by April Scheinoha
Reporter
Guilty pleas were entered Friday, Sept. 1 in the case of Eric James Reinbold, a former Pennington County Jail inmate who assaulted two corrections officers and attempted to escape from custody in June 2022. At the time of the assaults, Reinbold was in custody while awaiting the resolution of a murder case for which he was ultimately convicted.
Reinbold, 47, formerly of Oklee, pled guilty to an amended felony charge of second degree assault (dangerous weapon – not a firearm) and a felony charge of fourth degree assault. Initially, Reinbold had been charged with felony first degree assault, but that charge was amended to the second degree charge. It is expected that a felony charge of attempted escape from custody will be dismissed at sentencing. Sentencing has been set for Friday, Sept. 15. Reinbold remains incarcerated in Rush City.
It is expected that Reinbold will be sentenced to the 36-month mandatory sentence for the second degree charge. It is unclear what sentence may be ordered for the fourth degree charge.
On Sept. 1, attorneys made their arguments to Judge Tamara Yon about whether the 36-month sentence should be served consecutively to or concurrently with Reinbold’s 480-month prison sentence for the murder of his wife, Lissette, in 2021. Prior to being arrested in that case, Reinbold was on the lam for 26 days until he was arrested on a vacant farmstead in rural Oklee.
Complaint
The latest charges stemmed from the assaults of two Pennington County corrections officers June 4, 2022. During the murder trial three months later, the two corrections officers testified about the assaults. Two videos showing different angles of the assaults and attempted escape were also played. Neither video contained sound.
On that day, then-corrections officer Katy Rolland was disbursing medications to inmates at about 9:23 p.m. On the video, Reinbold could be seen exiting his cell pod to obtain over-the-counter medication from Rolland. With no verbal warning and armed with a white colored pencil, he approached and grabbed for Rolland, who was looking down at a medication scanner. Rolland backed up, falling in an attempt to get away from him. He then grabbed her by the hair and dragged her. At some point during the incident, Rolland’s glasses fell off of her.
Rolland’s coworker Alex Yorba could be seen placing his body between the two of them.
Reinbold placed the colored pencil to different areas on Yorba’s neck. He testified that he thought Reinbold was possibly going to kill him. While threatening Yorba with the pencil, he told Yorba to open the door. Since Yorba wasn’t complying, Reinbold ripped Yorba’s badge off of his chest in an attempt to use it to open a door.
Another corrections officer, Briana Vosen, intervened. Yorba testified that Vosen deployed a Taser three times. The first time, the two probes landed on Reinbold. However, they didn’t attach appropriately to Reinbold since he was wearing three shirts and a sweater. Yorba, who is no longer employed as a corrections officer here, said the Taser slowed Reinbold down.
Yorba testified that Reinbold was on top of him when Vosen deployed the Taser a second time. Yorba couldn’t remember if it affected Reinbold.
The third deployment was effective at subduing Reinbold, who then began complying with instructions. Sometime later, two Thief River Falls police officers could be seen escorting Reinbold to another part of the jail. Yorba, who suffered from sciatica at the time, could be seen grabbing his lower back after the incident.
Plea hearing
On Sept. 1, while entering his pleas, Reinbold said he used the colored pencil, measuring about eight inches, in order to scare the corrections officers into giving him a key to escape. He said it wasn’t his intent to harm the corrections officers. According to Assistant Minnesota Attorney General Gross, Rolland suffered bruising and a sprained neck or other injuries as a result of the assault.
Gross argued that Reinbold should serve the 36-month sentence consecutively to Reinbold’s current prison sentence. While making his argument, Gross referred to public safety and that the corrections officers were just doing their jobs at the time of the assaults. He said there were no issues between them and Reinbold. “Obviously, this was something that was planned,” said Gross. “Mr. Reinbold was wearing multiple layers of clothing.”
Gross further noted that Reinbold had absconded when he was on supervision, fleeing to Kansas after being charged in a federal pipe bombs case. After receiving compassionate release from federal prison and while on federal supervision, Reinbold then murdered his wife. Afterward, Gross said, Reinbold absconded and evaded arrest for 26 days.
Reinbold’s attorney, Chris Cadem, said he believed that his client shouldn’t be punished for his prior conduct. He indicated that Reinbold had already been punished and was serving a maximum sentence of 40 years for the murder charge. Cadem advocated for a concurrent sentence.
Cadem said his client’s behavior was on the low end of the types of behaviors considered to be second degree assault. Noting he wasn’t diminishing what had occurred, Cadem said Reinbold had ample opportunity to harm the corrections officers. He said Reinbold could have punched, kicked, strangled or stabbed the corrections officers. However, Cadem said Reinbold didn’t engage in such activity.
Looking back on his years in law, Cadem recounted only a few times where a consecutive sentence were ordered. Those cases, he said, involved significantly more severe conduct.
Earlier court filings
Earlier, on July 20, 2023, Yon granted a state motion seeking to impeach Reinbold with his prior convictions if the assault and escape case moved forward to trial. One conviction involved a 2015 charge of second degree assault involving his wife and two children in which Reinbold blocked his wife and two children’s exit from their property while he was armed with a handgun. The other conviction was a 2018 federal conviction for possession of unregistered destructive devices. In 2017, pipe bombs were found on the property of Reinbold’s family. The other conviction was the murder conviction.
Yon also granted the state the ability to present evidence of the underlying circumstances of his convictions in the 2015 case and underlying circumstances of the 2021 murder case. The state sought to present such evidence to show motive, intent and knowledge, according to online court documents. Yon wrote that the evidence “proffered by the state will be prejudicial to [Reinbold]. However, the court finds that the risk of unfair prejudice to [Reinbold] is outweighed by the high probative value of the evidence with regard to motive, knowledge and intent as well as to rebut potential defenses and to cross-examine any defense witnesses.” She wrote that the risk of unfair prejudice to Reinbold could be buffered by a cautionary court instruction to jurors when the evidence is offered and during final jury instructions.
Yon denied two defense motions seeking to dismiss the felony first degree assault charge for lack of specificity and lack of probable cause, respectively.
Reinbold has appealed his conviction for second degree murder in the 2021 murder of his wife, Lissette. A Pennington County jury convicted him in September 2022. He was sentenced to 480 months in prison for that case.
The appeal has been stayed since Cadem has sought to remand the matter to the district court for postconviction proceedings. The Minnesota Appeals Court had given Cadem until Monday, Sept. 11 to file a petition for postconviction relief or another appropriate motion in district court, or a motion in the Appeals Court to reinstate the appeal. In court records, it was noted that Cadem planned to “investigate and develop a record on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel and a discovery violation, among other possible issues.” Prior to sentencing in the murder case, Reinbold was represented by attorney Bruce Rivers.
The Court of Appeals has since granted Cadem an additional 60 days to file the petition with a new deadline of Monday, Nov. 13. In an affidavit to the court, Cadem indicated that, after the initial stay was granted, he had received information that Rivers hadn’t previously investigated. He then arranged for Reinbold to meet Monday, Aug. 21 with a potential expert witness. However, that meeting was unexpectedly cancelled since there was an emergency at the prison. Based off of court filings, it is believed the potential expert witness is a psychologist who is an expert on the phenomenon of innocent fleeing.