Former Eagan Resident, 81, Accused in Criminal Sexual Conduct Case Involving Boy

A former Eagan man is charged with criminal sexual conduct in Dakota County after police say he molested a pre-teen Apple Valley boy while serving as the boy's personal care attendant.

Neil Walter Solberg, 81, who currently lives in Fort Meyers, Fla., is charged with felony second-degree criminal sexual conduct.

According to the criminal complaint, last fall and a Dakota County social worker interviewed a 16-year-old Apple Valley boy who told them he had been sexually abused four or five years prior by a hired care attendant named Neil, allegedly identified later in the investigation as Solberg.

The boy told police he remembered going into his bedroom to "fake wrestle" with Solberg, the complaint says.

He said he remembered Solberg had, more than five times, reached his hand down the back of the boy's pants under his underwear or tried to reach down the front of the boy's pants. The boy asked Solberg to stop, the complaint said.

Solberg allegedly told the boy "that is what you do in wrestling," according to police.

The boy said he eventually told his mother when he began to feel uncomfortable around Solberg. His mother told police she had hired Solberg as a personal care attendant—referred by the family's pastor—for her son, but then stopped employing him when her son told her he didn't like Solberg anymore, according to the complaint.

The boy identified Solberg from driver's license pictures police provided, the complaint says. His mother later told police she had employed Solberg from August 2005 to August 2007.

When police learned Solberg now lives in Florida, a Florida sheriff's detective interviewed him there, according to the complaint.

Solberg said he used to live in Eagan, but allegedly denied working as a personal care attendant; later, the complaint says, he allegedly recalled attending the same church as the boy and his family, and also having cared for another boy.

Solberg allegedly showed the detective a book of photos of children he had worked with, and the detective found a photo of the Apple Valley boy with his name written below it.

Solberg then told the detective he had worked with the boy for two years, the complaint says; he said they would wrestle but that "there was never anything sexual," according to the complaint.

The maximum penalty for the criminal sexual conduct charge is 25 years in prison and a $35,000 fine.