MSOP assault case: Prison was intention

A man housed in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program facility in Moose Lake was sentenced to 220 months — over 18 years — in state prison Monday to attempted second-degree murder.

Nicolas Ladell Aron-Jones’ victim made a statement in the hearing, as did the offender, saying he prefers prison time to the MSOP.

Aron-Jones, 29, pleaded guilty in May to the most serious of four charges against him. Under the terms of the plea agreement, the other charges of first-, second- and fourth-degree assault were dismissed.

“He attempted to kill someone so he got dang near the maximum sentence,” said Jeffrey Boucher, assistant Carlton County attorney.

According to the criminal complaint filed on May 3, Aron-Jones placed the motor from a fan inside a pillowcase and swung it at a security counselor making rounds, striking him in the back of the head. The man fell to the ground, and Aron-Jones hit him with the fan motor eight more times on the body and the head. He then kicked and stomped the security counselor’s head eight times before being pushed away by other staff and sprayed with a chemical irritant.

The counselor was hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury and laceration to the right eye.

The victim gave a moving impact statement at the hearing Monday, telling the courtroom he didn’t know what the future holds for him as he is suffering lingering after effects of the attack.

MSOP is a secure treatment facility serving clients committed as sexually dangerous persons and sexually psychopathic personalities. Most of the inmates, referred to as “clients,” at MSOP have been civilly committed after already serving time in prison for their crimes.

When given the opportunity to speak, Aron-Jones said he wanted to get out of the facility at Moose Lake and admitted he intended to kill someone to make it happen. He said he would do it again, Boucher said, using his desire to get out as justification for the horrific attack.

Daniel Aaron Wilson-Raj, a 36-year-old who has been in the MSOP program for eight years, said that Jones’ feelings of futility there is “shocking” to him. Aron-Jones did not express such feelings while kept in a unit next to Wilson-Raj. But Aron-Jones’ feelings about treatment at MSOP, or the lack thereof, aren’t unexpected. “People are on edge here,” Wilson-Raj said. “Waiting for the next guy to snap.”

Wilson-Raj called the Pine Knot News on Tuesday after reading media reports about Monday’s court hearing. He was contacted by the Pine Knot in May for a report on the Aron-Jones attack, and another a week later, at MSOP.

Wilson-Raj said this week that he’s “tried to sound the alarm for years” about the ineffectiveness and inhumanity at MSOP. The Aron-Jones case is another alarm bell, he said. “I’m telling people, I told you so.”

He said he still can’t believe that a progressive state like Minnesota allows the MSOP to exist, with civil commitments that can seem like a life sentence with no legal path out. He said clients there are generally peaceful, until “staff poking” at them can become too much. “It’s like a war,” Wilson-Raj said.

He said Aron-Jones spoke the truth in court, no matter how much he and other MSOP clients disapprove of his actions. “He’s not faking that. It’s real.”

Since 2019, MSOP in Moose Lake has logged a total of 16 OSHA-reported staff injuries due to aggressive client behavior, including an attack a week after the Aron-Jones attack, when a client picked up a chair and struck a security counselor, causing slight injuries to that person and those who intervened.

The incidents led to restrictions on movement of clients within the MSOP facility that, according to Wilson-Raj, remain in place.

Wilson-Raj said a lack of doctors and timely medical care at MSOP is also a driver in clients finding any means to get out of the program. “He’s probably seeing a doctor right now,” he said of Aron-Jones. “He’s got it made.”

Carlton County attorney Lauri Ketola said her office takes offenses committed against staff at MSOP very seriously. “We will continue to prosecute offenses committed against staff at MSOP in an effort to increase their safety,” she said.

******

About MSOP

The Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) serves people who are court-ordered to receive sex offender treatment. After prison sentences are complete, courts may civilly commit and place people in sex offender treatment for an unspecified period of time. A civil court can commit a person for treatment if a judge determines the individual is a “sexual psychopathic personality,” a “sexually dangerous person,” or both.

As of April 1, MSOP had 745 clients in its two treatment facilities, a majority who are housed in the facility in Moose Lake. Another 49 clients have been provisionally discharged by the court and are living in Minnesota communities under MSOP supervision. Fewer than 10 more have been granted provisional discharge and were awaiting community placement.

The Moose Lake facility houses people who have been petitioned for civil commitment but not yet committed, those participating in initial and primary stages of treatment, and those who refuse to participate in sex offender-specific treatment.

The Moose Lake facility has two buildings: the Main Building and Complex I. The Main Building houses up to 150 clients. Complex I houses up to 400 clients.

— Minnesota Department of Human Services