‘Infuriated’ boyfriend waterboarded, raped girlfriend for days in dorm room, MN cops say

A man pleaded guilty to a days-long assault of his girlfriend in a Minnesota dorm room, where authorities said she was held against her will for days.

The three-day series of attacks in the St. Catherine University dorm room left the girlfriend fearing for her life and unable to call for help, according to a statement of probable cause.

Now, 20-year-old Keanu Labatte accepted a plea deal to an amended charge of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, court records show. He will be sentenced in November.

He had been dating his girlfriend for two months when he went to visit her for a weekend in September 2023. As he was with her in the St. Catherine dorm, he found text messages and pictures that “infuriated him,” authorities said.

The St. Paul Police Department said Labatte took away his girlfriend’s phone for three days before he sexually and physically assaulted her.

Labatte put two hands around his girlfriend’s neck and strangled her, leaving her “unable to breathe” and seeing stars, according to the statement of probable cause. He is also accused of threatening to harm her family.

The “worst of it,” she told police, came Sept. 9 when she said she was waterboarded, according to the court documents.

“She detailed the waterboading, saying that Labatte filled a bucket, forced her to lay in the bathtub, put a washcloth over her face and poured water over her,” police said.

The girlfriend left the dorm room the next day under the guise of going to the cafeteria to get food, court documents show. Instead, she spoke with police and went to a hospital for a sexual assault examination.

During the assault, she said she was punched at least seven times, including four times in her stomach, police said. She said the sexual assaults made her feel “numb,” according to the court documents.

A nurse examiner observed bruising and bite marks across the woman’s body, indicating she had been abused, police said.

Arrested in the dorm room, Labatte told officers, “I plead the 5th,” the statement of probable cause shows.

He was originally charged with three counts of criminal sexual conduct and one count each of domestic assault by strangulation and threats of violence, according to the court records.

Under the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop four of the charges, the Pioneer Press reported. He could spend more than seven years in prison.

Thomas Beito, Labatte’s attorney, told the Pioneer Press his client did choke the woman.

“He did not admit to the other kind of salacious details that were involved here, such as waterboarding, or holding her hostage or kidnapping,” Beito said. “We deny that any of that happened.”

Asked by Minnesota Public Radio why the alleged abuse went undetected for days, a St. Catherine University spokesperson said, “While Public Safety and Residence Life staff are constantly on the lookout for any signs of trouble, they do not pause and listen at dorm room doors.”

This story was originally published July 15, 2024 at 10:27 AM with the headline "‘Infuriated’ boyfriend waterboarded, raped girlfriend for days in dorm room, MN cops say."