Offender will go to prison… soon

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Sentencing for a client in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program’s Moose Lake facility was delayed Monday because the prosecuting and defense attorneys interpreted the plea agreement differently.

Sarprio Doranti had pleaded guilty Feb. 11 to three different counts of felony fourth-degree assault: one for demonstrable bodily harm and two counts of throwing or transferring bodily fluid or feces in incidents at the MSOP facility. One count of first-degree criminal damage to property had been dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

Doranti has been a patient at the Moose Lake MSOP facility for more than 20 years.

Prior to his commitment there, he was named Elliott B. Holly, later changing his name to Sarprio Doranti. Under the Holly name in 1981, he was convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct after he invited a mentally ill woman to his apartment, where he pulled a knife on her and forced her into sex. The state court of appeals later reversed the conviction based on the district court’s failure to sequester the jury during deliberations. The state did not retry Holly because he had almost completed the sentence imposed.

In 1984, Holly committed violent sexual assaults on three women in separate incidents. In one incident, Holly asked the victim for a ride and started to sexually assault her. Before the woman escaped the vehicle, Holly bit her on the right cheek, hit her face on the console and choked her.

In another incident, Holly robbed and raped a woman while she held her 7-month-old child, whom he threatened to kill.

In 1985, Holly was sentenced to nine years in prison. According to court records, he spent significant time in a segregated unit for disciplinary reasons. He used manipulative ploys to draw female staff to his cell in order to masturbate in front of them.

In 1991, prior to his release from prison, the Commissioner of Corrections filed an administrative petition to commit him as a psychopathic personality. The court found him to be a danger to society, lacking customary standards of good judgment with respect to sexual matters, and likely to reoffend without effective treatment. Doranti unsuccessfully appealed that decision in 1992, 1994 and 1996.

Over his years at MSOP, Doranti has been charged with numerous assault and terroristic threat crimes, against other prisoners as well as staff. On Nov. 30, 2011, he and two other men were accused of disrupting the facility’s operations for an hour as they broke objects and could not be brought under control; they were charged with felony property damage for the incident, which allegedly caused $10,000 worth of damage to the facility.

On Monday, Assistant Carlton County Attorney Jesse Berglund asserted that, under the terms of the plea agreement, Doranti should have been sentenced to between 50 and 55 months in prison. Defense attorney Nichole Carter said she understood the prison sentence was 38 months.

At the heart of the argument was a debate over whether the sentence for the most current crimes would run consecutively (one after the other) or concurrently (at the same time) with a two-year prison sentence that was stayed in May, when Doranti was sentenced for a different batch of offenses at the state facility.

Carter told Judge Robert Macaulay that she and her client were ready to proceed with the sentencing Monday, with the understanding that the new sentence would run concurrently with the previously stayed sentence.

Berglund balked, however, telling the judge that the state believed the files should be sentenced consecutively.

Berglund said he is going to ask the judge to reject the plea agreement as it’s clear there has not been “a meeting of the minds” on what the sentence should be.

Carter opposed the motion, but Macaulay overruled, asking Berglund how long it would take him to put his arguments in writing.

“My client is all set to go to the state [Department of Corrections],” Carter said, noting that Doranti had transferred several boxes of belongings out of the Moose Lake MSOP facility. “He would like to be transferred as soon as possible.”

In the end, the judge gave Berglund until March 8 to file his motion and memorandum to the court and Carter a week after that to file her rebuttal. A new hearing was set for March 18. In the meantime, Doranti remains in the Carlton County Jail.

Forum Communications reporters Wendy Johnson and Mark Stodghill contributed to this story.

Tags: news, crime