In other court news, U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Piersol dismissed on Thursday a civil rights complaint from Joel Koskan, who was convicted of incest against his adopted American Indian daughter in 2023.
In January 2024, just nine months into his ten-year felony sentence, Koskan sued the Department of Corrections for categorizing him as a sex offender. Representing himself, Koskan complained that sex offender status unfairly denied him of the opportunity for work release to support his wife and children. He further argued that since the incest of which he was convicted was a mutually consenting adult relationship—plain old regular incest and not aggravated incest, which involves a minor—he’s not really a sex offender and should not be listed on the sex offender registry.
Koskan included all South Dakota legislators in his complaint, alleging they have passed unconstitutional laws that are denying him his civil rights. The incest law that landed Republican activist Koskan in prison was written in 2005; the list of sex crimes qualifying for the sex offender registry has included incest by an adult since 1994. Koskan’s complaint appears to target the legislators whose ranks he sought to join as a Senate candidate in 2022, not the legislators who actually passed the laws that Koskan alleges oppress him (or the governors who signed those instruments of oppression) in Sessions two and three decades ago. (Funny: I don’t recall candidate Koskan promising to repeal unjust sex offender laws in 2022.)
Judge Piersol dismissed Koskan’s complaint about sex offender classification mostly on bad lawyering. “[B]ecause Koskan has not included sufficient information for this Court to know what he actually pleased to in his criminal case or any conditions imposed in the plea agreement, Koskan has not provided sufficient information to state a claim upon which relief may be granted,” wrote Judge Piersol in Thursday’s order. On work release, Judge Piersol said the state has a legitimate interest in excluding sex offenders from work release to prevent sex crimes and that Koskan failed to show that prisoners have a right to (or “liberty interest” in) work release upon which Koskan may base a Fourteenth Amendment due process claim.
Koskan may nonetheless now be free to seek private employment. Judge Piersol’s ruling footnotes that, prior to Thursday’s ruling, Koskan filed a change of address with the court showing a private address rather than a prison cell. “It appears,” writes Judge Piersol, “that Koskan may have been released on parole.” Indeed, South Dakota’s Adult Corrections Offender Locator lists Koskan’s correctional status as “Active Parole” and lists an initial parole date of 5/27/2025. The state’s Sex Offender Registry lists Koskan’s residence as 3005 S Carolyn Ave #305, which would be a room at the Sioux Falls My Place Hotel. The registry says Koskan registered with the Sioux Falls Police Department and says the record was updated June 20, 2025. However, June 20 is also the date Koskan noticed a change of address to the U.S. District Court, the filing to which Judge Piersol appears to refer in Thursday’s ruling. In that notice, Koskan gives his address as 26119 287th Ave, Wood, SD 57585.
If Koskan is indeed out and about, the sex offender law he unsuccessfully challenged gives him three business days to notify the local chief of police or sheriff that he now resides, temporarily domiciles, attends school, attends postsecondary education classes, or works in the neighborhood. If Koskan started calling Wood home again six business days ago but hasn’t notified Mellette County Sheriff Lafe Gildemaster, Koskan would be guilty of a Class 6 felony, which would complicate Koskan’s parole status.