Alex Heineman

In May 2017, 16-year-old Alex Heineman was accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl after both attended an event at the local YMCA. Heineman denied that he assaulted the girl and she refused an exam. The Hudson Police Department charged Heineman with second-degree sexual assault and Heineman pled guilty to third-degree sexual assault on the advice of his public defender. As Heineman was a juvenile at the time, he was required to stay at Eau Claire Academy. Due to incidents there involving an attempted suicide and a fight, Heineman was transferred to the controversial Lincoln Hills School, a juvenile prison. Within a month of entering Lincoln Hills, he was transferred to the Mendota Mental Health Institute after multiple suicide attempts and later ended up in the Eau Claire County Jail. Heineman was later charged with escaping from the Jail due to not returning from work release and instead was found in Virginia, Minnesota. In July, a mentor to the 15-year-old girl (now 17) reported to the Hudson Police Department that the girl confessed to her that she had lied to police about being assaulted after Heineman was charged. The following month, Heineman’s sexual assault conviction was vacated and Heineman was removed from the sex offender registry. In February 2020, WQOW took down a story on Heineman after he threatened to sue the news corporation. WQOW had published an article on their website calling him a sex offender without updating it upon his removal from the registry. The story was removed. In April 2020, it was reported that Heineman was still convicted of violating the sex offender registry due to fleeing to Virginia, Minnesota. The Assistant District Attorney in charge of the case stated that they felt the conviction was valid and appropriate due to Heineman not returning to the jail and failure to update the registry while convicted of third-degree sexual assault.