Eagan Man Sentenced to Prison for Having Sex with Young Girl

An Eagan man who pleaded guilty earlier this year to offering an 11-year-old girl $100 for sex was sentenced this week to 12 years in prison.

Emmanuel Osei, 41, will serve his sentence at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in St. Cloud. As part of a plea agreement with prosecutors, the judge dismissed 16 additional charges of criminal sexual conduct involving the same girl.

Osei pleaded guilty last spring under an Alford plea agreement, in which he admitted that based on the evidence against him, there was a “high probability” that a jury would find him guilty.

After Osei serves his prison term, he will be on supervised release for 10 years. In addition, he will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

According to court documents, Osei had a relationship with the victim’s mother and sponsored the woman and her daughter to move to the United States from Ghana.

The two lived with Osei in Eagan, and Osei acted as a “father figure” to the girl, according to court documents.

In June 2010, the girl told police that Osei, who often stayed with her alone while her mother was at work, began sexually abusing her when she was 8 years old. She told authorities that Osei sometimes put on a “Girls Gone Wild” DVD and asked her to do the same things the women on the DVD did.

The girl’s mother told police that Osei bought gifts for her daughter, including clothing, jewelry and an iPod Touch.

On June 29, 2010, with a police officer present, the girl called Osei and told him that she wanted money that he owed her for allowing him to perform oral sex on her two weeks earlier. Osei told the girl that he couldn’t afford to do so, and the girl invited him over, with an officer hiding in a closet.

Osei entered the apartment and checked all the rooms to make sure she was alone, then asked the girl if she wanted to “do it,” offering her $100 and saying he would go to an ATM and get the money immediately.

Osei was arrested and spent 46 days in jail, which will be credited toward his sentence.

Osei’s court file includes 21 letters from his children, his mother, other members of his family, friends and acquaintances, testifying to his character and asking the judge to allow him to go free.

The letters describe Osei variously as “a man of integrity,” a role model, inspirational, humble and compassionate. One letter writer says sending him to jail would be the worst thing that could ever happen to her family; another asks the judge to be lenient and allow Osei to “continue his good work.”