A prominent Twin Cities lawyer who was in line to become president of the Minnesota State Bar Association was charged Monday with plying a teenage boy with alcohol at his home and then raping him.
The charges against Aaron F. Biber, of the Gray Plant Mooty law firm, say he arranged in a phone call to meet the boy for more sex, unaware that police were listening.
“Let’s get this party started,” Biber allegedly told the boy.
Police said they arrested Biber, 46, on Friday at the Eden Prairie Mall as he arrived there to meet the boy.
The allegations landed Biber in jail over the weekend and stunned those who knew him as a past president of the Hennepin County Bar Association and a “super lawyer” who was co-chair of the antitrust and trade regulation team at Gray Plant Mooty.
“We are deeply saddened by this completely unexpected news,” read a statement issued Monday by the law firm’s board chair, Tamara Hjelle Olsen. Biber has been placed on leave, she said.
Biber was also treasurer of the Minnesota State Bar Association, a position that in two years would make him president.
“Biber is a recognizable figure to anyone involved with bar activities (and is made all the more recognizable by the fact that he is one of only a handful of local lawyers who favors wearing a bow tie),” read a posting at MinnLawyer blog discussing his arrest.
