A St. Paul defense attorney facing criminal sexual misconduct charges in two counties will not serve time in prison under a plea agreement that his victim called “egregiously lenient” and said does not “reflect the seriousness of what he has done.”

Adam Kujawa, 38, had worked as a Ramsey County public defender for many years. He resigned Wednesday, a day after pleading guilty to Washington County charges stemming from sexual misconduct on his boat on Forest Lake in May 2021.

Adam Kujawa (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Kujawa entered an Alford plea to an amended charge of felony criminal sexual predatory conduct and to gross misdemeanor fifth-degree nonconsensual sexual conduct. An Alford plea means he maintains innocence while acknowledging the state likely has enough evidence to convict him.

The plea deal is being referred to as a “global resolution” by prosecutors because they say it settles criminal cases in two other Minnesota counties alleging similar conduct involving the same victim.

The woman, now 38, said Kujawa “trapped” her in a “domestic/sexual violence relationship” for over four years beginning in 2017.

Terms of Kujawa’s plea deal include two stayed prison sentences that total three and a half years, and four years of probation. He faces up to six months in jail at sentencing, which is scheduled for July 7.

He must remain registered as a predatory offender for 10 years, and undergo a psychosexual evaluation and follow the recommendations. He is prohibited from objecting to up to a 50-year order of protection by the victim.

Kujawa did not return a call Friday seeking comment. His attorney, David Lundgren, declined comment.

The underlying cases

Washington County prosecutors filed two cases against Kujawa in December 2021 — one alleging the Forest Lake incident, the other for alleged sexual assaults at his St. Paul apartment in September of that year.

Washington County handled the second case for the Ramsey County attorney’s office due to perceived conflicts of interest. Washington County District Judge Siv Mjanger dismissed the case last year, citing insufficient evidence to support the charge.

The original felony charge in the Washington County criminal complaint alleged third-degree criminal sexual conduct by means of force or coercion. According to the complaint, a witness reported to police in November 2021 that around May 15, while on the boat, Kujawa grabbed the victim by the hips and waist and pulled her toward himself. The witness said the victim told him “no” and to stop what he was doing. Kujawa placed his hands up the victim’s dress at least five times, the witness said. The victim told police that she would try to get away, but he would pull her back.

In the Ramsey County case, the woman reported on Sept. 29, 2021, that she had been raped by Kujawa twice at his Grand Avenue apartment over the prior two days. She told police that she was in a “romantic relationship” with him for four years, the complaint said.

She detailed various accounts of his behavior toward her, telling police she “knew there would be consequences if she did not do what he wanted,” the complaint said. When she would try to leave him, he would stalk her, she said.

Kujawa was charged with one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct by means of force or coercion. In Mjanger’s order dismissing the charge in July, the judge wrote that the defense had “cited an impressive factual catalog of evidence that proves that the (woman) was not coerced into performing the sex acts in question” and was a “willing participant.”

Mjanger wrote the woman had explained that she had had sex with Kujawa “so he does not leave her for someone else and to avoid him pouting or refusing to talk to her. While this may be unhealthy or manipulative, it does not amount to coercion as defined by Minnesota law.”

Terms of the deal

Under Tuesday’s plea deal, the Cook County attorney’s office will dismiss its case that charged Kujawa with four counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct by means of force or coercion. The charges were filed last September after the woman alleged that Kujawa “forced” her to have sex on four occasions over three days at a Lutsen ski resort in February 2020.

Also, the Aitkin County attorney’s office agreed not to file a criminal complaint it had drafted charging Kujawa with first-degree criminal sexual conduct and “lesser offenses” related to an alleged incident on Feb. 29, 2020, according to the plea petition.

Meanwhile, the Crow Wing County attorney’s office recently considered filing a case against Kujawa but declined charges, according to prosecutors.

At the plea hearing, the victim told Mjanger in a prepared statement read by a Ramsey County victim advocate that she is “not OK with any of the charges in other counties being dismissed as part of this plea” and that she “was given no voice and no choice in this decision.”

Prosecutors could have pushed the maximum jail penalty allowed of one day shy of one year, “but they did not do so,” she said.

“I live in fear of him every day, and yet he can do as he pleases with no concern for facing any real consequences for his actions,” she said.

On Friday, the Washington County attorney’s office said in a statement that the victim attended multiple meetings held over several weeks and her input, “sought through consistent and thoughtful discussion, led to careful consideration of her wishes and contributed to every decision made in this case.”

“While we are sympathetic to the anguish and turmoil this case has brought upon the victim,” the statement continued, “we firmly believe this resolution is in the best interest of justice and public safety given all of the unique factors and circumstances in this case.”

