Indianapolis man accused of sexually assaulting woman at gunpoint in Bloomington hotel

An Indianapolis man is accused of following a Ukrainian woman to Minnesota where he restrained her with duct tape inside a Bloomington hotel room and sexually assaulted her at gunpoint before a five-hour standoff with police ensued.

Jeff Michael Schofield, 34, remains in custody at Hennepin County jail and the court issued a no contact order Wednesday with the 33-year-old woman, who told police she had been in a relationship with Schofield since last summer but they were breaking up.

When she told him she was going to Minnesota, he drove up from Indiana to say goodbye. But their rendezvous April 28 at an undisclosed Bloomington hotel quickly turned violent.

Schofield is charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct penetration — one for fear of great bodily harm and the other for being armed with a dangerous weapon. He also faces three felony charges of false imprisonment/intentional restraint, domestic assault by strangulation and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon.

According to charges filed Tuesday in Hennepin County District Court:

The woman said she met Schofield in the hotel lobby "because she didn't want to take him to her room." But he grabbed her and forced her into the elevator, pushing her face against the door as she was screaming. During this struggle, a hotel employee saw Schofield holding her in a headlock. Schofield drew his gun and pointed it at the employee.

She told the employee to call 911. But when police arrived around 2 p.m., they reviewed surveillance video to identify the people involved but were not able to do so.

Later on when the woman was inside the hotel room, she said Schofield threatened to kill her and tried to get her to kill him, which she refused to do. He started to remove her clothes, touch her and sexually assault her. She struggled to breathe as he choked her.

Schofield later wanted to go outside, but didn't trust her alone in the room so he duct-taped her mouth and hands.

Police were called back to the hotel around midnight. Officers called the landline phone in the room to negotiate with Schofield. He let the woman go eventually but he didn't surrender until 5 a.m.

During the standoff, officers evacuated surrounding hotel rooms as a precaution.

Schofield told police that the woman was an escort and they had been romantically involved. He described the sexual contact as consensual, saying "she doesn't resist me. I dated her for a long time, like we had a special connection."

"I mean, maybe, yes," he said.