Sex offender treatment was the order of the day for Lee Sorenson, a 54-year-old Twin Cities man with property in Cook County who pled guilty to peeping into the windows of a Cook County family a year ago. Under a plea agreement, Sorenson’s conviction was reduced from a gross misdemeanor to a misdemeanor.
In court on July 7, 2010, Cook County probation officer Steve Borud talked with Judge Kenneth Sandvik about the psychosexual assessment Sorenson agreed to in negotiating a plea. “It seems like he is quite willing to address those issues,” Borud said, adding that Sorenson has been honest about his behavior with his neighbors and his pastor.
Sorenson’s attorney, Christopher Stocke, said his client, a CPA with a master’s degree in business administration, has been married for 29 years and employed by US Bank for 17 years. “He wants to get help for his problem,” Stocke said. “He wants to get treatment.” While he did not disagree regarding the seriousness of Sorenson’s offense, Stocke requested that Sorenson be allowed to go through intensive outpatient treatment instead of residential treatment at a correctional facility. Residential treatment is not usually done with invasion of privacy offenses, Stocke argued. “He’s not avoiding accountability in any way whatsoever,” he said, but he would probably lose his job if he had to complete residential treatment. He suggested that if Sorenson failed outpatient treatment, he could then be placed in a correctional facility to complete residential treatment there.
The judge was open to allowing an outpatient program if an effective one were available in the Twin Cities.
County Attorney Tim Scannell pointed out that the psychosexual assessment recommended residential treatment, although he recognized that this was a misdemeanor conviction and was open to Probation exploring treatment options. “I’m in the habit of taking these professional recommendations pretty seriously,” Scannell said. He suggested that Sorenson be put on an electronic monitor and be allowed to get out to go to work. He was clear about the danger of Sorenson being out in the community. “In these cases, when the inpatient treatment doesn’t work, there’s a victim,” he said.
The judge ordered Sorenson to complete sex offender treatment but gave Probation the discretion to choose a treatment option that would address both the serious need for intensive treatment and the misdemeanor level of the charge.
“I do apologize to the [victim] family and the court for my actions on June 7, 2009,” Sorenson told the court. “I accept the consequences of my behavior.”
Another case against Sorenson is currently pending in Dakota County, Stocke said, but he has not been convicted yet.
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