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| David Weiler Arrested For Assault Again |
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| Written by Chet | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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UPDATED at the bottom of this post... Developing... Representative Dave Weiler (R-Bismarck) is in jail this morning. Again. Weiler was arrested about a year ago, after assaulting his wife. He entered a guilty plea and was sentenced for beating his wife. North Dakota's Republican Party rewarded Weiler with a vice-chairman position on an important interim legislative committee not long thereafter. Last year at this time, Governor Hoeven -- who employs Weiler's victim and who also oversees the agency that does law enforcement in the capitol building -- let Weiler violate a court-issued no-contact order so that he could come back to the capitol building and continue with his elective role as a legislator. NorthDecoder.com called for Weiler's resignation a year ago. We demand it again, now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Now. Area womens' groups have been silent about the issue. They have not called for Weiler's resignation, or said anything else, publicly, about having a convicted wife beater representing part of the capitol city in the state legislature. Preliminary reports are that he's in jail for something similar to what happened a year ago, though it's hard getting any hard information. I've contacted the Bismarck Police Department to see if they will release a copy of the police report cover sheet from an incident last night. They have told me it is still under investigation and they will not release anything. They said the case is at the Burleigh County States Attorney's Office. This would seem to suggest -- and I'm speculating here -- that the case is more serious than a minor charge. I have also contacted Burleigh County States Attorney's Office. They've told me they cannot release any information because the case is under investigation. UPDATE #1 Bismarck Police Officer Mark Buschena was just on KFYR radio. He reports that Weiler was arrested this morning. He is accused of punching his wife in the face several times at a south Bismarck home last night. He left the scene last night and was arrested by Burleigh County Sheriff's officials this morning. He'll likely have a bond hearing this afternoon. UPDATE #2 The Bismarck Tribune now has a story up about this allegation.
I love this part: "The report did not say what he allegedly became angry about." Because it's important to know why he (allegedly) punched her out. ... because, like, if she had criticized his clothing, that would have made it all okay. Or if she called him a bad name. Like, "wife-beater." Then a little domestic violence would have been justified. Right?!? Shameful reporting. ***********
If you're on the Facebook, join the Facebook group calling for Weiler's resignation by clicking here.
*********** The state Democratic-NPL party chairman, Mark Schneider, has called for Republican Party leaders to push Weiler to resign. Here's a snippet from Schneider's statements from the Dem-NPL press release:
********************************* This is fascinating. You can actually see where Weiler is by clicking here and scrolling to the bottom of the page. It appears his cell phone has a GPS device in it. The parking lot shown right now (Friday afternoon) is the parking lot at the Burleigh County Detention Center. ********************************* The charge is "Simple Assault." Click here.
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Comments (12)
What the Heck
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He will resign. I would place a small wager that phone calls have already been made. How sad for his kids and their mother. We know that domestic violence tends to escalate. Let's hope that any subsequently issued retraining orders are taken seriously and enforced. I once had conversations with local police about filing a restraining order to protect an employee. The employee had been beaten, missed a lot of work, and when she was finally well enough to return, the deranged former boyfriend vandalized her place of employment. While the police were sympathetic, they more or less said until something else happened, nothing could be done. The wait-until-something-else-bad happens mentality is part of the problem. Governor Hoeven, if you haven't made those phone calls, do it NOW. |
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nimrod
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How about a baby step? He should immediately be thrown out of the Republican legislative caucus. Let's see some spine in championing the civil rights of abuse victims and alleged abuse victims. |
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MFT
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... Please help me understand where you're coming from: You state that ND women's groups did not "publicly" call for Weiler's resignation a year ago but you didn't offer any explanation or even any speculation as to why that was the case, yet you impugned the reporter's sentence ("shameful reporting") regarding what preceded the alleged assault, implying that there might be a rationale for being a wife beater. I, and I believe most others, would not make such an inference. After all, news consumers, be it from the MSM or bloggers, are interested in the who, what, when, where, and WHY of the stories we read. Just my two cents. I fully agree with your call for Weiler's resignation, based on the March 2009 assault. If this latest incident results in a conviction, then our legal system should ensure that Weiler should fully suffer the consequences. In the interim, I hope and pray that Governor Hoeven will do all he can to ensure the safety of all victims, including those who work for the state. |
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Chet
