Offender to move to Wadena
A Level 3 predatory offender will be moving into Wadena after his release March 11 from prison in Faribault.
In advance of Matthew Aaron Stites' release date, a public notification meeting will be conducted at 4 p.m. on March 4 at the Wadena County Courthouse auditorium. Officials with the Wadena Police Department, Wadena Sheriff's Department, Wadena County attorney's office and Department of Corrections will be on hand to present information and answer questions.
Stites, 25, has a history of sexual contact with victims ages 17 to adult. One of his victims was a vulnerable adult. He was known to his victims.
According to state court records, Stites was charged in October of 2003 in Wadena County with felony fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct with a mentally impaired/helpless victim. He was found guilty of the crime in March of 2004 and in August of 2006 he was sentenced to 27 months for the crime.
Matthew Stites
In December of 2005 he was charged in Anoka County with felony third-degree criminal sexual conduct and felony false imprisonment-intentional restraint. In May of 2006 he was found not guilty of the criminal sexual conduct charge but was found guilty of the false imprisonment-intentional restraint charge and was sentenced to 256 days in jail and three years supervised probation.
Stites will be moving to a residence on the 400 block of Jefferson Street South in Wadena. He is not wanted by police and he will have served the sentence imposed on him by the court.
In a news release, Wadena Police Chief Bruce Uselman said sexual and predatory offenders have always been released to live in communities and law enforcement has the ability to register and track these offenders after their release. Law enforcement cannot, however, dictate where an offender may live, work or go to school.
"The purpose of this meeting is not to create fear within our community but to furnish information to enhance public safety and awareness," Uselman said in the news release.
There are about 50 registered sexual and predatory offenders in Wadena County, but according to the Minnesota Department of Corrections, Stites will be the only Level 3 offender in the county.
Risk levels fall into three categories: Level 1, which is low public risk; Level 2, which is moderate public risk; and Level 3, which is high public risk and most likely to re-offend based on previous criminal behavior.
State court records also show that in 2006 Stites was convicted of felony failure to register as a predatory offender in Anoka County and served 13 months in prison.
In 2003 he was convicted of felony fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle in Wadena County and was sentenced to one year and one day in prison.
Between 2003 and 2004 Stites also was convicted of several misdemeanor crimes, including tampering with a motor vehicle and criminal property damage in Todd County, possession of a small amount of marijuana in Kandiyohi County, and giving a false name and date of birth to a police officer in Becker County.
MATT ERICKSON may be reached at matt.erickson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5857.