We talk about the recent peace deals in the Middle East, in particular the deals between Israel and UAE and Bahrain. We also discuss the Hayes Production code and how that is similar to a recent dust up with JK Rowling. We end by talking about John Barton, a California dad who said CPS took his three year old son under dubious circumstances and it appears his son may be being abused in care.
Finally we talk about the new recordings in the Rucki case; they shed light on how the local Fox affiliate reporter Trish Van Pilsum scored an interview with the Rucki girls days after they went missing on April 19, 2013.
A recently unearthed audio recording provides details for how a local Fox reporter scored an interview with the two missing Rucki girls, shortly after they ran on April 19, 2013.
Lori Musolf is a self described advocate for women abused by their ex-husbands and then by courts in Minnesota; she said she has been in that role since 1998, according to these audio recordings.
Yet, she worked with the police to provide information against Sandra Grazzini-Rucki (SGR) and others who she thought were involved in hiding SGR's daughters, Samantha and Gianna, who ran on April 19, 2013 and were hidden until October 2015.
Musolf said in the recordings she had met SGR in late 2012, but did not appear to cooperate with police, speaking with Lakeville Police Detective Jim Dronen in 2015.
Lakeville is where the Rucki's lived.
The Fox Story
Shortly after the girls ran, they participated in an interview with Trish Van Pilsum of FOX 9 in Minneapolis. That interview eventually produced this news story.
As Van Pilsum states, the girls were missing at the time of the interview. So, how did this interview get arranged?
According to Musolf, she was intimately involved in arranging the interview. Musolf begins explaining at about 11:20 and goes for more than three minutes of the video below.
As Musolf explains, she was friends with Van Pilsum, having provided her with other story ideas.
The Rucki girls ran on Friday April 19, 2013; the next day she received a call from the girls from a blocked number. The girls seemed to know to call Musolf, as she had the connection to Van Pilsum, but it's not clear how. Musolf explained what happened next.
"They called me on Saturday because we tried to do the interview for the weekend but we could not get a photographer who would work the weekend," Musolf said. "We did not interview them till Monday morning."
In another recording, Musolf said she communicated regularly with the girls on Sunday April 21, 2013, as they would called her from a blocked number every thirty minutes. The explanation starts at about 12:45 of the video below.
The girls, as we now know, were staying with Doug and Gina Dahlen at the White Horse Ranch, in Herman, Minnesota, which is about one hundred-seventy miles northwest of Minneapolis.
Dronen picks up the story from there, "Monday morning the Dahlen's drive the girls to Sauk Center and you do the interview."
Sauk Center refers to an unnamed hotel in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, which is over a hundred miles from Minneapolis.
"You guys do the interview and leave; the Dahlen's pick them back up and take them home." Dronen added.
From that interview, Musolf along with Van Pilsum and her cameraman head to St. Cloud, where Dede Evavold lives, and do an interview with Sandra Grazzini-Rucki; parts of her interview were included in the same story.
Musolf met the girls outside the hotel and then escorted them into the hotel and escorted them out where they were picked up by the Dahlen's and taken home.
Musolf Dishes on Everyone
According to Musolf, some time between arranging the interview in 2013 and when she spoke with Detective Dronen, she had a change of heart.
Initially after the girls ran, she viewed SGR as a victim, but by the time she talked with Detective Dronen, she referred to her as "conniving" and "manipulative."
It's noteworthy and ironic that she said this while acting as a secret informant and betraying people who put their trust in her.
Musolf also had nothing nice to say about the judge who primarily handled the Rucki case divorce, Judge David Knutson.
"Everything went haywire when that psycho judge, started pulling the shit he pulled. That guy is corrupt as hell, that I can tell you." Musolf said. "I was in that courtroom. I've heard that man and I've never in my life- in all the years I've been an advocate-I've never seen judges do the things that man did."
Musolf was not only describing Knutson's general behavior in this case, but in particular, she described his behavior during the custody trial. During the trial, he forced SGR's attorney, Michelle MacDonald, to conduct part of that trial while handcuffed to a wheelchair. At 1:10:00 of the video below, MacDonald is wheeled in.
Though Musolf appeared to admit to a crime by admitting to her involvement in setting up the interview, she was neither charged nor did she testify at any of the criminal trials associated with this case.
Grazzini-Rucki told me Musolf was originally on the witness list at her trial but removed for unknown reasons.
