Misty McKinley met an 84-year-old St. Paul man with signs of dementia at a gas station when she walked up to him and asked him for a ride.
Then she started stalking him, showing up uninvited at his house at all hours of the night and intimidating him into giving her additional rides or other favors, authorities say.
Eventually, the man told police he started to feel “like a prisoner in his own home.”
That’s the account included in a criminal complaint filed this week in Ramsey County District Court charging McKinley with one count of stalking and eight counts of violating a restraining order that the 84-year-old eventually filed against McKinley, court records say.
The elderly man lives alone in a house north of the capitol but his family told police he has started to show signs of dementia in his old age and requires regular assistance from family, the complaint said.
Sometime after meeting McKinley at a gas station in 2016, the 39-year-old woman started showing up at his residence and harassing him for rides or money, legal documents say. She would make him drive her to fast food restaurants and gas stations, where she told him to buy cigarettes, groceries or other items for her and her boyfriend, according to the complaint.
The man filed a harassment restraining order and his family installed a security system to better protect him, court documents say. He and his family also repeatedly told McKinley to stay away.
Despite those efforts, sometimes McKinley would show up at his house and “pound on his door ‘all night long and (not) give up,’” the complaint said.
She was found guilty of violating the restraining order twice in January and is now charged with eight additional violations.
McKinley’s criminal record includes convictions for misdemeanor-level theft and check forgery.
She appears to be representing herself in her case and could not be immediately reached for comment.
Her next court date is Jan. 9.