WILLMAR - A 67-year-old Willmar business owner made his first court appearance Friday on multiple charges of criminal sexual conduct for allegedly molesting three young boys.
Peter Clare Hoagland, owner of Pete’s Communications Inc., faces three felony charges of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and one charge of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.
He is alleged to have molested three boys under the age of 13 during the 1980s and 1990s. The alleged abuse occurred at his Willmar home, his Willmar business and his cabin on Diamond Lake.
Hoagland was arrested Wednesday and remained in custody at Kandiyohi County Jail as of Friday afternoon, according to the jail’s online custody list.
Conditional bail was set Friday to $500,000, cash or bond, and unconditional bail was set to $150,000 bond and $15,000 cash. A second court appearance has been scheduled for March 2.
According to the criminal complaint on the charges, a man reported to a Willmar detective Feb. 2 that he had been molested by Hoagland between 1988 and 1997, when he was between the ages of 8 and 17. He said he was sexually, mentally and verbally abused by Hoagland, along with two other boys.
The detective later collected statements from the two other alleged victims, who confirmed what the man said.
The men told the detective that Hoagland acted as a father figure when they were boys, since their fathers were not around.
They said the inappropriate touching and sexual abuse began when they were young boys and continued into their teenage years. Hoagland would allegedly sometimes videotape the sex acts and have the boys watch pornography and use sex toys.
According to the criminal complaint, the men also told the detective that Hoagland watched the boys go to the bathroom through a hole in the bathroom wall at his house.
Hoagland allegedly threatened the boys not to tell anyone, bribing the children with things such as vacations, cars, snowmobiles and money.
Hoagland initially denied the allegations, later allegedly admitting to sexually abusing two of the boys during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He denied abusing the third child.
He claimed “he did not believe he did anything wrong as in his mind it was the kids who started it,” the criminal complaint states.
