Charges: Therapist at boys' facility had relationship with teen, helped him escape

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) - A 29-year-old therapist at a treatment facility for troubled boys helped a 17-year-old she had a romantic relationship with escape, according to charges filed Friday in Ramsey County District Court.

According to charges:

Independent mental health therapist Karen A. Meyer worked at Boys Totem Town and allegedly met with the teen several times a day and showed him preferential treatment. She saw other boys in the facility two or three times each month. Charges allege the two made out on a couch in her office, sometimes while another teen watched. Authorities said Meyer helped him and a second juvenile plan their Feb. 11 escape and gave him $100 and transportation.

Police quickly caught the other teen, who was wearing a GPS bracelet. The 17-year-old wasn’t found. Authorities learned of Meyer’s involvement on Feb. 15, and she has been charged with one count of aiding an offender.

Meyer also apparently called a friend who is a Ramsey County probation officer who once worked at the facility and said the teen had been at her home. She told the friend the 17-year-old had gone home on a pass and confessed to using marijuana and was worried he would get in trouble, so he planned to flee Boys of Totem Town. The probation officer told Meyer to report the phone call, but she did not.

The 17-year-old apparently told a third juvenile “when he turns 18 he and the defendant are going to get married," the complaint says.