A search warrant unsealed on Monday illuminates how White Bear Lake police and school officials came to discover a 22-year-old man had enrolled in high school.
According to police, their investigation began after a White Bear Lake resident reported on Sept. 29 that her daughter saw a mugshot circulating on social media. She recognized the 22-year-old man as a fellow student at White Bear Lake Area High School, albeit with a different name.
White Bear Lake school leaders later emailed families that the man had enrolled at the high school using false documents and a false identity, saying he was a homeless, unaccompanied youth.
The man had been held at Washington County jail for violating terms of his probation in an unrelated case. Police requested a search warrant to seize his phone as evidence, and a judge issued the warrant on Oct. 1.
As grounds for the warrant, an officer wrote “multiple juvenile females” came forward to report the man had been communicating with them via text and social media. On Sept. 30, several parents of students also called to report “possible sexual assault incidents,” according to police, and a school resource officer is looking into an allegation that he received nude photos from a girl under 18.
MPR News is not naming the man because he has yet to be charged with a crime related to his time at White Bear Lake Area High School.
White Bear Lake police chief Dale Hager told MPR News it won’t be a quick investigation because there are “a lot of moving parts in this case.”
MPR News requested comment from the man, his family and public defenders assigned to his prior case but did not receive a response as of Wednesday evening.
His probation was reinstated and he was released from jail last Thursday.
Other allegations of harassment
The man is on probation after he previously pleaded guilty to one count of indecent exposure in a 2023 case — when he was 20 — where prosecutors say he sent unsolicited nude photos via Snapchat to a 15-year-old girl.
According to the charging document, she blocked him and he reached out on another platform. When she blocked him again, he reportedly said he would disseminate explicit images of her.
Last week, a judge in Sherburne County granted a restraining order for a 17-year-old girl against the man. The girl’s mother submitted the petition, describing the 22-year-old as her daughter’s ex-boyfriend.
She alleges he made uninvited visits to the girl’s home and work, yelled at and scared her on a date, and took photos and videos of the girl without her consent from July to September.
He told the girl he was 17 and showed her a birth certificate indicating so, according to the mother.
A legitimately enrolled student at one point
The man was enrolled with his legal name at Forest Lake Area High School between January 2022 and January 2023, according to a spokesperson for its school district. He would have been 18 at the time he enrolled.
From September to December 2023, he enrolled at an alternative school, Centennial Area Learning Center. He continued with the center’s credit recovery program — described as “an online program designed for students who need to make up credit toward their diploma” between December 2023 to May 2024.
A spokesperson for Centennial’s school district shared “students are allowed to receive educational services at school districts up until the age of 21” under state law.
MPR News followed up on allegations on social media that the man attended certain other Twin Cities schools. According to spokespeople at those schools, he did not enroll at Blaine High School nor at Eagan High School or another school in its district with either his legal or reported false identity.
Coworker says he gave her ‘weird vibes’
Honesti Jones, a recent high school graduate, posted a video on TikTok about the man that attracted hundreds of thousands of views and numerous comments from young people alleging their own concerning experiences.
Jones said she worked with the man doing door-to-door sales for a remodeling services company this summer and was shocked to learn he wasn’t 18 like he told her he was.
“His whole demeanor and his personality and everything, like, it gives younger,” said Jones. “What he talks about, the way he talks about stuff, like, it doesn't give 22, so I believed him when he said that.”
The man told her “his documents were messed up because his parents were from Liberia,” according to Jones.
Jones said they had time to chat during breaks and while she was training him. She said she didn’t have specific concerns at the time but did “get weird vibes” and noticed he tended to date a certain kind of girl.
“Every story, and even pictures, like, of people that he would show me on his phone that he talked to, like, they're all white. And they're all like, younger, white girls,” said Jones.