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Hmmm... Where to start... I'm not a traditional reporter who pretends to be (but isn't really) unbiased. I'll tell you my bias. I do every day. I'm against hypocritical "family values" Republicans. I'm a progressive. I've voted Democratic more times than Republican (but have voted for some Republicans.) I volunteer my time to the Democratic Party pretty regularly, because that party's foundational political beliefs are closer to mine than are the beliefs of any other available political party (so far). That's my bias. Well... I suppose to be more accurate, I could have said women's groups did not "publicly" call for Weiler's resignation AND that I did not know whether they did so "privately." Because I don't know. I don't know if they privately, quietly, demurely called for Weiler's resignation. If they did so quietly, I don't even want to hear about it. Honestly, I've been given an explanation as to why at least one womens' group was silent. I'd tell you what it is, but they're watching this and I'd rather have them step up to the plate and explain. They need to stand for something. I will tell you this. I think silence regarding Weiler keeping his legislative seat -- despite any excuse they might proffer -- is inexcusable. Somebody needed to call for Weiler's resignation. The Democratic Party could do it -- and I think they did; or I think the DemNPL House minority leader did -- but their call was obviously ignored by our local media. The Republican leadership certainly wasn't going to do it. They promoted the guy, for God's sake. Who did the women's groups want to go advocate for Weiler's resignation? Seriously. Our media?!? Bwaaaaaaaaaa ha ha ha ha ha. They didn't even urge that he be reprimanded. How predictable was their silence? Completely. NorthDecoder.com called for his resignation. That got him the vice-chairmanship on an interim committee. There was (and is) no excuse for anybody's silence about this. They should have stood up and called for his resignation a year ago. They didn't. It's time for them to stand up now. And when I say "they," I mean all of them. Republicans. Independents. Women. Men. Children's advocates. The media. Especially the media. They're all complicit. If they don't come out now against wife beaters in the legislature, who will? We have, again. The Democratic Party has, again. We could use a little help. Step up. |
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What the Heck
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Page 1 How ironic that on the front page of the Tribune is the story about a young woman who lost her life to domestic violence, in front of her 3 year old son. That happened last night too. In fact, when I first saw Chet's blog, I thought it was Weiler. We need tougher domestic violence laws. Instead, our leadership in ND wants to use domestic violence as a tool to increase insurance company profits. Despicable. We know that abusive people tend to continue their abuse. Weiler got a slap on the wrist the first time. I pray for his family that the abuse ends. |
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MFT
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Just a reader Thanks for your response. I fully agree with your major premise that we ---regardless of party affiliation--- need to step up. My only issue was your umbrage about the sentence in the Tribune which speculated what might have triggered the assault. I don't see how you could ascribe the potential motives to the writer that you did. Let me be absolutely clear, there is never a justification for domestic abuse. Had there been a reason cited in the police report and subsequently written about in the news article, I believe that many, if not most readers would be interested to learn what it was. I note the bylines of the Tribune and other media outlets are written by women. The stories were objectively written (although, I'd venture to guess that their personal bias, like yours, mine, and the vast majority of people, is decidedly anti-domestic violence.) Reading the readers' comments (at least the reasonable ones) in the Tribune tends to support this. I would hope the Tribune would do the appropriate thing at the appropriate time and place and take out a strong editorial position on this. If they don't, I'd urge you to take it to the next step and write a personal opinion piece and dare them to publish it. Better yet, co-write with somebody for NDCAWS. This issue, I agree, is too important to ignore. In the meantime, I plan to step up, too. Slan. |
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?!?!
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... Why a simple assault charge instead of a domestic violence charge? Are the repercussions of domestic violence charger a little more stringent and this is the "powers that be" way of looking out for him? They are just as bad as he is. Let’s see where Johnny Photo Op shows up on this one. |
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Deb'
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soooo... what's the consensus here ppl? We all believe in "innocent until proven guilty" right? Weiler pleads not guilty, claiming that he left the house w/o incident and that no one was struck in any altercation. He claims his wife had been threatening to call the cops on him (which seems so weird, right? like... call the cops about what? what else is he doing illegally beside tossin his wife around?) It'll be interesting to see this play out. Nicole refused medical treatment for her injuries. Also interesting. Is it possible that we've all jumped to conclusions and that Rep Weiler is innocent? I think it's unlikely considering his past - but cha never know. |
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Deb'
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also His GPS tracker is still showing him as being in the BC Detention Center parking lot. Think he got wise? |
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41 Years
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What the Heck nailed it. He will resign within six weeks so that it won't interfere with the GOP campaign this fall and so that the GOP will get to appoint his replacement. |
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doug d riley
