Stillwater man charged with drugging and sexually assaulting vulnerable adult in Rochester

Mark Wasson, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
·1 min read
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Aug. 24—ROCHESTER — A Stillwater man has been charged with injecting methamphetamine into a vulnerable adult and sexually assaulting her in Rochester last year, according to charges filed in Olmsted County District Court Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022.

Harold David Short, 56, is charged with third- and fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct and for using drugs to facilitate a crime, all felonies.

He is set to appear in court for the first time Sept. 22.

According to the criminal complaint:

An investigator with the Rochester Police Department was told by a person that Short had picked up the victim from a group home in Burnsville and brought her to St. Paul, Stillwater and Rochester in Minnesota, and Alma, Wisconsin.

The woman's guardian told law enforcement that the alleged victim has a mental capacity of someone between 11- and 14-years-old.

The victim told law enforcement she had been injected with methamphetamine by Short against her will then sexually assaulted by him at a residence in Southwest Rochester in late December 2021.

The pair stayed the night in a cabin in Alma the next night. The woman told the RPD investigator she was scared to fall asleep and was afraid that Short would kill her.

Short would later drop the victim off at the Southeast Regional Crisis Center Dec. 30, 2021.