Jamestown mayor blasts VNL over coverage of allegation – Jamestown Sun

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JAMESTOWN – Mayor Dwaine Heinrich said Monday, Feb. 7, the people behind the false accusations of sexual assault against him must be held accountable so others who are in the same position as himself are not targeted by similar actions in the future.

Heinrich said in a statement in the mayor’s report at the City Council meeting that he was “verbally accosted” and the incident was “staged” by an individual for retaliation or reprisal for an earlier action taken by the council. He did not say what action the City Council took that was being retaliated against.

“Reprisal of this guy against an elected official is, I understand, a crime in North Dakota,” he said. “I am asking the state crime bureau to investigate and hold the persons responsible accountable to the full extent of the law.”

He said the actions of the accuser, her accomplishment, any other accomplishments and the “gross malfeasance” of Valley News Live must be fully investigated.

The North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation is investigating the allegation reported as inappropriate touching. A call was made to the Jamestown Police Department on the evening of Jan. 29 from the Office Bar.

The call log said, “reports there is a male that touched her in appropriately.” The call was classified as “disorderly conduct” for the type of activity on the call log.

Valley News live reported Jan. 30 that it received a tip on its whistleblower hotline of a woman claiming to have been sexually assaulted by Heinrich at a local bar in Jamestown on Jan. 29. Valley News Live reported that the accuser said Heinrich “shoved” her in the chest twice while trying to give her his business card, and when she wouldn’t take it, she said he tried to put the card in her front coat pocket and touched her breast.

“Valley News Live in their sleazy broadcast ran a reenactment video showing someone sliding their open hand into a front pocket as in an attempt to feel someone’s breast with the palm of their hand,” he said. “This is a completely false portrayal of what happened.”

Heinrich said he was going to slide the card into an open pocket near the top of the jacket while he was holding the folded card between his thumb and fingers on his right hand and the accuser pushed his hand back.

“How much, if any contact, I had with this person I cannot say as this did happen rather quickly,” he said. “At this point, the person started saying I have assaulted her and that I touched her breast and saying, ‘Did you see that?’ This was the first time I had any awareness that this person claimed to be a female. At that time I got up, moved to the other side of my friend and had no further conversation or contact with this person.”

Heinrich said the accuser was dressed in men’s clothing, wore a baseball cap and either a hunting or work jacket and had a “husky” tone and “aggressive in-your-face talk” and he assumed the person was intoxicated.

Shortly after the alleged incident, he said someone informed him about the other individual who the accuser was with. He did not name the individual who was with the accuser.

“I immediately realized that I was not accosted because of the person being drunk, but rather that I had just been targeted,” Heinrich said.

He said the accuser called Valley News Live’s whistleblower hotline immediately after calling the Jamestown Police Department.

“The seasoned crime investigators at Valley News Live after thoughtful consideration, excluding, of course, any common sense, intellectual reasoning or wisdom discovered for the first time in the annuls of crime-fighting history a crime where a legitimate crime victim’s first action after calling the police was to call a whistleblower hotline,” he said. “This groundbreaking advancement in crime solving has earned Valley News Live the coveted Barney Fife special achievement award. Who immediately calls a whistleblower hotline? Someone who was just the victim of a crime or someone who just targeted someone for retaliation or reprisal? Again, Valley News Live, you are truly a remarkable, special kind of stupid.”

Valley News Live reported that the accuser said Heinrich was soliciting signatures for a petition and that she doesn’t keep track of the City Council’s actions and has no reason to “have it out” against the mayor.

Heinrich said the allegation that he was at the Office Bar gathering signatures from anyone but his friend he went to visit is not true.

“ … I challenge anyone to produce a name,” he said, referring to people he asked to sign a petition.

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