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he's gona he's go'na say that he's innocent an has witnesses saying that he was with the ag,sandy blunt with other high ranking wsi pediphiles all over at cates's home,since wsi was involved the media will never mention it again an judge walt will handle the case which will be dismissed,maybe they'll give him a safety grant,but to be serious,his wife might have turned down the medical treatment because she could'nt afford health insurance,north dakota had better hope that jay leno or jeff foxworthy does'nt get ahold of this,there's no excuse to hit a woman...... |
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Chet
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Innocent Until Proven Guilty As a lawyer who does criminal defense work, I am a huge proponent of "innocent until proven guilty" in courtrooms. In other contexts, I find myself reminding people that "innocent until proven guilty" is a right we all have that protects us from being wrongly convicted of a crime, but it doesn't apply in most other contexts. The word "guilty" has different meanings in different contexts. There's the "guilty" that is my 8 year old when I catch him with his hand in the cookie jar. He doesn't get a trial. He doesn't have the right to remain silent. He doesn't have the right to counsel. He is not "innocent until proven guilty." I caught him with his hand in the cookie jar. I'm his father. He looks guilty. He acts guilty. He is "guilty." Because I say so. If I catch an at-will employee on videotape stealing money from me or assaulting a co-worker, I don't have to wait until a jury finds him/her "guilty" before I send that employee packing (unless there's a contract term that says otherwise). My accountant found the evidence. We've got video. We've got bank records. I've seen the injuries. I've reviewed it to my satisfaction. I don't want that employee around anymore. In my mind, that employee is "guilty." Not guilty of a crime for which they will be sentenced to jail, mind you. Just guilty. Then there is "guilty" in the eyes of the courts. That's the "guilty" that causes government to make people, for example, pay fines and go to jail. In the court system, a person has a bunch of crucial, fundamental, constitutional rights that eight-year-old boys don't have in my kitchen. One is the right to a jury trial. Another is the right to confront your accusers. Another is the right to be considered "innocent until proven guilty." That's what Weiler was before he admitted to assaulting his wife the first time he was charged criminally (that we know of). When he admitted it, he was guilty in the eyes of the courts. From his wife's perspective, I'd bet he was guilty a long, long time before the courts found him "guilty." I agree that for purposes of the criminal court case pending against him, David Weiler needs to be considered innocent until proven guilty. He has a right to a judge and a jury who assume he is innocent right up until he is proven to be guilty. For purposes of deciding whether he should continue to be in the legislature, I think what the courts do is somewhat irrelevant. I think what's relevant is that he admitted to assaulting his wife the first time. He should have resigned then. This week's events are just a reminder of why he should have resigned less than a year ago when he assaulted his wife. This week's events are just a reminder that the Republican leadership really dropped the ball when he was convicted before and they rewarded him. I gotta say this, too. Weiler claims he is "innocent" and that he will not, therefor, resign. Just like the misuse of "guilty," the word "innocent" gets misused a lot. Nobody I know is "innocent." Maybe Weiler will be found "not guilty" and maybe he did not do everything his wife accused him of, but he is not "innocent." An infant is "innocent." A brand new kitten is "innocent." A young deer alone in the woods is innocent. I don't care how you slice it, a guy who assaulted his wife 11 months ago in front of his kids is not "innocent." I don't know Mrs. Weiler at all. I have no reason to believe her allegations, and no reason to disbelieve them. I can tell you that I've seen women falsely accuse men of domestic violence on numerous occasions in my career. There are lots of different reasons people lie about domestic violence. I don't know if Mrs. Weiler is lying or if she has reasons to lie. I do know that Weiler went down to the police station after bonding out yesterday afternoon. He claims there are no bruises or blemishes of any kind on his knuckles. He asserts the absence of bruises and blemishes is proof he did not do what he's accused of. He wanted photos taken of his hands in order to preserve evidence of the appearance of his hands, so they did that at the cop shop at his request. I can think of a lot of reasons why Weiler's hands wouldn't be bruised or blemished, but that's probably something for a different day. I think either (a) Weiler's hands are not bruised because he doesn't bruise very easily or he didn't hit his wife very hard, or (b) they are not bruised because he didn't do what he's accused of. Or maybe he's one of those people for whom bruises don't show up for 24 hours. I don't know. But, luckily, I also don't care. I don't doubt that Weiler will try to fight this new criminal charge for a time. But, in the end, I don't think it matters. He admitted to it last time and he obviously has some personal problems going on in his life right now. He should stop thinking about himself and his ego for just a minute and think about his kids. If he loves his children, Dave Weiler should resign from the legislature. He should focus on his kids and on getting things sorted out with the rest of his life. That's what I think. The Republicans will just appoint another Republican to replace him, so there will be no loss there. (I'd urge them to appoint a woman -- maybe even Mrs. Weiler -- but I'm pretty sure they won't listen to me.) Weiler is not irreplaceable. He is very replaceable. He needs to resign. |
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