Sex assault case settled for $10m – sort of

HERMANTOWN, Minn. (AP) — A court settlement requires a man convicted of sexually assaulting an elderly woman at a northern Minnesota senior home to pay $10 million if he commits another sexual crime or abuses a vulnerable adult in the next ten years.

Andrew Merzwski was sentenced in January to more than four years in prison after pleading guilty to assaulting the 89-year-old woman at Edgewood Vista in Hermantown last year. The 30-year-old man was a nursing assistant at Edgewood and gave the woman some medication that impaired her mind.

The Star Tribune

says the $10 million settles a civil lawsuit filed in the case. If Merzwski does not commit another similar crime, he will not be required to pay the damages.