DEVILS LAKE, N.D. –Denton Heisler, the current director of Lake Region District Health (LRDH), has accepted a plea deal regarding his criminal charges in connection with an auto collision in November of last year.
According to the plea agreement signed by Heisler, on or about Nov. 21, 2025, he struck a parked, unattended vehicle while driving his own motor vehicle in Ramsey County, then left the accident scene and made no attempt to contact the owner or otherwise report the incident. Heisler then reported that he hit a deer with his vehicle, knowing this to be false, in an attempt to mislead law enforcement in their investigation of the accident.
After an investigation of the November incident, Heisler was charged on April 2 with the following counts: fraudulent insurance act attempt (a class C felony), tampering with physical evidence (a class C felony), duty upon striking an unattended vehicle (a class A misdemeanor), false information to law enforcement (a class A misdemeanor), and reckless driving (a class B misdemeanor).
After authorities formally charged Heisler, he was placed on paid administrative leave but later reinstated on May 27. His court date was scheduled for Monday, Aug. 17 at 3:45 p.m. in the Ramsey County Courthouse, but minutes before the hearing was set to begin, Heisler’s defense attorney, Joseph Vetsch of Devils Lake, approached the Clerk of Court with a plea agreement reached between Vetsch and Special Ramsey County State’s Attorney Jaakan Williams.
The resulting agreement stated that “The State of North Dakota and the above named Defendant hereby approached this Court with a plea agreement to resolve all matters before this Court.”
Heisler agreed to plead guilty to the three misdemeanor charges. As for the two class C felony charges, the tampering with physical evidence charge was dismissed, and the attempted fraudulent insurance act, was “resolved via pre-trial Diversion Agreement” that included making restitution for the unattended vehicle in the accident, which had been hit with enough force to drag it approximately 50 feet and was considered totaled at an estimated value of $1,500.
The plea deal stated that Vetsch has discussed the criminal complaint and traffic citations with Heisler and believes Heisler understands the nature of the accusations, the consequences and the accuracy of the complaint. The conditions of the agreement allow for suspended jail time for the three misdemeanor charges, 360 days each for the two class A misdemeanors and 30 days for the class B misdemeanor, provided that Heisler observes the conditions of his unsupervised probation and commit no further violations of the law in the next 360 days.
The Lake Region District Health Board met earlier on July 28 to finalize details of the advertisement for a new LRDH director; the position will be vacated by Heisler upon the hiring of his replacement.