St. Paul Sex-sting Suspect Gets 30 Days for Soliciting "Minor" Who Was Undercover Cop

By Richard Chin
Pioneer Press
December 12, 2014

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_27126754/st-paul-sex-sting-suspect-gets-30-days

Stephen Joseph Schulz (Courtesy of Ramsey County sheriff)

Steven Joseph Schulz, a Golden Valley man convicted of felony online solicitation of a minor for sex, was sentenced Friday in St. Paul to 30 days in jail and probation for five years.

Schulz, 56, corresponded online with someone he thought was a 15-year-old boy. The boy actually was an undercover St. Paul police sergeant who responded to a Craigslist ad that Schulz had posted.

The police set up a sting and Schulz was arrested when he arrived with Red Bull and vodka at what he thought would be a rendezvous with the boy at an address on St. Paul's East Side in April 2013.

At his trial in Ramsey County District Court, Schulz testified that he himself was molested as a child at the hands of a priest and that he wanted to meet the boy he corresponded with to warn him away from the fate he suffered.

"The defendant refuses to acknowledge any wrongdoing on his part," prosecutor Yasmin Mullings argued at sentencing Friday. Mullings asked Judge Patrick Diamond to give Schulz 365 days in jail.

"He focuses only on himself and sees himself as a victim of this," Mullings said of the defendant.

Defense lawyer Paul Engh argued for no jail time. He said Schulz will be forever stigmatized by his conviction and that is a greater punishment than incarceration.

"There's no forgiveness in a social media world," Engh said.

"The hole I'm in is deep and dark," Schulz said.

He asked the judge to allow him to get therapy on his own instead of ordering him to participate in sex-offender treatment which is "extremely frightening to me.

Diamond, however, ordered Schulz into the sex-offender program and rejected his request to start serving his time after the holidays.

Schulz will get credit for four days of time already served. He will have to register as a predatory offender and have no contact with children or Internet-capable devices not approved by probation.

Richard Chin can be reached at 651-228-5560. Follow him at twitter.com/RRChin.

Contact: rchin@pioneerpress.com