A White Bear Township man is accused of raping a 51-year-old woman on Tuesday while she was out for an evening walk in Vadnais Heights.
Tristen Alan Leritz, 21, of White Bear Township, was charged with felony criminal sexual conduct on Oct. 31, 2025. (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)
Tristen Alan Leritz, 21, was charged Friday with one felony count of criminal sexual conduct, according to a complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court.
Leritz, who faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted, is scheduled to make his first appearance before a judge on Monday. No attorney was listed for Leritz in court records.
Ramsey County sheriff’s deputies responded shortly before 8 p.m. Tuesday to a report of a sexual assault in the 1000 block of Pond View Court, where they were met by a woman with leaves in her hair and visible injuries to her face and neck.
The woman, whose hands were shaking, told the deputies she had been walking south on Centerville Road between Birch Lake Boulevard and County Road F, when a man tackled her to the ground from behind and ordered her not to scream.
The woman, who had been on the phone with a friend at the time, fought the man and shouted at her friend to call 911. As she struggled, the woman pulled the man’s glasses off his face and threw them into the grass, the criminal complaint said.
She told deputies the man covered her mouth and strangled her with his forearm as he sexually assaulted her for at least 15 minutes next to the sidewalk while vehicles passed by on Centerville Road.
“The suspect did not seem to care that he was assaulting her in public,” the complaint said. After the assault, the woman ran to an address in Pond View Court and asked for help.
The woman was given a sexual assault examination at an area hospital, where DNA evidence was collected that matched a DNA profile on file for Leritz, according to the criminal complaint.
Related Articles
Minnesota ends Medicaid-funded housing stabilization program beset by fraud
Alabama man charged with threatening rabbis, imam and others in multiple Southern states
Inhumane conditions and medical neglect alleged at Chicago-area ICE detention center
St. Paul police: Two dead after apparent gunfight on Front Avenue
21-year-old man arrested in Vadnais Heights sexual assault
Arrested on Thursday, Leritz initially denied assaulting the woman, but he eventually confessed to investigators after being presented with evidence against him, the complaint said.
Leritz explained that he saw the woman while he was out on his bicycle, according to authorities, telling investigators that he rode down the sidewalk ahead of her and waited to ambush the woman as she walked past him.
Leritz was convicted last year of motor vehicle theft in Anoka County, and he was charged in August with felony burglary in Ramsey County. A trial in the burglary case is scheduled for March.
Leave a Reply