Man renting Minnetonka Airbnb charged with attempting to sexually assault 7-year-old

A man renting a bedroom as an Airbnb guest at a Minnetonka home is charged with attempting to sexually assault a 7-year-old girl who lived there, according to Hennepin County prosecutors.

Derrick Aaron Kinchen, 28, of Michigan, is charged with felony second-degree criminal sexual conduct of a victim under 13. He remains jailed in lieu of $250,000 bail with his first court appearance set for Wednesday.

According to charges, police were called at 12:22 a.m. Sunday in response to a report of an attempted attack on the girl. The girl's father said Kinchen had rented their spare bedroom through the Airbnb website. The man said he and his wife had put their daughter to sleep in their bedroom earlier in the evening. Around midnight, he heard Kinchen arrive home from a wedding. About 15 minutes later, the father walked into his bedroom where the lights were on and saw Kinchen lying on the bed naked next to his daughter. The father yelled at Kinchen, who grabbed his suit coat and wallet and fled.

Police searched the area with a K-9 and found Kinchen hiding in a partly covered fishing boat next door. Charges say he was naked except for his suit coat.

In an interview with investigators, the girl said she woke up to Kinchen entering her parents' bedroom naked. Kinchen whispered something into her ear and she "felt like (Kinchen) wanted her to keep a secret from her mom and dad." He then allegedly pulled down her underwear, which she pulled back up, and asked her to touch him when her father then entered the room and yelled at Kinchen.

In a statement Airbnb spokesman Ben Breit said hosts and guests alike are regularly screened.

"The reported abhorrent behavior has no place on Airbnb and we will not tolerate it," Breit said in a statement. "We are focused on providing our host family with our full support, we are working with the local police to ensure they have our assistance, and we banned this user from our community. Keeping our community safe is the most important thing we do. None of our hosts should ever have to deal with anything like this."

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