Citing statute of limitations, Ramsey County judge dismisses charge alleging rape in 2003

A Ramsey County judge has thrown out charges filed last year against a man alleging a rape in St. Paul in 2003 following recent DNA testing, saying the state had years to test the evidence before the statute of limitations expired.

Judge Kellie Charles dismissed the state’s case against Shawn P. Skie on Sept. 30, explaining that evidence against Skie would violate the statute of limitations and Skie’s right to equal protection.

“Law enforcement had more than enough information to advance the investigation and even charge Mr. Skie in December of 2003,” Charles’ order read. “The government’s decision not to investigate, not to test and not to charge Mr. Skie in a timely manner in this case has resulted in the destruction of evidence, loss of potential evidence an[d] irreparable harm on his ability to defend himself. As such, this case must be dismissed.”

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office declined to comment.

“Mr. Skie was accused by name in 2003. After reviewing the evidence in the case, the county attorney’s office chose not to charge him, which ultimately led to the loss and destruction of evidence which could have demonstrated his innocence,” Skie’s attorney Sarah Prentice-Mott said. “It is an injustice that Mr. Skie was charged 20 years after the fact, and the judge’s order appropriately reflects that.”

Prosecutors charged Skie with first-degree criminal sexual conduct last year after DNA evidence tied him to a rape from decades ago. The victim, identified in court documents as C.L., said “clearly and unequivocally” that Skie sexually assaulted her.

C.L. told authorities that she’s known Skie since she was 11 years old, and met him on Dec. 29, 2003, for drinks. She said the two met at Frontier Bar in St. Paul, where C.L. became light-headed after two drinks.

C.L. didn’t remember leaving the bar that night, but she recalled being in a car with Skie near the Brown Derby Bar when she says he raped her. Hospital staff collected evidence from C.L., and police began investigating Skie as a suspect, but they could not find him.

Documents suggest the County Attorney’s Office declined to charge Skie in 2005, and evidence tied to the case was destroyed in 2009. Last year, as the County Attorney’s Office and other law enforcement worked to decrease a backlog of sexual assault kits in unsolved cases, investigators made a breakthrough connecting Skie’s DNA to C.L’s rape allegation.

Prosecutors used the evidence to charge Skie, but Charles’ order said much evidence supporting that charge, including video footage from the bar where the assault happened, was destroyed or muddled by time.