By Jean Doran Matua, Editor
A required community notification meeting is scheduled for 6-7:30 p.m. Wednesday,
Aug. 15, at Maine Prairie Township Hall, 7551 Dellwood Rd., Kimball (across Highway 15 from the Maine Prairie historical marker).
The meeting is to announce the release of a Level III registered predatory offender who is moving to an address near Highway 15 and County Road 146 north of Kimball after his release later this month.
Thomas Steven Allen Snook is a 30-year-old man who has served his sentence for engaging in sexual contact with a 15-year-old girl who was known to him. His juvenile history shows inappropriate conduct and contact with minor boys and girls as victims; they were also known to Snook. Having served his time, he is now free to live, work, or go to school anywhere, so long as he registers his address and stays law-abiding.
Snook has been assigned a Risk Level Three and will be on intensive supervised release with the MN Department of Corrections ISR Team. Level Three offenders are deemed most likely to re-offend.
Attending the meeting will be representatives from the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office, Stearns County Attorney’s Office, Minnesota Department of Corrections, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and the Central Minnesota Sexual Assault Center.
Doors will open at 5:30 p.m., with resource materials, literature and offender information packets available to the public. The meeting will begin at 6, ending with a question-and-answer time at 7:10. It is scheduled to end at 7:45.
As Dr. Jerry Wetterling told me at the first community notification meeting I attended, perhaps a dozen years ago, the released offenders are under close scrutiny. “It’s the 40 already in your community, who haven’t been caught yet,” he said, those are the ones you have to worry about.
The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office is available to provide you with useful information on personal safety. Their non-emergency phone number is (320) 259-3700. To report criminal activity by this offender or any other individual, call 9-1-1.