Firefighter accused of assault resigns

Following the airing of a Fox 21 news story about a backlog of rape kit investigations in Duluth and the success of related prosecutions, an unnamed Cloquet Area Fire District firefighter is no longer on the job.

The firefighter, age 29, was not named in the Fox 21 report, which detailed two different sexual encounters that he claimed were consensual and which the women said were not. In one of the cases, a 16-year-old girl was allegedly assaulted, telling investigators that she eventually complied with the man because he wasn’t going to leave until she did.

Because the St. Louis Attorney’s Office never filed charges, the man was not named in the Fox 21 report or the press release from CAFD chief Kevin Schroeder, who said the story and investigations came as a complete surprise.

“As a public safety provider, the CAFD takes public trust and employee integrity very seriously,” Schroeder said in a press release issued June 6, noting that CAFD conducts background checks on all employees and completes annual performance evaluations. “Since the employee was never charged by law enforcement, the accusations did not appear in background checks. At no time has any law enforcement agency or county prosecutor’s office notified the CAFD that an employee was under investigation. In addition, the CAFD has not received a single data request, or been made aware of this issue prior to the televised airing of the story.”

Schroeder said the employee had no public complaints or disciplinary action on his employment record during his employment with the CAFD.