A Cloquet man received conditional probation in Carlton County Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to a felony count of solicitation of children to engage in sexual conduct.
Nicholas Robert Pease, 22, will face a psychological evaluation and is ordered to follow recommendations relating to it. According to the court, he will also need to register as a sex offender and have no contact with his victim or anyone younger than 18. He is also subject to random drug and alcohol testing, as he is forbidden from using either.
According to the complaint filed in the case, the mother of an 11-year-old boy contacted the Carlton County Sheriff's Department last August about messages her son received from a man they both knew. She said Nicholas Pease worked at a convenience store where she and her son often went. The mother told authorities that her son told her he had received some "strange" messages from Pease via his Facebook account. The mother read the messages and printed them out to show to a deputy investigating the complaint.
According to the report, Pease's first message reportedly started out by commenting on how he liked the highlights in the boy's hair and then went on to say he'd like to ask him a sexual question he "should not be asking an 11-year-old," stating he could get in trouble for asking.
The following day, in a Facebook message dated Aug. 2, Pease allegedly went on to ask the boy a number of explicit questions about how much he knows about sex and sexual terms, stating if the boy hadn't heard about them he shouldn't bring it up with his parents because he would eventually learn about them in school. The message concluded by suggesting that he and the boy "keep this to ourselves."
ADVERTISEMENT
On Aug. 6, Pease reportedly sent another message to the boy, asking him if he'd ever done any of the things he'd previously mentioned. When the boy responded in the negative, Pease replied, "If it wasn't against the law, I would love to show you them things but I'd go to jail."
A Carlton County Sheriff's deputy, accompanied by a computer specialist from the Cloquet Police Department, executed a search warrant at Pease's residence. Pease admitted to writing the messages to the boy, confirming he was aware the boy was only 11 years old.
Pease was charged with using the Internet to "engage in communication relating to or describing sexual conduct with a child with the intent to arouse the sexual desire of that child."
News Tribune staff writer Mike Creger contributed to this report.
