A Minneapolis cop used the Internet to prey on at least four
girls, telling one 14-year-old that he “likes girls your age,” according to a
criminal complaint filed today.
Bradley James Schnickel, 32, plied a 13-year-old girl with
vodka last year and had sex with her in his car, the complaint said. He
persuaded another girl to send a pair of nude pictures of herself, after which
he drove to her apartment and masturbated in front of her in his car, the
complaint said.
Schnickel, arrested Wednesday, was charged with three counts
of attempted or actual third-degree sexual conduct and three counts of engaging
in sexually explicit online chats with a minor. The charges carry a maximum
penalty of 46½ years in prison and a $105,000 fine.
Police spokesman Stephen McCarty said Schnickel, a five-year
veteran of the Minneapolis Police Department, no longer was employed as of
today.
“As far as whether he was fired or resigned, that's not
being disclosed,” McCarty said. “There's a union process that has to be
fulfilled first.”
Schnickel's defense attorney, Fred Bruno, was traveling
today and did not immediately return a phone message or email seeking comment.
A message was also left at Schnickel's home in Andover.
Authorities began investigating about three weeks ago after
Brooklyn Center police learned a then-unidentified Andover man had used social
media to send inappropriate messages to a girl.
Schnickel didn't know the girls when he initiated contact
through chat websites, nor did he tell them he was a cop, Anoka County
Sheriff's Cmdr. Paul Sommer said. Schnickel reached out to a number of girls,
and then used their lists of contacts to strike up conversations with their
friends, Sommer said.
In one case, a girl who is now 14 told investigators she
began chatting last summer with someone named “Brady” who said he was 22. She
said the chats turned sexual, and three months later, she sneaked out of her
home to meet the man. She said they drove for a while, and then Schnickel got
her drunk on vodka and had sex with her.
Another alleged victim said Schnickel sent her 15 pictures
of his genitals and asked for sex at least 50 times. She said she never met him
until he suddenly appeared at her bus stop a few months later, asking what
police were inquiring about and telling her to “deny, deny, deny everything.”
Schnickel told another girl through Facebook chats he was 23
years old, the complaint said.
One alleged victim “kept telling the defendant that she was
only 14 and the defendant responded by saying he ‘likes girls your age,’ ”
according to the complaint. The victim said Schnikel told her he liked girls as
young as 12 and that he wanted to take her virginity.
He asked her “for sex so many times she can't put a number
on it,” the complaint said.
A judge set bail today for Schnickel at $500,000 with no
conditions of release, or $250,000 with the condition that he not contact any
girls, according to the Anoka County Attorney's Office. He is scheduled to be
arraigned March 6.
Authorities have reviewed about 3,000 pages of the 9,000
pages of documentation in the case. Investigators continued to comb through the
rest of the documents and said more charges could be forthcoming.
“This case remains wide open,” Paul Young, the assistant
Anoka County Attorney, said.
Schnickel could also face charges in Hennepin County.
Chuck Laszewski, a spokesman for the Hennepin County
Attorney's office, said prosecutors there had received a file on Schnickel and
were asked to investigate further. He said he didn't know how many alleged
victims were described in that file.