Sex Offender Gets $84k in Minnesota Residency Ordinance Suit

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) _ A registered sex offender who sued an eastern Minnesota city over its restrictions on where he could live will receive $84,000 as part of a settlement agreement.

A federal judge's order dismissed Thomas Wayne Evenstad's lawsuit against West St. Paul on Monday.

Evenstad filed the lawsuit in August after authorities told him he couldn't live in a West St. Paul home because of his first-degree criminal sexual conduct conviction.

The 52-year-old argued the city's ordinance restricting residency for sex offenders was too broad and unconstitutional because it imposed retroactive punishment that banned him from most of the city.

Evenstad was convicted in 1999 of raping an 18-year-old woman. He was labeled a Level 1 sex offender, meaning he's least likely to re-offend. He was released from prison in 2008.