Who is Lori Musolf?
Musolf, in her conversations with Dronen, said she was an activist since 1998, advocating on behalf of women like SGR, particularly in Carver County, Minnesota.
In 2012, she wrote this email below to Carver County Commissioners.
The Carver County Corruption blog to which she refers was run by Leah Dannewitz.
There is little left which is still on-line about her story, though I found this from Change.org and here is another site with some information.
One reason why there is little left is because Dannewitz was sued by David Rucki and forced to remove her blog. More on the story here.
However, the elements of Dannewitz' story mirror the elements of Rucki's story. In both cases, they and their children made allegations of abuse, physical and/or sexual, and in both cases, they were accused of parental alienation, their ex-husband's would get sole custody, while the divorce left them destitute.
As Musolf's letter to the commissioners notes, this was a pervasive problem in Carver County in particular; I also covered the case of Caroline Rice, and her daughter Annelise, which had the same pattern also from Carver County. That also had the same pattern: mother and child allege abuse, father alleges parental alienation, father gets sole custody and mother is left destitute.
Indeed, Musolf said that she began helping SGR because she believed her case was similar, though it is in Dakota County.
I covered Kim Sperling's story, which is also from Dakota County and has many of the same elements.
Dronen seems to acknowledge systemic issues in Carver County, when he said, "Dale seemed to be involved with a lot of the Carver County cases, or at least was aware of them."
Dale Nathan
Dale is Dale Nathan, a disbarred Minnesota lawyer who became a hero to some because he was disbarred for refusing to release the whereabouts of a client in hiding from her abusive ex.
Nathan only helped Sam marginally. She first started speaking with him in late 2012 and by January 2013, she had a new attorney, Michelle MacDonald.
But Nathan was with SGR on April 19, 2013, when her two daughters- Samantha and Gianna- called her shortly after they ran.
So when SGR picked them up, he was with her, a secret he kept until 2015, when he spoke first to Brandon Stahl of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and even Detective Dronen.
Below is part of his conversation with Dronen; it's unclear if he spoke with him on other occasions.
Dronen, in his conversations, appears sympathetic to what Nathan was trying to do when he told Musolf, "I can understand Dale Nathan's perspective a little bit. I understand, he's on a mission with what he's trying to do with reform. He's trying to get the story out because there needs to be reform."
It's a remarkable thing to say, since, as the chief investigator, it's Dronen's job to "get the story out," by solving why the girls ran and who helped them run.
The story, he, the prosecutors, and the media told, was one of a vindictive mother who tried to manipulate her daughters and keep them away from an innocent father; there is nothing in Dronen's investigation which pointed to any needed reform.
The story Nathan wanted told is not the one Dronen told; Nathan's story was of an abusive man- physically, sexually, and otherwise- who gets the court, the police, and the media to do his bidding.
Nathan also spoke with 20/20 for their hatchet job on this case, "Footprints in the Snow", and repeated that he was with SGR the night the girls ran. I suppose he thought 20/20 would get the truth out. He died the day after it aired.
The Rucki Girls Speak
In his conversation with Dronen, Nathan talks about receiving a CD with audio recordings made by Samantha and Gianna shortly after they ran.
Nathan thought that if the girls described what was going on and submitted their thoughts while on the run, this combined with the media attention from the Fox story, would force the judge's hand, Judge David Knutson, and he would change his custody order and grant SGR physical custody.
Dronen doesn't care about the contents of the audio recordings, only how Nathan got it. Nathan did not know, only that he told SGR that if the girls made such recordings that would help. He received the recordings anonymously.
In the recordings, each girl- Samantha and Gianna- describe horrible abuse not only by their father but by the courts as well. They are below.
Dronen
Dronen, as was his pattern throughout, would not probe when the topic came to abuse by David Rucki, the courts, or anyone but SGR.
When Musolf said of Judge Knutson, "he's as corrupt as the day is long," he does not ask for any examples or for her to expand on that.
Nor does he ever speak about things that Samantha and Gianna said in their recordings, which include their father's alcoholism, him choking their mother, their sister, and running his hands up Samantha's legs and holding it near her private area, along with making comments about her breasts.
Furthermore, in another recording, Dronen and Musolf speculate that six gunshots left on Samantha's phone were left not by their father but by a friend of SGRs.
