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Accused teacher describes alleged sexual assault by former student

News Photo by Julie Riddle Heather Winfield, left, speaks to attorney Alan Curtis during a break in Monday’s testimony in a trial in Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court.

ALPENA — Former teacher Heather Winfield said an adolescent boy choked, hit, and raped her in 2018 before going to police with allegations she and the boy had engaged in a two-year sexual relationship while he was 11 to 13 years old.

Winfield, a former special education teacher at Thunder Bay Junior High School, took the witness stand on Monday afternoon, the final witness for the defense in her sexual assault trial, continuing this week in Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court.

On Monday morning, defense attorneys questioned both a friend of Winfield’s accuser and a friend of her daughter. Both spent significant time in the Winfield household between 2016 and 2018, during the time the alleged sexual relationship occurred.

The News does not identify alleged survivors of sexual assault.

The daughter’s friend described the Winfield household as regularly filled with young people who wanted to be a part of the parties, outings, and social gatherings Winfield planned.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Heather Winfield, left, speaks to the jury under questioning by attorney Alan Curtis, standing, as Judge Roy Hayes presides over Winfield’s trial in Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court on Monday.

Both witnesses denied seeing any inappropriate behavior between Winfield and the student and described periods of violence by the alleged victim, who, they said, hit Winfield and her children and smashed belongings in her house.

After assurance from Judge Roy Hayes that jurors could not hold it against her if she chose not to testify, Winfield took the stand about 2 p.m. Monday.

Under questioning from attorney Alan Curtis, Winfield described meeting the alleged victim when he was a troubled 6th grader with extensive behavioral issues.

Like previous troubled students she had tried to help, the wounded boy needed stability and someone who wouldn’t give up on him, she testified.

When her efforts as a teacher seemed successful, she began to include the alleged victim in her family, regularly telling him she loved him, and eventually talked of adopting the boy.

On July 2, 2016 — a date she designated in a text as important and on which the alleged victim said they first had sex — the boy first initiated an “I love you” of his own accord, a significant step for a child struggling to trust after a traumatic upbringing, she told the jury.

A police investigation launched in October 2016, after a student reported suspicious social media messages between Winfield and the boy to school officials, ended in no charges but strained Winfield’s marriage and created a need for space, leading to some of the 15 hotel reservations made under her name during the early months of 2017.

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Winfield said the hotel visits also served as family getaways and birthday party venues, not the sexual trysts alleged by the former student.

Earlier in the trial, the alleged victim described sex toys he said Winfield bought and used with him. Winfield acknowledged buying the items ― one to be used as a gag gift ― but said she never used them with the alleged victim, although he may have seen them in their packages.

She described an increasingly tense relationship with the boy, even as he continued as a regular visitor and sometimes-resident of the Winfield household. When she attempted to block him from visiting after catching him using illegal substances, he threatened her. When she tried to stop him from hitting her children, he pushed her into a wall, grabbed her by the throat, and punched a hole in the wall before holding a gun to her head, she said.

Winfield grew emotional as she described a night in June 2018 when she followed the alleged victim into a bathroom to try to calm him down during a violent episode.

There, she told the jury, he pushed her against the sink, threw her on the ground, grabbed her by the throat, and raped her.

Telling her this is what she wanted, the boy cursed at her, threatened to continue his violence, spat in her face, and pushed her out of the bathroom, she testified.

Curtis showed her a photo of a drawing of male genitalia she said the alleged victim carved into the bathroom wall during the evening of the incident.

Afterward, she didn’t immediately tell anyone, humiliated to admit a 13-year-old could assault her, although she did call a national abuse hotline, she said.

Several days later, when the alleged victim took his allegations to police, she told her husband about the alleged attack. The alleged victim later apologized to her via social media message and recanted his story via a text message to a police officer.

Asked why she would put her family at risk by continuing to allow the alleged victim into her house after his violent outbursts, Winfield described herself as beaten down and abused, not strong enough to take a stand to keep him away.

Today Alpena County Prosecutor Cynthia Muszynski takes a turn questioning the witness. She may call a rebuttal witness if necessary.

Once both sides have rested, attorneys will begin closing arguments in the trial that today starts its 10th day of testimony.

Judge Roy Hayes advised jurors to free up Wednesday in their calendars.

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