State of Minnesota v. Gregory Maurice Oats, Jr.

St. Paul, Minnesota, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with first and third-degree sexual assault.

Gregory Maurice Oats, Sr. was charged with first- and third-degree criminal sexual conduct, alleging that he sexually penetrated the victim, E.H., on numerous occasions from 2009 to 2011, when she was under the age of sixteen, and from 2011 to 2013 when she was sixteen and seventeen years old. The case
was tried to a jury. Oats was represented by court-appointed counsel before trial. And he had court-appointed co-counsel at trial. One of the attorneys was referred to as lead counsel.

Before trial, Oats moved the district court to exclude photographs and screenshots
of text messages between Oats and the victim (the photographs). The district court denied the motion as it pertained to 12 of the 18 challenged photographs.
During the prosecution’s opening statement at trial, defense counsel interrupted and requested a bench conference. After that conference, the district court excused the jury.

Next, the district court judge informed the attorneys that she had just realized that three ears earlier, she handled prior cases involving the victim and Oats. After a recess—during which Oats conferred with counsel regarding the possibility of the judge’s recusal—Oats’s attorney informed the district court that Oats wanted the judge to recuse. The district court judge agreed that she should recuse. The judge told the parties that she was going to “let the jury go” and require the parties to schedule a new trial-management conference. The district court and the parties selected a date approximately two months later for the new trial-management conference.

The defendant was found guilty.

Because Oats did not have any criminal-sexual-conduct convictions before the
sentencing hearing and the district court simultaneously convicted him of both criminal-sexual-conduct offenses, the district court improperly imposed a lifetime conditional-release term. Accordingly, we reverse the imposition of the lifetime conditional-release term and remand for the district court to vacate that term.

Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.