Hearing Held for Finland Man Accused of Crimes Involving Children

by David Geist

On September 16, a hear­ing was held in Lake County court before Judge Steven B. Hanke in the criminal cases against Andrew Deyette of Finland, MN. Mr. Deyette has been charged with two counts of indecent exposure in the presence of a minor and two counts of criminal sexual conduct in the fifth degree-lewd exhibition in one case from a June 13, 2024 arrest. He has also been charged with the same crimes in another case from an incident in the summer of 2023. Additionally, he has been charged with violating a restraining order that was put in place after the arrest of Mr Deyette on June 13, 2024.

In the contested omnibus hearing, held September 16 on the 2024 charges, the court heard testimony from Deputy Jack Deitz concern­ing his arrest of Mr. Deyette at a swimming hole on the Beaver River. Deputy Di­etz was called by Lara R.M. Nygaard, Lake County at­torney. The defense contest­ed the probable cause of the June 13 arrest by Deputy Dietz. Briefs will be filed in late October by the county attorney and Mr. Deyette’s attorney, Joseph G. Vaccaro of St. Paul, on this probable cause issue.

A probable cause chal­lenge was also made con­cerning the incident in 2023. Until this challenge is ruled on, Mr. Deyette was ordered to have no contact with the two juvenile victims in that case.

A contested hearing on the restraining order viola­tion case was scheduled for November 25, 2024 at 2:30 pm unless an agreement is reached beforehand be­tween the county attorney and Mr. Vaccaro. This re­straining order was invoked after the June, 2024 arrest at the request of the mother of one of the victims and has since expired. Under con­tention is whether a place, the Claire Nelson Commu­nity Center in Finland in this instance, could be enu­merated in a restraining or­der.

After a motion passed at the July 16, 2024 Crystal Bay, MN town board meet­ing, a no trespass order was filed against Mr. Deyette for the Claire Nelson Commu­nity Center and is still in place.

If readers want informa­tion on these criminal cas­es, it can be accessed on the Minnesota Criminal Re­cords Online (MCRO) web­site. The case numbers are 38-CR-24-204, 38-CR-24- 272 and 38-CR-24-331.