In fact, it was eventually proven in court that David Rucki left the gunshots on his daughter's phone, and as Musolf correctly states, the gunshots were left on her phone months before Samantha ran.
When the audio was played in the criminal trial, the judge would only allow it to be referred to as an "inaudible sound."
Neither Musolf nor Dronen ever pointed out the obvious which is that maybe the girls ran because they were being forced to live with a father who leaves gunshots on their phones.
The gunshots are not only mentioned in the Fox story, as Dronen notes, but both Samantha and Gianna mention the incident in the audio recordings they made.
Background
On September 7, 2012, without a formal hearing, Judge David Knutson switched custody in the Rucki divorce. He ordered SGR out of her house by noon that day. The order is below.
SGR, who had physical custody of all five of her children until that point and was their primary caretaker their entire lives, was not even allowed to tell them she would be leaving.
But Knutson did not even grant her ex-husband custody on this day, but rather his sister, Tami Love.
When the kids came home, four of them ran to the police station and were allowed to stay temporarily with SGR's sister, Nancy.
This continued until April 19, 2013, when the two oldest girls, Samantha and Gianna, were ordered to live with their aunt Tami and were told this was a temporary transition to living with their father.
They were escorted by police to their home and ran shortly after police left.
They called their mother saying, "we're running with or without you."
They were taken in by the Dahlen's who had a horse farm for abused children.
Finally, if Dronen had been investigating things like David Rucki's abuse and Judge Knutson's illegal and potentially criminal acts, he may have come to the conclusion that the court engineered a set of events which they should have known would result in this outcome.
The evidence of this comes from therapists' notes from a therapist involved in the case. They are below.
The notes come from Jim Gilbertson who was assigned to the case in the same September 7, 2012, order I listed above.
On April 9, 2013, he states, "Successive telephone calls betweent attempting to contact Ms. Frederick (sic), conference calls with Ms. Olson, the maternal aunt, and Tami Love, the paternal aunt."
He later claims that an order to place the girls with Tami had already been written though this doesn't seem to be accurate as the order was supposed to have been signed on April 19, 2013.
He then continues, "I immediately received a call from Ms. Olson stating that she wanted the transfer to occur as soon as possible because of the fear the children would learn of this through some unknown means and will run."
This means everyone knew just how dangerous this April 19, 2013, order was; they knew there was a chance the girls would run and yet everyone schemed and only SGR was not told about it until it happened; the police, courts, and media then all blamed SGR for it.
Conclusion
Finally, I left emails for everyone involved. No one responded but the email is below.
I'm attaching an audio. This is of Lori Musolf and Detective Jim Dronen. That's correct, right.
At about 11 minutes in, Ms. Musolf admits to taking Samantha and Gianna to the interview they did with Fox, this interview, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnUwAkd4NpQ&t=3s Now, it sounds to me like Ms. Musolf admits to a crime as she knew where the girls were days after they went missing and said nothing.
If Dede Evavold got charged, why didn't Musolf, unless she got a deal. Why would she get a deal? She was just as involved as Dede, no. I'm confused.
Also, at about 14 minutes, Detective Dronen and Musolf talk about the Carver County cases particularly from the Carver County Corruption blog. What is it you mean Carver County cases unless it is corrupt Carter County cases. So, Dronen, it appears, knows exactly what is happening in this case, or am I wrong Detective Dronen? After all, at about 15:30, you talk about Leah Dannewitz' court case. We all know that one? Father abuses, mother accused of parental alienation, father gets custody, mother left with nothing.
Then, you talk about Stacy Pinskie, another corrupt custody case. It sounds like Lori is laying out why the girls ran, no. Isn't Ms. Musolf proving to you all in this recording that Ms. Grazzini-Rucki was innocent?
So, why didn't she testify? Judge Asphaug. You are retired now. What was the legal reasoning for Lori Musolf not to testify?
Detective Dronen what did you mean about 23;30 about Dale wanting reform and "he's trying to get the story out," what story are you referring to?
Right at 27 minutes, Ms. Musolf states, "everything went haywire when that psycho judge, started pulling the shit he pulled. That guy is corrupt as hell, that I can tell you."..."I was in that courtroom. I've heard that man and I've never in my life- in all the years I've been an advocate-I've never seen judges do the things that man did."
