Minn. woman gets probation in genital assault

Published 8:48 am Monday, January 31, 2011

WINONA, Minn. — A Minnesota woman must register as a predatory offender after pleading guilty in a case where she was accused of yanking on a man’s genitals hard enough for him to need stitches.

Fifty-five-year-old Sheila Mae Baker was sentenced Thursday to five years on probation. She entered an Alford plea in November to a charge of third-degree assault. The plea means she admitted no wrongdoing but acknowledged a jury would likely convict her.

A message left at Baker’s home Saturday was not immediately returned.

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Court documents say Baker told officers the man “must have done it to himself.” She previously told the Winona Daily News she hit the man in the genitals in self-defense.

Police responding to the 2009 domestic-disturbance call found the man in a T-shirt and bloody underwear.