Woman Sentenced for Threatening Inver Grove Heights Police and Families

A Newport woman has been sentenced for an incident late last year in which she threatened to kill an Inver Grove Heights police officer and the officer's children.

Direasa Mae Rassman, 19, pleaded guilty in January to a felony charge of issuing terroristic threats. Gross misdemeanor charges of third-degree criminal damage to property and obstructing the legal process were dismissed at the time of her plea.

However, Rassman failed to make two subsequent court appearances, and two warrants for her arrest were issued. She was arrested this week on the most recent warrant and was sentenced Thursday.

Rassman was sentenced to 27 days in jail and was credited for that amount of time already served. She was also fined $490 and received five years of probation, with the stipulations that she have no contact with victims, that she not violate a protection order, that she take prescribed medications and that she supply a DNA sample.

According to the criminal complaint, Inver Grove Heights police were called to a home last Dec. 28 on a report that Rassman was drunk and causing problems, and refused to leave the home.

As police arrived, Rassman walked out the door, announcing that she had a ride on its way and she was leaving. However, when officers told her to stay while they investigated the incident, she became enraged.

When an officer grabbed her arm, Rassman said, “Get your [expletive] hands off me.” When the officer continued to hold her, she became “extremely combative,” according to the complaint, and was put on the ground and handcuffed.

As she was led to the squad car, Rassman continued to swear and scream insults at the officers. She began kicking the front and rear doors of the squad car, denting a door. After she was put in the squad car, she kicked the rear window and the bars over the windows on the rear doors; police put her in leg restraints, but she worked her way out of them and continued kicking the back window.

When they arrived at the jail, police department mechanics estimated the damage to the squad car at about $1,000. Video taken inside the car showed Rassman “trying very hard to kick out the windows and damage the interior of the vehicle.”

The video also showed Rassman threatening the officer and both officers’ families. She said: “I’m gonna [expletive] research all you [expletive] dumb [expletive] cops and kill the [expletive] out of you and all your [expletive] children.”

Rassman looked directly at one officer and said, “I’m going to kill your daughter. I’m going to get one of my homeboys to [expletive] her in the [expletive] and [expletive] gag her with [expletive] in her throat. They are prettiest when they are bruised and beaten up.”

Rassman made similar threats about the other officer’s daughter, and said, “I premeditated to [expletive] these pigs up. I swear to God I’m gonna [expletive] all these cops up.”