A high-risk sex offender who moved to Albert Lea last spring recently pleaded not guilty to charges of burglary and assault after being charged with breaking into a Hayfield home and threatening a man.

According to court records filed in Dodge County District Court, Jabar Pedro Morarend, 38, faces charges of first-degree burglary, interference with a 911 call, domestic assault and two counts of fifth-degree assault tied to an incident on March 20.

He pleaded not guilty to all charges March 31.

Court documents state Morarend allegedly went to his ex-girlfriend’s home on March 20, where she, her boyfriend and her son were upstairs sleeping.

She told authorities she was awakened by a person banging on the front door and yelling.

Morarend allegedly broke down the door, demanding to know where the boyfriend was, and then threatened to kill him.

Reports state Morarend reportedly went up the stairs, pushing the former girlfriend out of the way and up against a wall. The woman tried to prevent Morarend from getting to her boyfriend and instructed her son to get her phone and call 911.

Morarend allegedly punched the other man across the left cheek and then took the phone from the boy and pushed him into a wooden pillar at the bottom of the stairs before leaving the house, court documents state.

He later turned himself into Freeborn County sheriff’s deputies.

Court files state Morarend posted a non-cash bond on the case and was thus released from jail. His next court hearing has not yet been scheduled.

He resides on the 1600 block of Frank Hall Drive in Albert Lea.

This is not the first burglary case Morarend has been involved in; likewise, he has also been charged with car break-ins and criminal damage to property, according to court files.

His most serious criminal conviction came in 1998, when he was convicted of first-degree criminal sexual contact out of Rice County after he raped an adult woman, who was his neighbor. He did so using force, threats and a knife to gain compliance and entered her home without her permission.

He was sentenced to 110 months in prison for this offense.

Though he was originally released from prison on supervised release in December of 2004, his release was revoked in 2007 after he was arrested for driving while intoxicated.

After serving out the rest of that time, he was released from prison in March 2009, after which he moved to Albert Lea, where he lives with family.

He was required to be on supervised release through Dec. 29, 2009, which included submitting weekly approved schedules of where he would be throughout the day. He was also on a Global Positioning System.

He is no longer under that supervision but is required to register as a predatory offender until March 15, 2019.