Police said Wednesday they are investigating possible “unlawful conduct involving interactions with minors” by a 22-year-old man who school officials say fraudulently enrolled and attended White Bear Lake Area High School as a student-athlete until he was exposed.
This development comes one day after State Rep. Elliott Engen, R-Lino Lakes, whose district includes communities served by the White Bear Lake school district, sent a letter to Superintendent Wayne Kazmierczak calling for his immediate resignation after high school Principal Russell Reetz told families that a man “appears to have provided fraudulent documentation and a false identity to enroll” at the school.
Reetz’s letter went on to say the discovery was made by “staff members, families and students who saw something and decided to report it.”
White Bear Lake police said the Forest Lake man has been booked into the Washington County jail in connection with him violating terms of his probation stemming from a gross-misdemeanor indecent exposure conviction in March.
White Bear Lake Police Chief Dale Hager told the Minnesota Star Tribune on Wednesday that his department “is aware of this [enrollment] incident. … We are looking into any and all potential criminal charges related to this/these incidents, and are aggressively investigating all.”
Late Wednesday afternoon, the department said in a statement that “while no charges have been filed at this time, our investigators are pursuing possible criminal violations related to fraud, forgery and unlawful conduct involving interactions with minors.”
The Star Tribune has confirmed the man’s identity in jail records and other sources, but generally does not identify suspects before they are charged.
Engen’s letter to Kazmierczak leveled allegations of felony crimes against the man based on social media postings he has seen. Engen told the Star Tribune he is “more than confident” that the postings are credible and they “lean into the motive for why he was [attending the high school].”
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