Errors and omissions

In last Saturday’s reprehensible Star Tribune story by Paul McEnroe and Rochelle Olson on the expunged 1995 arrest of Republican Fifth District congressional candidate Alan Fine, the reporters omitted relevant facts. Fine was charged by his then wife with domestic assault, but the police report (quoted by the Star Tribune) indicated only that Fine had been attacked. What’s the rest of the story?
The charge was dropped and Fine was never prosecuted for the incident. In 2004 Fine’s arrest was expunged by court order — a court order that was apparently violated by someone who supplied the police report to the Star Tribune.
The Star Tribune omitted the history of domestic assault charges against Fine’s ex-wife and related documents that support Fine’s account of the 1995 incident leading to his expunged arrest. Although I believe the Star Tribune is well aware of this history — it accounts for the fact that the Star Tribune did not find the arrest newsworthy before this past Sunday — the Star Tribune has not seen fit to mention it.
In July 2003, in the presence of children including Fine’s son, Fine’s ex-wife got involved in a heated argument with her boyfriend. The ex-wife started hitting the television and pulling the cord out of the wall. She ordered one of the children to get a steak knife from the kitchen drawer and kill the boyfriend. Police arrested the ex-wife for domestic assault and welfare workers commenced a child protection investigation resulting in an order for protection against Fine’s ex-wife.
The report provided by the child protection worker to the court in connection with the child protection proceedings found that Fine’s ex-wife has “a history of domestic violence.” The related psychological report indicates that Fine’s ex-wife has had “a long-standing anger management problem” resulting in violent fits of rage.
The report recommended that Fine’s ex-wife “undergo much more intensive psychological treatment for her rage.” In a passage particularly pertinent to the Star Tribune story concerning Fine’s expunged 1995 arrest, the report noted that Alan Fine “has endured physical abuse from his ex-wife[.]” A court order for child protection was issued prohibiting the ex-wife from “acts of domestic abuse against the child” (Fine’s son).
In November 2003 Fine’s ex-wife was charged with assault, violation of the child protection order and disorderly conduct. The November 2003 incident resulted in a subsequent court order limiting Fine’s ex-wife to visitation only under supervision.
For some reason Sunday’s Star Tribune story leaves out the evidence suggesting that Fine’s ex-wife is a woman with a documented history of violence and anger management isssues. In today’s Star Tribune profile of Fine by Rochelle Olson, Olson again notes Fine’s 1995 arrest and again omits the relevant history that belies the expunged 1995 charge.
In today’s Star Tribune profile of Keith Ellison by Rochelle Olson, Olson also regurgitates the Star Tribune’s expurgated history of Keith Ellison. Among other things, the expurgated history provided by the Star Tribune leaves out Ellison’s long, enthusiastic and devoted service to the Nation of Islam as the acolyte of a hate cult. The expurgated history therefore supports Ellison’s erroneous account of his limited involvement with the Nation of Islam, and prevents readers from understanding the connection between Ellison then and Ellison now.
“Ellison now” of course includes his upcoming rendezvous with his friends at CAIR in south Florida this weekend, separately noted by Olson here and by FrontPage here. The candidate of peace and love will be partying with a group that has had numerous employees and board members connected to terrorism-related charges.