She's referring to you Judge Knutson, am I right? That's referring to the time when Michelle MacDonald was forced to conduct part of a custody trial handcuffed to a wheelchair. You know the incident 20/20 failed to include in their hatchet job. What do you all say about that? Is he, "corrupt as hell,"?
Detective Dronen, you said you stepped in the case late. You not only didn't care that there's a corrupt judge causing this, but why didn't you at the Lakeville Police Department investigate right away and why aren't you worried there may be a corrupt judge involved? I guess that's how you train Long, right?
"The guy should have been thrown in prison for some of the stuff he did," Musolf said. It is interesting that you only care about certain information your informant told you.
"I've been an advocate since '98 and I've never seen anything so horrific as what happened in this case," that's what Musolf said, but you investigated and charged Sandra Grazzini-Rucki.
Then, the media painted it like she was the villain and now you all have evidence which proves all of it a lie and you'll ignore because you're all as corrupt as Knutson and as cowardly, which is why none of you will respond.
My last question is how any of sleep at night knowing what you have contributed to. I think you're too cowardly to answer me but one of you may surprise me.
I am also doing this article differently; please check out the crowdfunding page associated with this story.
Finally, in case someone still claims there is still no evidence of abuse by David Rucki below are 99 pages of abuse allegations and 25 pages of Child Protective Services reports, including page 15 where Nico claims his father stuck a gun to his head. Nico now says his father his ever been violent.
(An Example of Michael Brodkorb taunting Dede Evavold With Impunity)
Michael Brodkorb feels harassed, a hashtag has done it, and now he wants Dede Evavold jailed.
In a remarkable police report from December 30, 2019, Michael Brodkorb asks the Eagan, Minnesota Police Department to investigate Dede Evavold because of a hash tag.
"In Brodkorb’s email, he advised that Evavold’s Twitter account ‘RedHerringAlert’ had posted something
on Twitter that morning at 1047 hours and included “#MichaelBrodkorb”. It should be noted on a
previous case, reference Eagan PD case file number 19001201, I had mediated an issue between
Brodkorb and Evavold regarding something that was posted on this Twitter page ‘RedHerringAlert’. In
this investigation, Evavold advised she was the one who had made this post." The police report written by Officer Daniel Spiess.
Though the tweet remains published, the local courts determined it was harassing. Though the local courts couldn't prove or even claim that Dede Evavold published or even did anything with the photo, they could prove she received it.
This was enough to grant Michael Brodkorb, who fancies himself a journalist, a protective order.
In January, the prosecutor threw out separate charges stemming from another incident where Evavold purportedly violated the protective order. This time she sent an email to Brodkorb's attorney. That was deemed harassment, until it wasn't. The letter is below.
Brodkorb seems to have taken another opportunity to have Evavold charged. Officer Spiess is familiar with this case.
Here's part of what I wrote in 2019.
"Detective Dan Spiess from the Eagan Police Department testified at the hearing on October 28, 2019. He testified that he was unable to identify the owner of the twitter account @johnsonmedia2. Through his investigation, he discovered the photographs were taken by Ms. Diane Ristau. Ms. Ristau then forwarded the pictures to her co-worker and friend Ms. Carrie Baudette. Ms. Baudette then forwarded the picture to her long time friend Ms. Dede Evavold. IT IS UNCLEAR WHAT MS. EVAVOLD DID WITH THE PICTURES (EMPHASIS MINE)...While the actions of Ms. Evavold after receiving the photographs remain uncertain, she was involved in receiving them and she is the last one in the chain of events."
The website Lion News also tracked Spiess' involvement in the case quoting him saying,
Yes. So what I can tell you, some conversations I did record, and some I did not. I don't record every single conversation I have with someone. I don't record conversations -- I don't record every conversation I have with someone. I just don't. I would say that is standard. You don't record every single conversation you have with someone. In specific instances, yes, you do. But not in every single one. So I did record my conversations originally with Ms. Ristau and Ms. Beaudette. After speaking with them, I did not believe that they needed to be put in the case file folder, and they were deleted.
The two people mentioned- Beaudett and Ristau- also received said photograph of Brodkorb's wife, which remains on Twitter. Detective Spiess is in the middle of quite an investigation. He's tracking down photos, investigating hash tags, and examining emails, and he doesn't work for a police department in Iran, Russia, or North Korea, but in America; he just acts like a cop from North Korea.
