BEMIDJI, Minn. - The man accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a child in Bemidji has been ruled competent by a doctor to stand trial.
In early November Jacob Kinn was committed to the Minnesota State Security Hospital to determine his competency after his attorneys told a judge that Kinn was either refusing or unable to speak with them, was urinating in his pants, and would not walk on his own.
Court documents reveal that on December 20, the doctor who evaluated Kinn filed a report stating "It is my opinion that Mr. Kinn is able to understand the legal proceedings against him, and possesses the ability to consult with counsel and participate in his defense.
Kinn's defense team is challenging the ruling in a hearing scheduled for January 25. In turn, because the defense is challenging the competency ruling, Beltrami County Attorney Annie P. Clesson-Huseby filed a motion asking the judge to grant them access to all of Kinn's medical, jail, probation and psychological records, some of which had been excluded due to privacy statutes.
The defendant had previously been convicted in a child pornography case, and prosecutors feel that examinations and interviews in that case could help them build a stronger case in the current proceedings. "When a party in a criminal case places his competency at issue, he waives his medical privilege," the motion reads.
Kinn is accused of kidnapping the 5-year-old girl in late June from a Bemidji mobile home that burned to the ground with a woman inside. Police say he then took the child some 80 miles away to a camper in a remote location and sexually assaulted her.
While authorities said at the time they anticipated charging Kinn with murder in the mobile home death, they have not yet done so.
