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.
Welcome back from the world of excellent novel writing to the more mundane blog world Cory! This post about Koskan raises some interesting questions. I will skip over the factual issues and his own claims about his behavior and look to the more generic issue that he apparently neglected to raise:
Does the US Constitution prohibit State lawmakers from enacting laws outlawing incest between consenting adults, under the legal principles relied upon by the SCOTUS decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which found state anti-sodomy laws to be unconstitutional?
It seems such a purely legal argument might have had a better chance of achieving Koskan’s objectives than the arguments he reportedly has raised. Indeed, from my potentially incorrect recollection, Koskan’s claim that the prosecuted activities were in any way consensual seems a stretch at best. But if his conduct can actually be classified as consensual due to the State’s acquiescence in the plea agreement then, one really would think the Lawrence rationale might just be relevant, especially after its use in Obergefell. Thoughts?
Thank you, bearcreekbat, for the kind welcome back. It’s good to hear your voice again.
Consensuality is problematic in this context. Might the unique parent-child power dynamic be too strong, too lasting, too immutable, to permit us ever to deem parent-child sexual contact fully consensual?
An interesting idea Cory. Another facet of incest laws is that they are not designed to protect vulnerable relatives./ Instead, just as in sodomy cases, both participates in a incestuous consensual sexual relationship are technically guilty of the crime.
If it is determined that such an encounter is never fully consensual, however, then incest laws become superfluous as charges of rape and child abuse (or even elder abuse, depending on who is deemed in control) can be used to punish the offender and protect the public.
Vitame Vas Cory!
I could barely believe it when I read that Joel KOSKAN had been parole early from his 10 year sentence for sexually abusing his adopted Native American daughter. He was not supposed to be up for parole review until August 2025, but somehow someway someone in South Dakota decided to give him an early release from parole as of May 27, 2025. I could not believe that South Dakota people would agree to this. I then check to see who is on the parole board and it was interesting. Suffice it to say they appear to be all Republicans and given that Joel KOSKAN was a republican candidate for legislature in 2022 before he was arrested and the South Dakota Republican Party gave him $10,000 donation for his campaign ostensibly when that was exactly what he needed for bail, well, it was not surprising. But then I started looking at the individual members of the parole board, and I saw that the person who stands as the head of the board is also the head of the South Dakota trucking association, an organization that Joel KOSKAN also belongs to and pays dues to. So the leader of his professional organization was the leader on the parole board and I’m sure there was no insider deal made or anything. Right? I was one of the persons that was harassed by Joel KOSKAN repeatedly as he tried to impersonate Senator Troy Heinert in an effort to dissuade me from calling for his conviction for molesting his adopted Native American daughter for probably 10 years. I was not informed that he was released. I am very concerned about that. I’m also concerned that he’s an over the road truck driver who’s a sex offender and for all we know he’s going driving from state to state to state as we speak. But I guess because he’s a republican from a well off family in South Dakota and a good buddy of Kristi Noem, well, he just gets a little slap on the rest and he gets to go on with his life. I wonder how his adopted daughter feels about this. We are living in surreal times.
I should be shocked that he is out already, but since we are in South Dakota, I am more shocked he got any time at all.
Glad you are back, Cory!
This is a total disrespect of the victim. This man is perverted and so are the values of the Republican party. No surprise.
I just checked with a reliable source in South Dakota who said KOSKAN is not paroled YET, but since the documentation indicates he’s on active parole that tells me they’ve already made up their mind and the court date in August is just a formality. This thing has already been decided. They are going to let this man go after continually molesting and raping and sexually abusing this adopted Native American young girl over about a 10 year period. South Dakota also prettied it up by calling it incest, which would imply it was consensual on the part of this minor child and that is just outrageous and a slap in the face to every girl and woman and person of conscience out there. This was out right child sexual abuse, and rape of a minor for years! And her adoptive mother, Sally KOSKAN told her to lock her door when the girl told her that JK kept coming to her room and that he’d put cameras in her room and she told this adopted child to be respectful! Why was this woman not charged as an accessory? They have other minor children at home. Some of them adopted I understand. Who is looking out for these kids who looked out for the victim who already had to testify in court? How is South Dakota looking out for its Native American children who are taken into foster care and adoptive homes and treated like this? I’m a sixth generation South Dakota and I’m on the verge of moving back to get involved in political action there. I will be there over the next two weeks. I am not gonna let this thing rest. I will go to the parole hearing if I possibly can. I hope others will, too.
In the world of abuse there is no such thing as consensual sex with a minor. It is rape plain and simple. This disgusting individual groomed and raped his daughter, who was then punished by him and his wife for reporting his behavior.
Thank you Dr. Michelle Kalehzan for always advocating for victims
The plot thickens. Now I’ve been told he is out, but he’s at mandatory sex offender training and has an address in T South Dakota. This is all very under the table and underhanded and not open government compliant whatsoever. If you go to South Dakota war college you’ll be shocked to see a copy of a Facebook message from the offender’s mother blaming the victim. What in the hell is wrong with these people who called themselves servant of God ?!