Detective Spiess has yet to respond to my email and I'll update if he does.
What Detective Spiess has yet to investigate, is the taunting behavior of Michael Brodkorb.
Here are a few things Brodkorb has placed on social media.
Missing in Minnesota is the website that Brodkorb runs, which tracks the Rucki case.
I'm not a psychologist but if you feel harassed, why are you taunting the person you feel harassed by on social media.
This was the question I asked to the Eagan Police Department.
It appears you investigated Ms. Evavold because she did #MichaelBrodkorb
Is that really enough to warrant an investigation? Mr. Brodkorb claims to be harassed by Ms. Evavold but if you look at other things he has placed on social media, he doesn't appear afraid. I'm attaching a few social media posts for example. So, does Michael Brodkorb get to taunt Ms. Evavold and then run to your police department when she places a hash tag in front of his name? That's what it appears to be.
Michael Brodkorb is his propagandist, that's the one word to describe him. It appears that anyone who sides with David Rucki in Minnesota has free reign to do as they please with all law enforcement doing their bidding. Now, it appears that Eagan is getting into the act. Am I wrong?
They have yet to respond as well, and I'll update if they do.
this is Michael Volpe. I'm a freelance investigative journalist. I understand that Investigation Discovery re-broadcast "Footprints in the Snow" the 20/20 episode I long ago discredited but ID and your family of networks continue to re-broadcast it. I'd like an answer to some questions.
1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRCulTBdqHQ&t=377s why didn't 20/20 play any of the audio from 4:51-7:10 when Samantha Rucki described her father ripping an organ leg off an organ and choking her mother, choking her sister, making comments about Samantha's breasts and running his hands up his daughter's legs. They had this audio since they played other parts.
2) https://www.scribd.com/doc/316692570/SamiRucki on page fifteen Nico Rucki describes his father sticking a gun to his head when he was eight years old. Nico, in the broadcast, said he's never seen his father be violent. Obviously, both can't be true. Which one is?
Ms. Buck's response was, "Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We were unaware until your outreach on Friday that there was anything called into question in this program, and we are currently looking into the claims you presented with the producers at ABC News. While we investigate further, Investigation Discovery has removed “Footprints in the Snow” from our schedule. Thank you for reaching out."
Even though all Dede Evavold did was re-post an article
already posted elsewhere, numerous Minnesota courts blatantly ignored her fist
amendment rights, while first charging her criminal and then issuing a fifty-year
protective order.
The whole thing started when David Rucki asked for and
received an emergency harassment order because he claimed Evavold’s blogging
harassed him.
“Respondent has engaged in online harassment of myself and
my family in direct violation of court ordered probation. Respondent continues
to post to a blog owned by Respondent about myself and my family, including
false allegations, photos, and identifying information.”
At the time, and now, Dede Evavold was on criminal probation
so, if in fact as David Rucki stated, she was violating that probation, she
should have had that probation violated, but she didn’t.
Furthermore, while Evavold did operate the now defunct, as a
result of this, website Red Herring Alert, Rucki does not list any of the offending
posts which defamed him, or provided personal information.
Furthermore, most of the harassment order application is
blank: because Evavold never confronted him in public, called him by phone,
emailed him, no other threatening behavior, nor had she tried to visit him at home.
In other words, though David Rucki said this, “My children are frightened and feel their privacy has been violated,” this was not through any direct contact, but David Rucki was arguing that blog posts frightened his children, and violated their privacy.
This even though he has been featured on 20/20, had Michael Brodkorb’s website dedicated to his case, and was cooperating with Brodkorb on a book which would be completed more than a year later.
Furthermore, Red Herring Alert averaged less than one thousand clicks daily: TOTAL.
Not only was his harassment order granted, but it was granted on an emergency basis, ex parte by Judge Karen Asphaug.
That is the recently retired, early, former Judge Karen Asphaug.
Asphaug appeared to be something akin to a personal judge for David Rucki. In 2009, he screamed and swore uncontrollably at two and three year olds, he even said to adults he dared to call the cops, "If any of you assholes ever call the police on me again, I'll raise holy hell."
That case also came in front of Judge Asphaug, after David Rucki was charged with disorderly conduct.
On the eve of trial, Asphaug dismissed the case for a lack of probable cause, despite no motion to dismiss being in front of her- called sua sponte- and even though there was numerous witnesses so that probable cause standard should have been met.
