Co-owner of Anytime Fitness pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to commit extortion

A former Carroll woman agreed Tuesday to testify in court against her alleged
co-conspirator in exchange for lenient punishment for an attempt to blackmail
her father-in-law for more than $55,000 in
April.

Elizabeth Aschinger, 24, co-owner of Anytime
Fitness in Carroll, pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony conspiracy to commit
extortion. The charge is punishable by up to five years in prison, but a judge
deferred judgment of the case.

Aschinger will not be a
felon nor go to prison if she obeys the terms of her two-year probation.

“I’m gonna give you a break here, but your
full and absolute cooperation is the … bargain,” District Court Judge Thomas
Bice said of Aschinger’s promise to testify at trial. “This type of behavior
will not be tolerated.

“It’s sinister.”

Aschinger and Jason Heffelmeier, 29, of
Buckingham, have admitted in court to different aspects of a blackmail scheme
this spring in which they threatened Aschinger’s father-in-law, Randall
Aschinger, 59, of Lake View, that they would reveal his alleged affair with
Elizabeth Aschinger unless he paid the money.

They
threatened to give incriminating text messages to Randall Aschinger’s
wife.

Heffelmeier pleaded guilty to the same charge last
month and also got a deferred judgment. He was apologetic in court about
threatening Randall Aschinger and said he “obviously caused him a lot of
grief.”

Elizabeth Aschinger declined to speak or
apologize when judge Bice gave her the opportunity Tuesday.

The third person accused of the scheme, Andrew
Menken, 37, a former Carroll County juvenile court officer, has repeatedly
denied his alleged role in emails to the Daily Times Herald.

Menken faces two felony charges for extortion
and theft, which together are punishable by up to 10 years in prison. He has
said he plans to go to trial.

Heffelmeier and Elizabeth
Aschinger said in court that Menken was part of the scheme and agreed to testify
at his trial, which has not been scheduled.

“I need her
to repeat what she said today on a witness stand,” Sac County Attorney Ben
Smith, who is prosecuting the cases, told the judge Tuesday when he asked for a
deferred judgment for Aschinger.

Bice agreed, but said,
“I want you to know it’s with a certain amount of reluctance. This is a very,
very serious matter.”

Criminal complaints accuse
Aschinger of telling Heffelmeier and Menken – who both exercised at Anytime
Fitness – to use the alleged affair to threaten her father-in-law and gave them
his cellphone number. The men allegedly used an unregistered, prepaid cellphone
to make the threats, but investigators say they twice called with their personal
cellphones, which is how investigators connected them to the scheme.

Further, both of the men’s personal cellphones
were in the area of a Boone park in April when Randall Aschinger left a $2,900
payment, cellphone records revealed.

Aschinger and her
husband Steve sold their Carroll house in June for $185,000 and moved to an Ames
apartment, according to court and county records.

Steve
Aschinger was not in the courtroom Tuesday, but Elizabeth Aschinger wore a
wedding ring.

Aschinger and her father-in-law are
co-owners of Anytime Fitness, and Aschinger’s attorney said they might sell the
business. A judge agreed that the two – who are forbade by court order from
having contact with each other – can communicate about the business through
another person.

Heffelmeier said last month that they
chose the blackmail amount of $55,555 because it was about what Randall
Aschinger gave Elizabeth Aschinger to help buy the business.