Jamestown mayor says sexual assault claim is false

Jan. 31—Jamestown mayor Dwaine Heinrich said a claim of sexual assault being made against him is false.

The North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation is investigating the allegation reported as inappropriate touching, according to Jamestown Chief of Police Scott Edinger.

A call was made to the Jamestown Police Department at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 29, from 115 1st Ave. S, which is the address of the Office Bar, according to the log of calls from the Stutsman County Communications Center.

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. Edinger confirmed that the call was related to the mayor.

Edinger said no one has been arrested and the BCI is investigating the alleged incident because of a conflict of interest.

"It's clearly a conflict of interest when you are investigating your boss," he said. "They are going to be the impartial agency that will come in and do the investigation."

Valley News Live reported Sunday evening 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 Saturday evening.

"I have worked with a number of news organizations and most in my experience do want to at least consider if the stories have any validity," Heinrich said. "Apparently this is not the case with Valley News."

Heinrich said the claim is politically motivated because he is running for reelection.

He read a statement over the phone to The Jamestown Sun on Monday, Jan. 31, in response to the allegation. He said sexual assault is a "very serious matter."

"However, false claims of sexual assault are also very serious," he said. "This is not the first time our community has been a victim of the Fargo cesspool known as Valley News (Live)."

Heinrich said he was at the Office Bar at about 7 or 7:30 p.m. Saturday visiting with a friend. He was there for about 15 minutes when an individual, who is the accuser, approached him and started talking and directing comments toward him.

He said the accuser was dressed in men's clothing and wore a baseball cap. He said he was not sure if the individual was a man or a woman.

"The person started getting more aggressive in tone and was making a number of complaints, comments, including things like 'I should be able to say exactly how many people work at the state prison' where this person said they worked," he said. "There were also comments about taxes and other matters. This went on for some time until I realized that this person was not interested in any type of legitimate conversation, but rather was trying to create a scene."

Heinrich said he told the accuser that the "conversation is over," handed the person a card and said, "Call me when you are sober."

"This person pushed away my attempt to provide my card and phone number and began saying that I had assaulted her," he said. "I still was not sure if this person was a male or a female but regardless there was no assault."

Heinrich said there were quite a few patrons in the Office Bar when he was present Saturday evening.

"I'm sure there were a number who saw the episode," he said. "None except the person I believe was with this person and who I believe was in on this would back up her false claims."

When a criminal justice agency such as the Jamestown Police Department requests the BCI to assist with an investigation, the requesting agency is the lead agency and retains jurisdiction over the investigation, according to the North Dakota Office of Attorney General's website. It says the BCI does not comment on active or ongoing investigations.

Heinrich has been the mayor since 2018.

Read Mayor Dwaine Heinrich's full written response to the allegation

here

.