David Rucki's two oldest daughters- Samantha and Gianna- ran on April 19, 2013, because they were going to be forced to live with their father. Samantha describes why they ran below.
The legal system in Minnesota- which has always catered to David Rucki- charged four people with crimes after the girls were found in November 2015.
His ex-wife, Sandra Grazzini-Rucki, Evavold, and Doug and Gina Dahlen, with whom the girls stayed.
Asphaug presided over all four cases and in a heavy handed manner, made sure any evidence of abuse was excluded from the case. In a sweeping motion in limine which she granted for the prosecution, I described the mountain of evidence Asphaug excluded here.
She also sentenced Evavold and Grazzini-Rucki to the maximum, one year and one day, even though neither had any criminal record and even ordered Grazzini-Rucki to serve it bits at a time over six years, while giving Evavold and eight year probation.
So, it's no surprise that she granted this emergency harassment order, ex-parte, even though the only harassment alleged was somehow through blog posts on an obscure blog.
Remarkably, as the presiding judge over Evavold's case, if Asphaug really believed she'd violated her probation terms, as Rucki suggested, she should have given her a probation vioation, not a harassment order.
The harassment order was indeed overkill because Evavold was restricted in which she could say by her probation.
Still on February 12, 2018, David Rucki's attorney filed an emergency motion asking for an emergency hearing. That motion is below.
Still, Elliott treated this very seriously, stating in her emergency motion,
"Ordering Respondent to immediately remove the entire post titled “Beaten Before Born:
Sandra Grazzini-Rucki Assaulted While Pregnant–RuckiWanted to Kill Baby Because ‘Wasn’t Perfect.’”,dated December 18, 2017,from
the Red Herring Alert Blog and /or any subsequent revisions to the post along
with any reposts and/or posts to Facebook and Twitter."
This set off a flurry of activity which eventually led to Evavold's arrest. One offending blog posts, which was simply a repost, turned into eighteen offending blog posts, with Lisa Elliott demanding Evavold remove more and more, as Evavold removed these blog posts.
The series of events are described on a subsequent unpublished opinion written by Judge Diane Bratvold (you can't be too proud of the opinion you wrote if you make it unpublished)
"The district court conducted an evidentiary hearing. Respondents relied on the affidavit and copies of the 18 posts from Evavold's blog. Evavold testified that she 'removed {Rucki's} address from the December post but admitted she did not otherwise change the post. In a written order, the district court found Evavold 'is in constructive civil contemtp' and instructed her to remove the 18 posts. Evavold did not comply with the order, and the district court subsequently issued a warrant for her arrest. She was taken into custody, but was conditionally releasted a few days later after the district court found she was attempting to comply with the court's order."
Kanning's order was so cursory- that order is found here- that an attorney Evavold was able to secure argued that the judge was required to show more work. His argument is below.
Her attorney stated in part, "The blog posts, because they are not fighting words or true
threats, do not constitute harassment under Minnesota law. The Minnesota Court
of Appeals has analyzed the breadth of the statute in connection with a First
Amendment challenge to Minn. Stat. § 609.748 and concluded that the statute
only 'fighting words' or 'true threats' are covered. Dunham v. Roer, 708 N.W.2d
552, 566 (Minn. App. 2006) (“Because the harassment statute only regulates
speech or conduct that constitutes 'fighting words,' 'true
threats,' or substantial invasions of one's privacy, we conclude that the
statute is narrowly tailored and is, therefore, constitutional.”) Id. In
considering the statute as narrowly tailored, the Court of Appeals excluded the
kind of interpretation used by Petitioners here."
That appeal was also denied, with the appeal's court finding no sympathy toward Evavold's 1st amendment rights, "Here the district court denied Evavold's motion to vacate the HRO after finding that Evavold's conditions of probation were 'no contact' with the Rucki children and that 'she was prohibited from referring to the children on social media.' The district court found that Evavold 'violated the terms of her probation by posting photos and information about the Rucki family. These postings included many references about David Rucki and his children.' The district court also found that Evavold 'has effective control over the postings on the {Evavold's blog}.' The court finally found that Evavold's conduct in making her posting was 'intended to terrify, threaten, and invade the privacy of {Rucki} and his minor children' and concluded that Evavold's conduct was 'harassment most evil'"
Get that, you can frighten people with blog posts on an obscure blog and it is "harassment most evil" even if you don't ever make contact with any of those you are accused of harassing.
