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Inmate gets 131 more months in prison

NEW ULM — A 25-year-old Minnesota Correctional Facility inmate received a sentence of 131 months at the St. Cloud Correctional Facility in Brown County District Court Friday.

James M. Malheim was convicted of felony third-degree criminal sexual conduct against a victim who was mentally impaired/helpless. An incest charge was dismissed. He was credited with 503 days served. Conditional release after confinement is for duration of life. The sentence runs concurrent with a sentence Malheim is currently serving. He was fined $85.

According to court documents, New Ulm Police received a Minnesota Adult Abuse Reporting Center (MAARC) report regarding a vulnerable adult on Feb. 23, 2016. Police learned the victim received services in a group residential housing and had a number of disabilities including impaired reasoning or judgement and emotional impairment, with a diagnosis of intellectual disability, depression and anxiety. The victim’s needs included safety due to the inability to protect herself from abuse, neglect or financial exploitation.

The MAARC report documented a conversation the victim had with one of the group home employees. The victim initially asked the employee if it as weird that a friend of her’s slept with her half-brother, Malheim. The victim later admitted the “friend” was in fact her.

The report indicated the victim stayed overnight with Malheim on weekends and that his parole stipulated to not have contact with vulnerable persons. The victim said she and Malheim communicated on Facebook until he went to prison. She said she was not aware why he went to prison but that they first met at his motel room at the Colonial Inn in New Ulm in the fall of 2015.

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