Area Man Awaits Sentencing for Sexual Abuse of Preteens

A 42-year-old West St. Paul man—convicted in 2010 of convincing his girlfriend to viciously beat her 15-year-old son with an extension cord—was found guilty this week of sexually assaulting the two sisters of the beating victim.

Eric John Henderson-Bey was originally charged with felony second-degree criminal sexual conduct and stalking. Those charges were amended in May to one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, which carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $40,000 fine, and one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, which has a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison and a $35,000 fine. 

The first-degree criminal sexual conduct charge—a more serious charge than second-degree criminal sexual conduct because it involves penetration—has a mandatory minimum penalty of 12 years in prison and a fine of $12,000.

With regard to the March 2010 beating, Henderson-Bey was convicted of felony malicious punishment of a child. According to court documents, Henderson-Bey became angry when he found his cell-phone charger in the boy’s room, and he told the child’s mother to “whoop” him.

The boy was forced to strip, and his mother beat him 15 to 20 times with an extension cord while Henderson-Bey held his cell phone up as though he were filming the incident. During the beating, he called the child profane names and said he would put the video on YouTube so his friends could see it.

Henderson-Bey was sentenced to 18 months in prison, stayed for five years on the condition that he commit no more crimes.

According to the latest criminal complaint, West St. Paul police received a report in August 2010 of sexual assault involving Henderson-Bey. An 18-year-old girl—the older sister of the boy who was beaten with the extension cord—told officers that she had found her 13-year-old sister’s journal, in which the girl described Henderson-Bey’s repeated sexual assaults of her.

According to the criminal complaint, Henderson-Bey’s abuse of the younger girl continued from February through May 2009 and involved him touching her genitals, her buttocks and her chest. 

The 18-year-old told police that Henderson-Bey also sexually assaulted her beginning in 2002 when she was 11, only ending when she ran away from home at 14.

Henderson-Bey, who was arrested Aug. 20, remains in the Dakota County Jail without bail. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 6 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings. Psychosexual and presentence investigations have been ordered.