When police kicked open the door to a Woodbury motel room on Saturday morning, they found a bruised, malnourished and terrified young woman, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in Washington County district court.
Police arrested the man who tried to flee the room, Mark Steven Wallace, 54, of Andover, and he was charged with kidnapping and stalking.
The complaint said Wallace used threats and physical abuse to control the victim, a 20-year-old woman identified as A.S., who began living with Wallace because she did not have a permanent home.
Police found Wallace and A.S. at the Key Inn Motel, 1806 Wooddale Dr., after checking the license plate number of a vehicle in the motel parking lot. The plate number triggered an alert to check on the safety and welfare of A.S., who had a domestic abuse no-contact order against Wallace.
Police learned an Anoka County sheriff’s deputy had recently stopped the same vehicle with Wallace and A.S. inside but that Wallace avoided arrest by running from the scene.
Police knocked on the motel room registered to A.S., the complaint said. At first there was no response, but then a woman’s voice said she was getting out of the shower and needed to get dressed.
When the woman still didn’t open the door, police opened it with a key provided by motel management, but the door opened only a few inches because the swing lock was in place, the complaint said.
A police officer could see the bed mattress moving up and down, and told the woman he knew Wallace was hiding under the bed and that she needed to unlock the door, the complaint said.
“A.S. did not respond but looked frozen in fear,” the complaint said.
After police kicked the door open, they saw Wallace running, but they drew their firearms and successfully ordered him to the ground, the complaint said.
A.S. appeared very frightened of Wallace, agreeing to allow officers to search the room only after being assured Wallace was in the back of a squad car, the complaint said.
When asked why she was with Wallace despite the no-contact order, “A.S. became very upset and started crying. A.S. said she had no choice but to be with Wallace and that the police did not understand,” the complaint said.
The woman told police she had known Wallace for two years and that he is the father of a high school friend. She said she stayed with him when she did not have a permanent home in exchange for doing some work around the house, the complaint said.
But Wallace became verbally and physically abusive, controlling her phone and money and forcing her to smoke methamphetamine with him, the complaint said. A.S. said Wallace threatened her with a shotgun, and she believed he would kill her at some point.
Wallace was also charged with possession of methamphetamine, which was found in the motel room, according to the complaint. He was ordered held in jail in lieu of $750,000 bail.