Man Accused of Breaking into Burnsville Woman's Home

A Minneapolis man has been charged with violating a no-contact order after police say he broke into a Burnsville woman’s home earlier this week and hid in a closet.

Joshua James Durkot, 23, faces a felony charge of violation of a domestic abuse no-contact order, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Durkot remained in the Dakota County Jail Thursday on a $60,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled for Oct. 3 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.

According to the criminal complaint, police were called to the victim’s townhome Monday after a caller reported a suspicious person.

The caller told police that they heard someone walking on the roof of the adjacent townhome, where the victim lives with her daughter. Another neighbor told police that at about 11:30 p.m., she heard a man outside yelling “I love you” and “I’m sorry.”

The  neighbor said she heard a woman speaking to the man, who also said, “Let me in. I’m not 100 percent sober, but I’m not real drunk.”

The neighbor told police that the man would stop talking as though he was falling asleep, and then start yelling again.

About 45 minutes after she first heard the man yelling, the neighbor said, she heard him climbing up the balcony and trying to open the victim’s sliding door. He began yelling again, and the neighbor heard the victim’s garage door open and heard the victim driving away quickly, yelling at the man, who ran after the car.

Police got into the victim’s home and found Durkot hiding in a closet beneath clothing and blankets, the complaint says.

Durkot told police that he had climbed onto the roof and got into the victim’s home through a window.

Durkot is on probation in Hennepin County for violating a no-contact order against the same victim. His criminal record also shows convictions for domestic assault in 2010 and twice in 2011, and convictions for violating a no-contact order twice in 2010 and once in 2011.