Corrections counselor accused of having relationship with teenager

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- A 26-year-old camp counselor is accused of having a sexual relationship with a teenage boy she met at a juvenile corrections camp, according to court records.

Stacey Ratai, of Cook, was working for the state Corrections Department when she met the 16-year-old boy. The two had a relationship between March and July of last year, according to a criminal complaint made public Wednesday in Hennepin County district court.

Staff members at the Hennepin County Home School reported Ratai after going through the boy's belongings and discovering her photograph and about 70 love letters written by her, the complaint said.

Ratai met the boy while working as a counselor at Thistledew Camp outside of Togo, which is about 240 miles north of the Twin Cities. The boy had been placed at the camp for adjudicated and at-risk youth as part of a three-month residential program, according to the complaint.

The boy told an investigator that on at least two occasions he and Ratai met at a Brooklyn Park hotel room.

Ratai was charged with two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct while she "was an employee or volunteer in the adult or juvenile correctional system" and the boy "was a resident of a facility or under supervision of the correctional system."

She was booked into the Hennepin County jail late Tuesday in lieu of $50,000 bail.