Indeed, Minnesota even tried to charge Evavold criminally for all this.
The docket is below. As you will see by examining it, the state took the case until a trial date was scheduled, then it was cancelled on the eve of trial, and then dismissed.
Meanwhile, the HRO which Rucki had first filed in July 2017, was nearly about to expire.
In fact, the appeals court which gave no sympathy to Evavold's 1st amendment argument, only issued its decision on July 15, 2019, by the end of the month, that would expire.
Of course, the court caters to David Rucki so he reached out to his favorite Judge, Karen Asphaug, and on September 19, 2019, just two months after it had expired, Asphaug re-issued to harassment restraining order for another fifty years, to end in 2069, without even conducting a hearing, just responding to Lisa Elliott's motion.
Now, Evavold can't say Rucki's name or anyone related to the case for fifty years. Approximately a month and a half, on October 31, 2019, Judge Karen Asphaug announced she would be retiring from the bench early.
In that order, Judge Abrams begins in a most bizarre manner, by stating, "The court has been left in an unusual posture since the decision of Deirdre Evavold to "quit" participating as a defendant in this case."
Evavold is one of several defendants being sued by David Rucki. A previous filing from the suit, which lists all plaintiffs and defendants, along with a summary of the case, is below.
Evavold withdrew as a defendant, meaning she would lose by default, previously. Somehow, Judge Abrams claims this made things more complicated.
Evavold is not the only litigant who the judge admonished in his order. He also admonished State Farm, drawn in because they provide homeowner's insurance coverage to Evavold.
While they may have been drawn in, State Farm then proceeded to demand they be able to depose, Evavold and her husband, even though her husband wasn't even being sued; they even wanted for Lisa Elliott, David Rucki's attorney, to be able to depose her on the same day.
The judge continued, "State Farm takes the position, in an unhelpful response to the court, that it should enter a finding of no coverage," meaning State Farm shouldn't be forced to pay whatever damages David Rucki proves.
Judge Abrams then noted that on November 1, 2019, he ordered the parties to agree on terms to dispose of the case or to draft all the issues which were still unsettled.
State Farm, as Evavold's insurer, was still left, but Evavold was not.
There was no agreement, and this also seemed to irritate Judge Abrams.
"Again, not surprisingly, the parties formally set forth what they disagreed about in correspondence, in response to this court's order.
"As a consequence of these divergent viewpoints, the Court is left without the ability to formulate a plan, as the parties cannot agree on the issues which remain in these cases, the timing of any future events, nor a process under which these matters can be directed to a fair and orderly resolution."
There was a February 3, 2020, trial date scheduled but that was postponed until at least June, however, Abrams also requires agreement on numerous issues which there is no agreement yet as well.
The History
On April 19, 2013, David and Sandra Grazzini-Rucki's two oldest daughters- Samantha and Gianna- ran and disappeared.
They were found in November 2015 and because David Rucki had a custody order giving him sole custody; Sandra Grazzini-Rucki and others were charged with crimes.
In 2016, all those charged with crimes were either convicted or plead guilty.
Doug and Gina Dahlen, with whom the two girls stayed willingly, plead guilty; SGR and Evavold, who recommended the Dahlen's to SGR, were found guilty in trials.
David Rucki, the courts, and the media all claimed that SGR was "alienating" him from his kids and that's why all five of his kids rejected him and why the two girls ran.
SGR and all her kids, at various times, all said David was abusive, as in this audio recording made by his daughter, Samantha, where she said he choked her mother with an organ leg, choked her sister on a couch, and made comments about Samantha's breasts and ran his hands up her leg. (Starting at 4:51 until 7:10)
Below are 99 pages of incidents of violence by David Rucki.
Despite that, as I said, there were convictions or guilty pleas; as such, David Rucki has since been systematically approaching those considered by the law perpetrators against him and demanding civil settlements as well.
He, I was told, approached the Dahlen's and settled, in a conveniently sealed settlement, for six figures.
This lawsuit in which Judge Abrams now has a hissy fit in was presumably the next step.
Everything was moving nicely along. On May 10, 2019, according to the docket, which is below, a judgment was entered.
