NDSU student charged with molesting 7-year-old boy

The Associated Press

Charged: Joseph Duncan. Submitted Photo

     An NDSU student and one of this city’s first high-risk sex offenders has been charged in Becker County, Minn., with molesting a 7-year-old boy near a middle school.

      Joseph Edward Duncan III, 42, was charged with second-degree criminal sexual conduct and attempted criminal sexual conduct. The criminal complaint accuses Duncan of approaching a 7-year-old boy and his 9-year-old friend with a video camera on July 3 at a middle school playground.

      The complaint said Duncan pulled down the shorts of the younger boy and touched him. He tried the same thing with the other boy but wasn’t successful, the complaint says.

      The younger boy described the man and his car to police, who matched the descriptions to Duncan and his car through a sex offender database. The boy identified Duncan in a photo lineup.

      Duncan’s criminal past includes the 1980 rape of a 14-year-old boy in Washington.

      He served 14 years in prison for the crime before moving in 2000 to Fargo.

      Since then, Duncan has lived at the same location without any violations of his lifetime sex offender registration requirements, said Lt. Tod Dahle.

      “We’ve never had any trouble with him at all,” Dahle said. “He got a couple of speeding tickets, but that’s about it.”

      On Thursday, Duncan visited the Fargo Police to register a new address for a second job he recently got in West Fargo, Dahle said.

      Fargo police knew of the Becker County investigation but didn’t know until Friday of the charges, Dahle said.

      Duncan has been enrolled at NDSU since fall 2000. He is now a senior majoring in computer science, said school spokesman David Wahlberg.

      The university knew about the Becker County charges, but student privacy laws restrict school officials from discussing what actions, if any, they might take against Duncan, Wahlberg said.

      Duncan made the dean’s list in fall 2000 and spring 2001. He’s a member of Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, an academic excellence fraternity, Wahlberg said.

      More than 300 people attended a community notification meeting for Duncan after his move to Fargo. At the time, he was one of two Level Three offenders with addresses registered in Fargo.

      Level Three offenders are those considered the most at risk of re-offending. The police currently list six such offenders living in Fargo on its Web site.