A 19-year-old man working for a program contracted to mentor St. Cloud junior high students has been charged with twice raping a 14-year-old girl in a locked classroom.
Charges: 19-year-old mentor twice raped student in locked St. Cloud classroom
The mentoring program fired the man as soon as the allegations surfaced.
March 28, 2019 at 1:46AM
Leroy L.M. Moore, of St. Cloud, was charged Tuesday in Stearns County Disrict Court with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with allegedly raping the girl in North Jr. High School.
Moore was charged by summons and is scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday. Contact information for Moore was not immediately available.
He was assigned to coach and tutor 19 students at North through the nonprofit Dreamline, based in St. Paul and the signature program of the Sanneh Foundation. Dreamline spokeswoman Meredith Crosby said Wednesday that the girl was not part of the program.
Dreamline is an academic intervention program serving low-income, underperforming students in public middle schools and high schools throughout Minneapolis, St. Paul, St. Cloud and Rochester.
Crosby said that Moore was fired as soon as her organization knew of the allegations. She also said Moore had passed a background check, received training about sexual boundaries and signed a code of conduct.
She added that no other students have been identified as possible victims.
Parents of North students were informed in a statement from district officials about a report that had been referred to police and the County Attorney's Office involving a student and a Dreamline employee. The statement also informed families that the employee was no longer working for Dreamline.
What the statement did not share was the nature of the report. District spokeswoman Tami DeLand said that withholding that information was a conscious decision and that option was left to police and the County Attorney's Office.
According to the criminal complaint:
The girl told a child abuse center staff member that Moore kissed her in the hallway and grabbed and kissed her while they were in a classroom alone. She said in a follow-up interview that she and Moore had intercourse twice.
Moore acknowledged to the school's resource officer that he had sex with the girl in the Dreamline classroom on March 1 and again on March 4.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
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