Rosemount Woman Charged with Kicking Officer After DWI Arrest

A Rosemount woman has been charged with threatening and kicking a police officer after she was arrested for drunken driving on her birthday.

Brenda Lynn Heinen, 41, is charged with fourth-degree assault of a peace officer, a felony with a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $6,000 fine.

She is also charged with two gross misdemeanor counts of second-degree DWI, each of which has a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $3,000 fine.

A driver in the area of County Road 42 and Highway 3 reported to police at about 10 p.m. Dec. 16 – Heinen’s 41st birthday – that there was a driver in the area who was “all over the road,” according to the criminal complaint.

As an officer approached the area, he spotted a minivan westbound on County Road 42, weaving back and forth in its lane, driving onto the curb and then back down.

The driver, later identified as Heinen, turned on the minivan’s blinker, but didn’t change lanes, instead driving down the center of the lane, according to the complaint. At one point, Heinen’s minivan blocked traffic in the middle of an intersection while she attempted to turn.

The officer stopped Heinen’s minivan and walked up to the driver’s window. Heinen stared at the officer through the window, but didn’t roll down her window or open the door.

The officer noted that Heinen had glassy, bloodshot eyes. She eventually began to “fiddle” with the minivan’s switches in an attempt to roll down the window, continually locking and unlocking the door.

When she got the window rolled down, the officer smelled a strong odor of alcohol coming from inside the minivan.

He asked Heinen if she knew why he had pulled her over. She hesitated, then replied, “I’m intoxicated,” according to the complaint.

She initially refused to get out of the minivan, but when she did, she stumbled and fell into the officer, the complaint says. She failed one sobriety test and refused to complete any others.

Officers arrested Heinen and searched her, and she became combative, threatening that she would “kick your [expletive],” the complaint charges. While they were putting her in the squad car, she kicked one in the leg and attempted to kick the other one, according to the complaint.

Heinen refused to get out of the squad car when they reached the police station, and other officers had to help remove her. She continued to refuse to complete any sobriety tests.

When officers tried to take off Heinen’s handcuffs, she became “aggressive and belligerent” again, and it took several deputies to get her to walk to the jail, according to the complaint.

Heinen’s criminal history includes DWI convictions in 2006 and 2009.

Heinen remains in the Dakota County Jail on a $20,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in her case is scheduled Jan. 8 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.