Twice-convicted rapist freed by bail fund now charged with strangling girlfriend 

The MFF spent $350,000 to bail out a twice-convicted rapist. He allegedly used his freedom to assault more women. 

Christopher Don Boswell/Hennepin County Sheriff

A twice-convicted rapist who has gained notoriety in Minnesota for his long history of violence against women was freed by a left-wing bail fund and promptly resumed his criminal behavior.

Christopher Don Boswell, 38, has been convicted of raping two women — one of whom was a minor at the time of the incident. In 2020, he was arrested again for allegedly kidnapping and beating two more women whom he held at gunpoint in separate incidents. One of the cases has been dismissed and the other is still open. Following his arrest, Boswell’s bail was set at $350,000 and was paid by the Minnesota Freedom Fund (MFF) in August of last year.

Since obtaining freedom, Boswell seems to have fallen back into his usual pattern of violence against women.

He allegedly stole a gun from a woman who uses a walker on March 2. One month later on April 5, he then used what may have been the same gun to threaten a woman he was in a sexual relationship with after choking her and striking her in the face, according to police documents.

The woman who Boswell reportedly stole the gun from told police she invited him to stay the night in her home the same day she met him. The next morning, “she woke up and saw Defendant holding her gun case,” according to the police report. “She tried to stop him by stepping in front of him, but Defendant pushed her down and ran out the door,” the report reads. The woman reportedly “sustained bruises and scratches from the push.”

The next woman Boswell reportedly assaulted in April had been in a relationship with him for about two months prior to the incident. Boswell arrived at her apartment complex around 11 p.m. and became angry that it took her too long to answer the door. He then proceeded to push her against a wall in the stairwell “and squeezed her throat” with “both of his hands,” per a criminal complaint.

A neighbor who entered the hallway after hearing this commotion later told police the victim was struggling to breathe under Boswell’s grasp.

Once inside the victim’s apartment, Boswell reportedly hit the victim and said he’d “shoot her in the back of the head” should she try to escape, according to the complaint.

He was also charged July 30 for failing to register as a predatory offender. He was arrested Tuesday and is currently in custody.

Presently, Boswell stands accused of these crimes plus more.

Boswell is not the only person freed by the MFF who may pose a danger to the community. The fund, which was once promoted by then-candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, has also sprung an accused pedophile and a slew of serial domestic abusers from prison.

The MFF has had such a substantial impact on law enforcement in the Twin Cities that Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman warned that the fund’s practices raise “significant concerns for public safety.” This statement came after the MFF freed a man charged with bringing a gun into the county courthouse during a protest while a stash of weapons, fighting equipment and narcotics rested in his car outside.

Update: A spokesperson for MFF claimed that the bail money it paid was returned in October 2020 after the charges stemming from Boswell’s January 2020 kidnapping and sexual assault case were dropped.

While he was in jail for the January 2020 case, Boswell was charged in a kidnapping and assault case from May 2018. That case remains open and MFF’s bail covered both cases, according to court documents.

The details of the cases are complicated. Boswell was in jail in August 2020 for two cases, one from January 2020 and one from May 2018. He was arrested in January 2020. For unexplained reasons, he wasn’t charged in the May 2018 case until he was already in custody in 2020.

He was in jail until August and was released on bail posted by MFF. The amount posted by MFF was $350,000. Conditional release was set at $250,000 in the 2020 case and $0 in the 2018 case, yet MFF posted bail for $350,000. The bail document signed by MFF lists both the 2018 and the 2020 cases, and the conditional release order lists both cases.

In October 2020, the January 2020 case was dropped. MFF apparently got its money back. The court didn’t take Boswell back into custody for the 2018 charges but just amended the conditional release order making him provide new bail, which he did through a private bail bond company. So when he committed new crimes in March and April, he technically wasn’t out on bail provided by MFF, the spokesperson claimed.

 

Kyle Hooten

Kyle Hooten is Managing Editor of Alpha News. His coverage of Minneapolis has been featured on television shows like Tucker Carlson Tonight and in print media outlets like the Wall Street Journal.