Kyle Tweed (FOX 9)
APPLE VALLEY, Minn. (FOX 9) - The prosecution of a predatory sex offender in Dakota County has taken a twist with the death of an alleged victim. But prosecutors are vowing to take the case to trial, and are asking the woman’s statements before she died be admitted as evidence.
The case dates back two-and-a-half years and involves defendant Kyle Tweed, who has been convicted in two prior criminal sexual conduct cases.
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Dakota County prosecutors move ahead with rape case after victim's death
The prosecution of a predatory sex offender in Dakota County has taken a twist with the death of an alleged victim. But prosecutors are vowing to take the case to trial, and are asking the woman’s statements before she died be admitted as evidence.
Tweed is currently in the Dakota County jail, where he has been since his October arrest after two years on the run.
The 40-year old Tweed is charged with violating his lifetime predatory sex offender registration. He is also accused of assaulting a woman in a 2019 case in Apple Valley where he is charged with raping the woman after a night of heavy drinking at the home of Tweed’s mother.
FOX 9 has confirmed, the victim, known only in court documents by her initials, S.M. has died.
The Dakota County Attorney’s office wrote to the court in recent days, the state intends to proceed with the prosecution and wants the victim statements to investigators allowed as evidence at trial.
Local criminal defense attorney Ryan Pacyga, who is not directly involved in the case said this might be new legal territory with a case potentially proceeding without the ability of the defense to cross-examine an accuser’s testimony, in this instance, because she is dead.
Pacyga figures it will ultimately be up to the trial judge based on their assessment of the rules of evidence and a defendant’s constitutional rights to a fair trial.
"You have no right if she is dead to ask her tough questions about how it happened, whether it was consensual, whatever the guy’s defense is," Pacyga explained.
According to the original charging documents, there were witnesses at the time who heard the woman yelling and screaming at Tweed, "you raped me," before he fled the scene.
Prosecutors have also told the court, they intend to introduce Tweed’s prior convictions for criminal sexual conduct from Hennepin and Scott counties. One of those victim-survivors told FOX 9’s Paul Blume in the past that Tweed remains a danger to society.
"He’s been doing this for a long time and it doesn’t seem he has any plan to stop doing this," Megan Curtis said during an October 2021 interview.
Neither Tweed’s lawyer nor the Dakota County Attorney’s office wished to comment on the status of the case following the woman’s death. No other details or circumstances of her death were publicly released.
A hearing on the issues is now scheduled for April.