseville home for seven weeks. He also was convicted of killing a 6-year-old boy who witnessed the abductions.

Shiue, now 59, could be released from prison in July, but county officials have filed a petition to commit him indefinitely to the treatment facility in Moose Lake as a sexual psychopathic personality and sexually dangerous person.

His fate will be decided during a trial scheduled for April. At Friday's pretrial hearing, his attorney contended that Shiue never received sex offender treatment during his 30-year prison sentence and can receive the help he needs in a less-restrictive environment.

Because the civil trial is not a criminal proceeding, Stauffer, now 66, won't have to testify in person. All investigative reports and transcripts from Shiue's criminal trial can be admitted as evidence.

Petition describes case

The 50-page petition from the county, filed last year, details how Shiue's obsession with Stauffer started nearly a decade before he kidnapped her and her daughter Elizabeth at gunpoint from a beauty salon parking lot in 1980. One time, it says, he looked up her name in a phone book in Duluth, entered the home with a rifle and forced two people to the floor. He fled after realizing they were Stauffer's mother- and father-in-law.

When he learned that Stauffer and her husband had returned from the Philippines in 1980 after doing missionary work, the petition said, Shiue made three attempts to break into her apartment on the Bethel College campus in Arden Hills. On May 16, he kidnapped Stauffer and her daughter and forced them into the trunk of their car.

Shortly afterward, he stopped the car in a park to check on the Stauffers. Six-year-old Jason Wilkman, playing in the park, saw them. Shiue then put the boy in the trunk.

When Jason whimpered, Stauffer tried to comfort him by saying Jesus was with them. Shiue drove to the Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area in Anoka County and killed Wilkman with a tire iron, the petition says.

For the bulk of the next seven weeks until they escaped, Shiue kept his victims chained in a closet in his home. He repeatedly sexually assaulted Stauffer, videotaping more than nine hours of the attacks, the petition said.

Shiue told Stauffer he kidnapped her, the petition said, because of the grade she had given him and said that she didn't seem to care about his school work, "something that would have made a world of difference to him." According to the petition, he said that because of the grade, he didn't get a college scholarship and was drafted to serve in the Vietnam War, where he became a prisoner of war.

But the petition says Shiue had graduated with honors from high school and attended the University of Minnesota for two years before dropping out and did not serve in Vietnam.

After assaulting Stauffer, Shiue said "she would probably have emotional scars, but that's the beauty of it," according to the petition.

He was arrested at his electronics business in Minneapolis on the day the pair escaped. He told police that Stauffer came along willingly and that she said she loved him.

During his 1980 federal kidnapping trial, Shiue lunged at Stauffer as she approached the witness stand, but deputies grabbed him. During the following second-degree murder trial in Anoka County, Shiue attacked Stauffer with a pocket knife when she was testifying. He cut her face and neck, which required 62 stitches. He said he assaulted her because she lied on the stand.

Leaving the courtroom, he said he would find Stauffer and her daughter when he was released from prison.

Report cites high risk

The petition seeking his civil commitment was filed in advance of Shiue's eligibility for release to a halfway house last month and before his possible release this July from the federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas.

If Anoka District Judge Jenny Walker Jasper grants the petition, Shiue would be committed to the Minnesota Sex Offender Program at Moose Lake for a two-month evaluation. That would be followed by another hearing in front of the judge, who could continue to keep him in the program for an undetermined amount of time. There are 552 people in the program.

Shuie didn't speak during Friday's hearing. His attorney, Rick Mattox, and Assistant Anoka County Attorney Janice Allen declined to comment.

Shiue was evaluated as part of the petition process in July 2008 by psychologist Paul Reitman, who determined that Shiue was attempting to posture himself in a favorable light. He concluded that Shiue had several personality disorders and sexual deviance problems involving rape. The report said that on several tests he indicated a high risk to commit another violent crime and that he requires intensive secured treatment and supervision.

Reitman said Shiue had never been treated in prison for his sexual delusions. Shiue is a loner with no friends, Reitman said, and has no support in the community except for his 82-year-old mother. When Reitman talked to her, she said that her son was the victim and that racism caused him to serve such a long sentence.

"Although Mr. Shiue has indicated remorse for his crimes, the referenced reports of previous examiners indicate shallow affect, lack of remorse, callousness, grandiosity, narcissism and a tepid sense of guilt," Reitman's report said. "I do not believe he has any real remorse. I believe he can pay lip service, but has no comprehension of the life long trauma he inflicted on Mary, Elizabeth, the little boy and the boy's family."

David Chanen • 612-673-4465