Winfield denies accusations that she sexually assaulted a boy under her care while he was a student in her 6th grade special education classroom at Thunder Bay Junior High School.

According to her accuser, now 17, Winfield engaged in sex with him multiple times when he was 11 to 13 years old, between the summers of 2016 and 1018.

The News does not identify alleged survivors of sexual assault.

On the third day of testimony in Winfield’s trial, FBI Supervisory Special Agent Alicia McShane described the habits of people known to seduce children for sex.

News file photo Former Alpena Public Schools teacher Heather Winfield listens to testimony earlier this month in Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court.

Many predators “groom” children, building relationships with them and their caregivers to build trust. Often assuming positions of authority, where they can easily access children and are trusted alone with them, the offenders frequently lavish their targets with gifts, McShane said.

Such predators regularly choose as their targets children with difficult family lives, offering their attention and affection to fill the gaps, said the FBI agent, who testified she knows nothing about the Winfield case.

According to previous testimony by school officials, Winfield gave special attention to the alleged victim — then an 11-year-old with significant disciplinary problems and a troubled family history, including the violent relationships and addiction of one parent and the violent death of another.

As he improved in school under her supervision, Winfield gave the boy expensive gifts, sent messages saying she loved him, talked to him on the phone for hours late at night, and invited him into the family’s home and on camping trips and other outings, witnesses said.

While sexual predation on young children often starts with tickling or wrestling, those preying on teens or tweens usually build a caring relationship similar to a romantic bond with the child. Some may lean on the child to fulfill their emotional needs, as well, McShane said on Friday.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Alpena County Assistant Prosecutor Megan McKeon, left, on Friday questions Lt. Jennifer Pintar of the Michigan State Police during the trial of Heather Winfield in Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court.

Predators sexually assault children in the presence of others more often than many people assume, said McShane, describing instances of child molestation in the same room or even the same bed as other people.

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The alleged victim on Friday told the jury he had sex with Winfield with one of her children on the same mattress and her other children in the same room.

Not every teacher preys on children, McShane agreed under cross examination by defense attorney Dan White, and, where no child is shown marked preference and nobody raises an outcry of abuse, teachers can most likely be trusted, she said.

Another witness for the prosecution, Lt. Jennifer Pintar, who in 2016 and 2018 worked at the Michigan State Police-Alpena Post, described seizing blankets and couch cushions from the Winfield home in search of DNA evidence.

An analysis turned up no such evidence, which Pintar said could be easily washed off.

She referenced a 2018 police interview of Winfield, in which the teacher described advocating for special services for the alleged victim while he was in her classroom and spending sleepless nights trying to figure out how she could help him.

During the interview, Winfield told police she felt addicted to helping the boy, to the extreme of arguing with her husband about her handling of him and neglecting her own children.

After she integrated the boy into her family life, he threatened to tell police she had raped him if she tried to back away from the relationship, she said in the police interview.

According to Pintar, Winfield had previously allowed two other troubled boys to stay at her house when she taught at another school.

In a cross examination of the alleged victim, Defense Attorney Matt Wojda compelled the witness to admit to multiple inconsistencies between the stories he told to police, courts, and others.

The alleged victim conceded he had changed his story about, among other things, who wrote text messages shared with police, who was nearby when the first alleged sexual encounter with Winfield happened, and how many times the two allegedly had oral sex in the same room as Winfield’s husband.

Testimony resumes on Monday, when Wojda expects to spend at least three more hours in cross examination of the alleged victim. Attorneys expect the trial to last at least until Friday.