Crime & Safety

Trial Set for Man Accused of Murder in Drug Overdose Death

A judge denied a motion by Dennis James Rivers' attorney to dismiss third-degree murder charges against him after the 2010 death of Heidi Hanson.

There’s one thing on which everyone can agree in the case of the state of Minnesota vs. Dennis James Rivers: Heidi Hanson died last year of a cocaine overdose. 

When police arrived last Sept. 21 at the Inver Grove Heights home that Rivers and Hanson, they found the 46-year-old Hanson lying on a mattress without a pulse, according to court documents.

Medical personnel tried to revive Hanson, and succeeded in restoring a normal heart rate, but she never came out of her coma. Two days later, her family took her off life support, and she died.

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The disagreement is over who caused Hanson’s death.

Last spring, the county charged Rivers—accused of providing the crack cocaine that put Hanson into a coma—with felony third-degree murder. .    

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The Ramsey County medical examiner examined Hanson’s body on Sept. 24 and listed her primary cause of death as “anoxic brain injury due to cardiac arrest due to probable cocaine toxicity.”

Translation: Hanson’s brain was deprived of oxygen for so long that she couldn’t recover from the coma into which she lapsed after ingesting not just cocaine and methadone, but possibly also a muscle relaxant, an anti-depressant and an antipsychotic drug used to treat bipolar disorder, according to court documents.

According to court documents, Rivers and Hanson met in drug treatment, and Rivers described Hanson to authorities as his fiancée. Rivers was listed among Hanson’s survivors in her Star Tribune obituary, identified as her “special friend.” 

Rivers reportedly called Hanson’s sister, Lisa Johnson, after Hanson’s overdose and took the blame for her death. “I feel [expletive] up because I bought ‘em … I bought all the drugs … it was me,” Rivers allegedly said in a voice mail left for Johnson.

Johnson also told police that her sister had battled drug addiction most of her life, and that she had undergone drug treatment several times. She said Hanson once lapsed into a coma caused by drug withdrawal.

But Rivers’ court-appointed public defender, Kevin Shea of Hastings— who did not return phone calls seeking comment—argues that Rivers wasn’t responsible for Hanson’s death, because the drugs the couple took were “jointly acquired.”

“When [the Minnesota statute under which Rivers is charged] was enacted, it was not the intent of the Legislature to subject couples like Dennis Rivers and Heidi Hanson to murder prosecution when one member of the couple dies as a result of using controlled substances that were jointly acquired, possessed and used,” Shea wrote in a motion to dismiss the charges, filed in July.

“As a result, there is not sufficient probable cause to prosecute Dennis Rivers, and the charge against him must be dismissed.”

Shea’s memorandum says Rivers and Hanson shared not just a chemical dependency, but also living quarters, expenses “and the drugs that they both used.”

“The controlled substances that were used by [Hanson and Rivers] were jointly acquired for their mutual use, even if [Rivers] was the individual that brought them home,” Shea wrote.

The Minnesota statute under which Rivers is being prosecuted reads, in part: “Whoever, without intent to cause death, proximately causes the death of a human being by, directly or indirectly, unlawfully selling, giving away, bartering, exchanging, distributing or administering a controlled substance classified in schedule I or II, is guilty of murder in the third degree …”

Shea’s argument is that Hanson was responsible for her own death, and that the statute doesn’t apply because Hanson and Rivers jointly bought the drugs, intending to share them.

The state believes differently, insisting that Rivers alone bought the drugs, and that not only was the couple not married, they were not even engaged.

“Rivers indicates he and Hanson were doing drugs for a couple of days before her death, but at no point does Rivers claim there was a plan to buy for himself and Hanson, or that they were going to use together when he got home, or that Rivers used combined funds to buy the drugs,” Assistant Dakota County Attorney Jessica Bierwerth wrote in a memorandum opposing dismissal of the charge against Rivers.

Also, “the defense spends a noticeable amount of time highlighting Hanson’s addiction, as though this somehow makes Rivers less culpable,” Bierwerth wrote. “This is not relevant to this court’s determination of probable cause for this charge.

“To the contrary, this information lends itself to drawing the analogy of Rivers being much more like a dealer than a spouse. Rivers’ culpability is even greater in light of his knowledge of Hanson’s addiction. This is not unlike the dealer who provides to any other addict.”

The court agreed with Bierwerth, finding probable cause for the charge against Rivers.

“It should be noted that the court’s present task is not to decide guilt or innocence, but merely to determine whether the evidence in this case meets the relatively low threshold of probable cause,” Dakota County District Court Judge Richard Spicer wrote.

“Inasmuch as the defendant admitted to buying the cocaine and providing it to the female, and the female died as the result of probable cocaine toxicity after ingesting that cocaine, there is clearly probable cause for defendant to be charged under the third-degree murder statute.”

“We wouldn’t have charged it if we didn’t feel we had a case,” Chief Deputy Dakota County Attorney Phillip Prokopowicz said this week. “We obviously have a different position from Mr. Rivers’ attorney.”

A settlement conference in the case—at which both parties will meet to see if there’s any possibility of settling the case before it gets to trial— has been set for Dec. 21. If there’s no resolution, Rivers’ jury trial will begin Jan. 9.


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