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The number of newly arrived immigrants now in the city’s care is around 64,000, down from more than 69,000 in mid-January—what City Hall has attributed in part to shelter deadlines. A bill in the City Council would end the controversial policy, which critics say has forced people into precarious situations: sleeping on the streets, on the floors of churches and in unsafe settings.

Adi Talwar

Migrants lined up to reapply for shelter at the city’s reticketing center in the East Village on Jan. 8, 2024.

The number of newly arrived immigrants in the city’s care is now around 64,000, officials testified before the City Council Friday, down from more than 69,000 in mid-January—what City Hall attributed, in part, to its controversial 30- and 60-day shelter deadlines.

But while Mayor Eric Adams says the limited shelter stays are intended to help new arrivals take “the next step in their journey,” the administration also admits that it isn’t tracking where people go after they leave the system.

And critics of the policy worry it’s forcing migrants into precarious situations: sleeping on the streets, on the floors of churches or in unsafe settings, as evidenced by an incident this week in which the city evacuated a Queens basement storefront where an estimated 70 people had allegedly been staying.

“The mayor brags that shelter evictions have reduced the number of people in the city’s care, ignoring the obvious question: where are people who are forced out of the shelter system ending up?” Brooklyn City Councilmember Shahana Hanif said at a hearing Friday.

“You’re trying to make things as untenable as possible for these folks so they leave, and we are we are certainly witnessing some of that,” she added later on, addressing two administration officials.

Hanif is the main sponsor of a bill that would prohibit the city from imposing restrictions on the length of homeless shelter stays, an effort to halt the 30- and 60-day notices for immigrants that the Adams administration began issuing to adults in July, and to families with children beginning in January. Similar legislation has also been introduced by state lawmakers in Albany.

Since the spring of 2022, 179,000 immigrants have come to New York, including some sent on buses as part of a political stunt on the part of Republican governors in states along the border.

In response, the city has opened 216 emergency shelter sites and spent approximately $3.77 billion on the effort, according to officials, and the Adams administration has maintained in recent months that it no longer has the space or resources to continue doing so.

“We have to make hard choices, and complicated choices,” Molly Schaeffer, director of the NYC Office of Asylum Seeker Operations, testified to councilmembers Friday, saying the shelter deadline policy “has helped ensure that we have space and the staff capacity to give people what they need in that first 30 days.”

A City Hall spokesperson told City Limits earlier this week that it has so far issued shelter deadlines to 69,200 immigrant adults in the system, and to 9,100 families with children.

Officials testified to the Council Friday that just under a quarter of adults who’ve seen their shelter stays expire have reapplied for another placement, while half of the families with kids who’ve been evicted have returned. Families with children make up the vast majority of asylum seekers in the city’s care, accounting for 78 percent of those in shelter on the last night of January.

So far, no families with kids who’ve sought another shelter placement after their time was up have been turned away, officials say. But the same can’t be said for adult immigrants, hundreds of whom line up each day on the sidewalk outside the city’s “reticketing center” in the East Village for a shot at another bed.

“It is very cold outside, and 30 days in the shelter is not enough,” one man testified to councilmembers at Friday’s hearing. Speaking in French through a translator, he said he’s been in New York City for five months and has stayed in four different shelters as a result of the deadlines.

Adults who reapply for shelter but don’t land a spot right away are directed to one of five overnight “waiting rooms” across the city, including some set up in churches. “We only sleep on the floor and there are no blankets or anything like that,” the man told councilmembers.

Some people, he added, spend the night walking the streets and collecting recyclables to trade in for change, and to kill time until the reticketing center opens again in the morning.

“In the shelters per se, we don’t get much help. We get a lot of help from outsiders, basically people who just come into the shelters, bring us food,” he said.

Lawmakers at the hearing questioned the efficiency of the shelter deadlines. According to Schaeffer, 76 percent of immigrants in the system leave within a month.

“So if people are already leaving in large numbers before the 30 days is up, then you don’t really need to have the mandate there,” said Councilmember Althea Stevens, who represents the South Bronx.

“How is this helpful?” she asked administration members. “It kind of seems like a redundant of services, if we’ve got people cycling in and out…we’re re-administering people over and over again.”

Others questioned the impact of frequent shelter moves on children’s education. Schaeffer said that 90 percent of the families with kids who had to leave their placement after 60 days, and who reapplied for another spot in the system, kept their children in the same schools they were enrolled in before their deadline expired.

But she was not able to immediately provide lawmakers with figures for families with school-aged kids who’ve been evicted from shelter and opted not to apply for another placement, saying she would need to consult with the Department of Education.

“We don’t track when people leave our care where they’re going,” she said.

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org