While there was a judgment, a summary judgment in fact, it was still not entirely clear who needed to pay, particularly State Farm or Evavold.
Also, while Judge Abrams issued a summary judgment, this was only on most of the case, he left one part undecided, the issue of whether or not Evavold falsely imprisoned the two girls.
The audio previously referenced was made shortly after Samantha ran. It is below, again, you decide if she ran willingly or was falsely being imprisoned.
The dispute over whether the girls were falsely imprisoned should not have caused, in my opinion, as much confusion as it has.
Since that May 10 judgment, things have slowly deteriorated, but especially, since I had a conversation with LeHoan Pham, an attorney who represents State Farm in this, in September.
I wanted to know why he was desperately trying to depose his insurance company's client; if State Farm represented Evavold, it didn't seem like a good look that the insurance company would try and depose her.
Even worse, Pham filed a "joinder motion" with Lisa Elliott, David Rucki's attorney. Here is the motion
Evavold blew off that deposition and when Pham tried to have Judge Abrams force Evavold to sit for a deposition, Abrams did not take him up on his offer, instead ordering the terse order below, which he issued on November 1, 2019.
Even though Twitter finds nothing wrong it, Brodkorb was able to get a protective order against Evavold, and others, but particularly Evavold.
Brodkorb is David Rucki's smear merchant and propagandist. He publishes the website Missing in Minnesota, where he dedicates himself to smearing SGR and anyone who supports her.
He mentioned Evavold's fracas with him on the site.
A judge in Dakota County scheduled Dede Evavold’s criminal trial for March 23, 2020, on a criminal charge of violating a Harassment Restraining Order (HRO) filed against her by Michael Brodkorb. Evavold was charged in May after she attempted to contact Brodkorb for assistance in restarting her blog after WordPress suspended it for violating their terms of service. Evavold’s criminal trial was scheduled during a hearing today at the Dakota County Northern Service Center in West St. Paul, Minnesota. An evidentiary hearing was also scheduled for February 28, 2020.
This is despite the fact that Evavold was only shown to have received a copy of the photo. That order is here.
Then, Evavold contacted Brodkorb's attorney, which Brodkorb claimed violated the harassment order.
Initially, prosecutors agreed.
Here is an email from Elliott Knetsch from June 26, 2019, Ms. Evavold-
We are in receipt of your correspondence below. Please be advised that anything you say or send to us may be used against you in court. You may wish to consult with an attorney before sending us any further correspondence.
After careful consideration, we will not be dismissing the charges at this time.
That same Knetsch on January 22, 2020, told Brodkorb in the above letter, "I have reviewed the above referenced police report and after serious consideration, I have decided not to file criminal charges against Mrs. Evavold for this incident."
Remarkable.
Judge Karen Asphaug Out
(Judge Karen Asphaug)
Here isan item which flew under the radar for a while.
As of October 31, 2019, Judge Karen Asphaug has announced her intention to retire.
Who is Judge Karen Asphaug?
She presided over the criminal trials of SGR, Dede Evavold, and the two Dahlen's.
She has materialized in David Rucki's world many times.
In this article, David Rucki screamed uncontrollably and swore at two and three year olds. Then, when his neighbors threatened to call the police, he said, "If any of you assholes ever call the police on me again, I'll raise holy hell," according to the police report.
Judge Asphaug was the presiding the judge, who dismissed the case inexplicably for a lack of probable cause, though there were several witnesses who gave police statements, on the eve of trial in February 2010.
She also recently granted David Rucki a fifty year harassment order against Evavold. That protective order is below. That order was signed on September 9, 2019.
As such that that order expires in 2069. It forbids Evavold from saying David Rucki and his children's names anywhere publicly, particularly not on social media.
I described Asphaug's role in David Rucki's corruption in more detail in the video below, starting at 41:15.
Now, she is out as a judge. Here is from the announcement, "The vacancies will occur upon the retirements of the Honorable Lawrence Clark and the Honorable Karen Asphaug. The position created by Judge Clark’s retirement will be chambered at Red Wing in Goodhue County. The position created by Judge Asphaug’s retirement will be chambered at Hastings in Dakota County." That announcement was made on October 31, 2019. It seems one of David Rucki's favorite judges will not be around to do him more favors.
Please note. I welcome any and all comments from any political perspective. I will not stand or approve any swearing, and personal attacks will likely also not be approved.
