Charges to be dismissed in St. Paul sexual assault case

A sexual assault case against a 50-year-old accused of raping a man in St. Paul he met on a dating app is being dismissed due to a lack of evidence, according to the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office.

The charges against John Henry McCaster allege he sexually assaulted a man at a home in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood on New Year’s Eve 2023 after the two met on the Grindr app. He told police McCaster had insisted that he drink a “blue drink” and after doing so “began to feel drunk,” then passed out and awoke naked, the charges say.

Police had already arrested McCaster about two hours before the man called police on Dec. 31, 2023. He was picked up in Vadnais Heights on suspicion of drug possession (methamphetamine) and possessing a gun (he was prohibited after having been convicted of a crime of violence) and later charged with both offenses. McCaster was found with the man’s driver’s license and debit card and other items at that time. McCaster later told investigators they had consensual sex.

Police carried out a search warrant at the East Side home and found blue liquid in a pitcher, which was sent to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for testing.

On Wednesday, McCaster pleaded guilty to the gun charge. As part of a plea agreement, the sexual assault case will be dismissed at his sentencing “given a lack of evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, including the remaining liquid that the (man) drank testing negative for any controlled substances,” Dennis Gerhardstein, Ramsey County Attorney’s Office spokesman, said in a Friday statement.

The man who reported the assault agreed with the settlement, Gerhardstein said.

McCaster’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

McCaster faces a mandatory five-year prison sentence on the gun charge. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 15.