WILLMAR -- Craig Allan Hargreaves, 40, of New London, was sentenced Friday in Kandiyohi County District Court to 143 months in prison for second-degree criminal sexual conduct for molesting a then-12-year-old boy in the summer of 2007.
During the sentencing hearing before Judge David L. Mennis, the now 14-year-old boy told the court he was emotionally injured and depressed after the incident at Hargreaves' home.
"I didn't want any of this," he said. "I was scared, dumbfounded and angry."
Hargreaves was also sentenced Friday on other related charges. All the sentences will be served concurrently -- the additional sentences do not add to the total 143-month prison term.
On another second-degree criminal sexual conduct conviction, Hargreaves was sentenced to 84 months in prison. He was sentenced to 39 months for first-degree witness tampering for asking fellow jail inmates to "take care" of witnesses in the sex case, 15 months for a fifth-degree drug conviction for possessing marijuana and 365 days on a gross misdemeanor conviction for providing alcohol to minors.
ADVERTISEMENT
He was also ordered to pay $2,500 in fines from his prison earnings and register as predatory offender.
First Assistant County Attorney Connie Crowell thanked those involved in the case for their courage to step forward and work with authorities. She called Hargreaves' home a "party house" with a large television and video games.
"Parents need to talk to their kids," she said. "People who give these kinds of 'gifts' to them want something in return."
The charges were filed after a detective with the Kandiyohi County Sheriff's Office began investigating a family services report that the boy had been sexually abused. The detective interviewed the boy, who said he stayed overnight at Hargreaves' home on three occasions in the summer of 2007 and was assaulted by him.
The boy also said that Hargreaves had given him a lemonade-flavored alcoholic drink before one of the incidents.
The investigating officer also interviewed a 19-year-old man as part of the ongoing investigation. The man said he spent time at Hargreaves' home, drank hard liquor and smoked marijuana there. The man said Hargreaves performed sex acts on him while he was drunk or high.
Under a plea agreement, six additional criminal sexual conduct charges, another witness tampering charge and two charges for furnishing alcohol to a minor were dismissed.
Another set of six criminal sexual conduct charges dating back to 1988 and 1989 were dismissed April 1 after prosecutors discovered the statute of limitations had expired. In that case, an adult male reported he had been sexually abused as a child by Hargreaves. The man said he was 6 or 7 at the time and that Hargreaves was 12 or 13. The man said that several other people had been forced to perform sex acts on Hargreaves.
