Indictment for Rape Could Send Mound Man to Prison for Life

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — A Hennepin County Grand Jury indicted a Mound man for criminal sexual conduct, and if convicted, could face life in prison, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Friday. Matthew Joel Reinitz, 37, was indicted Thursday on two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct for a brutal attack of a woman on Dec. 4, according to a news release.

“Mr. Reinitz has been convicted of a previous sexual assault,” Freeman said in a statement.

“Once we had sufficient evidence to link him to last year’s torture of a woman in his home, we decided he is a threat to public safety and needs to be taken off the streets for the rest of his life if we can prove his guilt.”

According to the criminal complaint filed against Reinitz last month, police were sent to a church in Northeast Minneapolis on the afternoon of Dec. 4 where they found a woman who was crying and bleeding from the neck. She was taken to the hospital and later told investigators that a cab had been sent to pick her up and bring her to home in Northeast.

The victim told police she was a prostitute and Reinitz had seen her ad in Backpage. Not long after she entered the home, Reinitz tied up her hands and legs and for awhile, put duct tape over her mouth. He cut off her clothes with a knife and repeatedly raped her, the complaint states.

He eventually took her into the bathroom and stabbed her twice, at least once in the neck, according to police.

She pleaded with him to let her go and promised not to go to the police. He gave her a towel and her clothes and she fled out the door, authorities say. When police went to the home, Reinitz was gone, according to the complaint. Reinitz ultimately was identified through a DNA match and was charged.

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