Crime & Safety

Man Charged with Abusing Woman in Eden Prairie Hotel

Police say Timothy Lee Donovan Olson repeatedly strangled a woman at an Eden Prairie hotel when she refused to have sex with him or give him a ride home.

A Shakopee man has been charged with strangling a woman in an Eden Prairie hotel after she refused to have sex with him or give him a ride home.

Timothy Lee Donovan Olson, 33, is charged with felony domestic assault, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Eden Prairie police were called to a hotel on Dec. 18 to investigate a domestic assault, according to the criminal complaint, signed by Eden Prairie Police Detective James Lindgren. The name and address of the hotel were not included in the document.

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When they arrived, they found the victim, who said she had been involved romantically with Olson since August. She said she agreed to meet Olson at an Eden Prairie hotel; she said they argued, and Olson put his hands around her neck and pushed her backward onto a bed, continuing to squeeze her neck so she couldn’t breathe.

The woman said she told Olson she wouldn’t call the police if he let her go. When he stopped, he told her he wanted to have sex, but the woman told him no, brushed her hair, applied makeup and told him she was ready to go, according to the complaint.

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Olson refused to let the woman out of the room because there were housekeeping employees in the hallway who had heard the altercation, the complaint said. The woman said he kept her captive for about an hour and finally let her go when she told him that her dog needed to go outside.

Olson and the woman left the hotel room together and walked to her car. Olson told the victim that he wanted a ride; she told him he would have to find his own ride and began to return to the hotel.

Olson grabbed the woman, put her in a headlock and steered her back toward her car, according to the complaint. He told her to get inside; when she refused, he took her car keys and drove to the hotel’s front entrance to pick her up.

The woman continued to refuse to get in the car with Olson, and he drove away.

The victim told police it was the fourth time Olson had tried to strangle her since they had been together.

Olson has an extensive criminal history that includes six previous convictions for violating protection orders and convictions for third- and fifth-degree assault.

Olson has been released from custody on a $40,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled Jan. 18 in Hennepin County District Court.


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