A Minnesota district judge on Monday lifted the no-contact order against an Oklee man charged with assaulting his wife and two children, two weeks after his wife said the charges were "blown out of proportion."
Eric James Reinbold, 38, of Oklee, turned himself in to Pennington County Sheriff's deputies on June 13 after he was charged with three counts of second-degree assault in Pennington County District Court. The charges were levelled after a domestic dispute at the his Oklee home, which led to an hours-long standoff there.
In an affidavit filed with the court on June 15, Reinbold's wife, Lissette Reinbold, asked the judge to lift the no-contact order, saying she was not afraid of her husband, nor was he a danger to their children.
Reinbold has been out on bond, but with the judge lifting the no-contact order, he will be able to return home with his wife and children.
Pennington County Sheriff's deputies responded to reports of a domestic dispute at the couple's rural home the morning of June 11, in which Reinbold had blocked the driveway to prevent his wife and their two children from leaving the house, the criminal complaint states.
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The two argued off and on, according to the complaint, until a U.S. postal worker arrived about 20 minutes later to deliver the mail.
The postal worker, Glen Vettleson, told deputies he watched Reinbold ram his wife's car several times.
In the letter she filed with the court, Lissette Reinbold said the complaint "severely mischaracterizes what happened" that morning.
She said at the time the mailman arrived, the two were trying to "disentangle the vehicles."
She wrote their vehicles scraped against each other as they tried to move past one another and that there were several "low speed collisions."
Deputies later located Lissette Reinbold, who was unharmed.
The domestic dispute resulted in an standoff at the home, where a deputy made contact with Reinbold in the woods outside his home, according to the complaint.
At one point, Reinbold allegedly told the deputy he did not want to be arrested and had tried to put his wife under citizen's arrest, according to the complaint.
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While trying to coax Reinbold out of the woods, the deputy learned he had a weapon on him and called for backup, eventually losing contact with Reinbold, the complaint says.
Multiple law enforcement agencies responded, set up a perimeter and tried unsuccessfully to make contact with Reinbold again. Law enforcement spent several hours at the home and decided in the evening to enter the house, where they did not find Reinbold.
Reinbold's pretrial hearing is at 10:30 a.m. on August 6.
If convicted, he could be sentenced to a maximum of seven years in prison and a $14,000 fine for each count.
