Charges: St. Catherine student physically and sexually assaulted by boyfriend over three days in dorm room

Nick Ferraro, Pioneer Press
Updated ·3 min read
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A St. Catherine University student was beaten, “waterboarded” and raped in her dorm room by her boyfriend over three days last week, charges say.

Keanu Avery Labatte, 19, of Granite Falls, Minn., was arrested Sunday in the woman’s dorm room and charged Monday with three counts of first-degree sexual conduct and one count each of domestic assault by strangulation and threats of violence in connection with the alleged assaults at the St. Paul university.

Labatte appeared in Ramsey County District Court on the charges Tuesday, when a judge set his bail at $80,000. Labatte, who remains jailed, was granted a public defender, who has not returned a call for comment.

According to the criminal complaint:

The woman reported to campus security at 10:50 a.m. Sunday that she had been physically and sexually assaulted multiple times Thursday, Friday and Saturday in her room by Labatte, her boyfriend of two months. She said he was still in her room.

The university’s security supervisor told police the woman was “distraught and visibly upset” when she reported the alleged abuse Sunday morning.

She told police Labatte arrived on campus Thursday night to visit her over the weekend and became “enraged” and “infuriated” after discovering text messages, pictures and social media information. She said he grabbed her phone, and kept it away from her until Sunday.

She said Labatte went from giving her hickies, which was consensual, to forcefully removing her clothing and sexually assaulting her after she told him she did not want to have sex.

At one point during the assaults, she told police, Labatte threatened to kill her and put both of his hands around her neck, which made her feel lightheaded and believe she was going to die. Labatte also threatened to kill her family, she said.

On Saturday, Labatte forced her to lie down in the bathtub, where he covered her mouth with a washcloth and engaged in “waterboarding” by pouring buckets of water over her.

“On that same day, (Labatte) took a knife and threatened to cut (the woman’s) veins so that she would die and no one would help her,” the complaint read.

She told police that Labatte let her leave the dorm room on Sunday morning after she convinced him she would get food from the cafeteria. Before she left, she said, Labatte gave her cellphone back to her and demanded that she take a picture showing that she made it to the cafeteria so he could keep track of her.

While she was speaking with police, Labatte called the woman repeatedly. She said Labatte was paranoid that she was away from her room.

Police noted that she had black, blue and red marks on her neck, and Labatte was arrested on suspicion of domestic assault by strangulation and sexual assault. After being read his legal rights, Labatte said, “I plead the 5th,” the complaint read.

The woman went to a hospital for a sexual assault exam and said she was in pain from Labatte punching her in the stomach four times, twice in the throat and once in the face. A nurse examiner noted multiple bruises to her cheek, neck and ear, which the woman said was from Labatte biting her.

The woman’s phone log showed that Labatte tried calling her five times between 10:52 and 11:16 a.m. Sunday. He also texted her at 10:59 a.m. asking why police officers were outside.

During a search of her dorm room, police found a folding knife in the front pocket of a green backpack and a wet washcloth on the bathroom sink.

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