A 59-year-old man on probation for sexually assaulting an intoxicated woman in 2019 is accused of raping a 71-year-old St. Paul woman who told police she had never met him before he befriended her on Facebook and asked to come over, according to a criminal complaint.
Police arrested Thao Xiong on Tuesday after they obtained a search warrant for his apartment in St. Paul’s Payne-Phalen neighborhood and found him hiding under his bed, the complaint says.
Thao Xiong (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)
Xiong was charged Wednesday in Ramsey County District Court with first-degree criminal sexual conduct. He went before a judge on Thursday and was granted a public defender, although one was not listed in the court file to comment on the charge.
Xiong remained jailed in lieu of $50,000 bail, and is due back in court Feb. 20.
According to the complaint, police were dispatched to the woman’s apartment in the Summit-University neighborhood about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday after she reported she had just been forcefully sexually assaulted by a man, who was later identified as Xiong.
She told police someone must have given Xiong her phone number because he called, asking to meet. She agreed, and invited him over. When he entered the apartment, she told police, he pushed her into her bedroom, took off her clothes and raped her.
She said he was too strong and that she could not get him off of her during the assault, which lasted 10 to 20 minutes.
Xiong then left the apartment, although she was able to get a photograph of him, which she gave to police. She said he left in a black Jeep and gave police his license plate information.
The woman also gave police a Facebook profile that Xiong used to contact her. As an officer pulled up the profile, the woman immediately said, “that’s him,” the complaint states.
New Facebook friend
The woman was taken to the hospital where she underwent a sexual assault examination. During the exam, she said Xiong had befriended her on Facebook on Monday, the day before the alleged assault.
She said he called her out of the blue about 3 p.m. Tuesday, but she didn’t answer. He kept calling, then texted and “yelled at her” for not answering, the complaint states.
She then answered, and told Xiong that if he was going to come over, he could not touch her, according to the complaint. She said he agreed.
Once Xiong arrived and entered her apartment, he immediately took her to the bedroom, removed her clothes and had “rough sex with her,” she said, according to the complaint.
Xiong called the woman multiple times during the sexual assault exam, but she did not answer. She told the nurse examiner that she was “really scared” that Xiong would come back to her apartment and harm her if he was arrested and released, the complaint says.
Medical records show the woman was injured during the assault, and forensic samples were collected for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to analyze.
After his arrest, Xiong underwent a suspect sexual assault examination. While waiting to be booked into jail, he “spontaneously” said this was the second person who accused him of rape, the complaint says.
2019 sexual assault
Xiong was charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct in Ramsey County in July 2019.
Witnesses told police that a group of acquaintances had been drinking at Xiong’s apartment and that a 41-year-old woman became drunk and ended up in his bed, the criminal complaint says. A witness later looked in the bedroom and saw Xiong on top of the woman, who was naked from the waist down.
She “finally escaped” to a different apartment, while still partially naked, the complaint says. She had scratches and bruises on her inner thighs, neck, shoulder, legs and arms.
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In an interview with police, Xiong “tried to downplay” the woman’s level of intoxication. However, a witness told police they helped Xiong clean up the woman’s vomit in Xiong’s bedroom. Xiong had a bite mark on his neck and scratches on his back and arms, all which police said were consistent with the woman trying to fight him off of her, the complaint says.
Court records show that Xiong reached a plea deal with prosecutors and admitted to fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct in exchange for the more serious charge being dismissed. In November 2020, he was sentenced to 231 days in jail, which was time that he had already served after his arrest, and put on supervised probation for 10 years.
Xiong has no other convictions, besides two petty misdemeanor traffic violations.
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