ST. PAUL, Minn. – A Minneapolis man convicted in Olmsted County of trying to hire an underage girl for sex has lost his appeal.
Court records say 60-year-old Brian James Olson was arrested in a Rochester sting operation in May 2014 when police say he responded to an online ad and agree to pay $200 for a 15-year-old female prostitute. Officers picked him up after Olson arrived at an agreed up location with $200 in his rear pocket.
Olson initially entered a guilty plea, then changed it to not guilty and was convicted at trial. He was sentenced to five years of supervised probation.
Olson appealed that guilty verdict, arguing that he was protected by double jeopardy after entering his first guilty plea. Olson argued that even though he was allowed to withdraw that plea, it should still have counted as a conviction and prevented him from being tried for the same crime.
The Minnesota Court of Appeals has rejected that argument. It states that defendants have an absolute right to withdraw a guilty plea and have a trial, but they cannot claim a withdrawn guilty plea counts as a conviction itself.
