An autistic boy who was spending time in a park while his father worked was sexually assaulted Saturday afternoon in downtown St. Paul, allegedly by a homeless man, according to police.

The man he had been with was bad, the 12-year-old boy told an officer, and "made me do it," according to the complaint filed Monday against Charles J. Sathers, 59.

Sathers was seen by several people about 4:15 p.m. at Kellogg Park engaging in a sex act with the boy, said St. Paul police spokesman Tom Walsh.

Witnesses told police that they clearly saw the two having oral sex, according to the criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court. When police arrived and found two people matching witnesses' descriptions, the boy left, saying he had to find his dad, the complaint said.

Sathers and the boy did not know each other, Walsh said. He said that he didn't know the context of any conversations between the man and boy leading up to the incident.

Other than the sex assault, the boy was not physically injured, Walsh said. Sathers was not armed at the time of his arrest, he said.

Sathers is charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct and is being held in the Ramsey County jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.

The boy said he had been to the park after accompanying his father to work. The boy's father said that his son often came with him to his office, which is near the riverside park. The father also told police that it was common for the boy to walk around the area, according to the complaint.

Despite the witness accounts, Sathers denied having sex with the boy, who Sathers said he thought was a girl.

No history of sex crimes

Sathers said that the child approached him and that he was flattered, but Sathers denied any sexual contact. He has no extensive criminal history and no history of sexually related crimes, and police believe Saturday's incident to be an isolated case, Walsh said.

But just to be sure, investigators have contacted other area agencies to see if similar incidents have been reported, he said.

Sathers told investigators that he has spent the last two years living at the Dorothy Day Center for the homeless in St. Paul, according to the complaint. Officials at the center declined to comment on the case or to confirm that Sathers had lived there, citing privacy issues.

Sathers told police that he had lost his advertising job because of a drinking problem but that he had "only one beer" Saturday, according to the complaint.

News of the boy's assault and Sathers' arrest came as a shock to Lindsay Becker, who had worked with Sathers almost weekly when she served as a senior staff member at Listening House, a drop-in center for homeless people in St. Paul.

She regularly helped Sathers update his résumé in hopes of getting his life back on track.

"Of all the people I've worked with in four years, we probably sent out more résumés for him alone than for everyone else combined," she said.

Becker remembered being astonished at Sathers' marketing background and his qualifications. She recalled his kindness and his close-knit circle of friends.

Sathers would talk about an upcoming interview, then say little when he was turned down for the job, she said.

"It is just really sad in any case," she said. "You want to believe the best in people and that they're going to be able to turn it around. I thought with his background, he had a chance."

Rosemarie Reger-Rumsey, Listening House's executive director, said she worried about the incident unfairly stigmatizing the homeless. "Of course, if the charges are true, there have to be consequences," she said.



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