A 20-year-old man is facing charges in Ramsey County after a bicyclist who was pulling his young daughter in a trailer through a Maplewood park reported that a stranger approached him, made sexual comments, and touched him without his consent. Nathan Cheening Lee now faces one gross misdemeanor count of fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct and one misdemeanor count of indecent exposure tied to a string of reported incidents across three Ramsey County cities over three days in early August.
According to the criminal complaint, the encounter began on Aug. 3 at Harvest Park in Maplewood, a 25-acre municipal park at 2561 Barclay Street known for its athletic fields and connections to the Bruce Vento Regional Trail, per the City of Maplewood. As reported by Limitless Media News, an unknown man approached the bicyclist, asked whether he could touch him, and then allegedly did so without consent while making comments of a sexual nature. The bicyclist reportedly tried to move away before leaving the park, according to the probable cause statement.
A Second Park, A Similar Description
Officers were also called to nearby Keller Park in Maplewood on Aug. 3 following a separate report. Keller Regional Park is run by Ramsey County Parks and Recreation as part of the 750-acre Phalen-Keller Regional Park system along Maplewood Drive and Keller Parkway. The complaint describes the individual reported there as a heavyset Asian male wearing black clothing, the same general description police say later matched Lee.
The following day, Aug. 4, similar public behavior was reported at Lake Phalen Park in St. Paul, according to a reference in the complaint. Lake Phalen sits within a regional park that drew more than 1.3 million visits in 2019 across its 700-plus acres, making it one of the most heavily trafficked green spaces in the Twin Cities metro, and it connects directly to Keller Regional Park via shared trails and waterways.
Target Encounter Leads to Arrest
Lee was arrested following an Aug. 5 incident at a Target store in North St. Paul, an independent suburban city that borders Maplewood to the east. Similar behavior was reported at that store the same day, according to the complaint. Police say they were able to connect the North St. Paul report to the earlier Maplewood park complaints because suburban Ramsey County agencies share regional dispatch and records databases that let departments track matching suspect descriptions across city lines…