Bizarre Rucki Hearing Leaves Little Clarity

(Sandra Grazzini-Rucki)

A bizarre hearing ended abruptly in the Rucki case.

A hearing held on August 7, 2018, was supposed to hear testimony for a motion brought by Sandra Grazzini-Rucki to modify her child support- currently at $975 per month.

But things quickly turned into chaos in a courtroom where the judge, Jan Davidson, had little control.

The whole hearing was less than twenty minutes, and it ended abruptly with Davidson suddenly and without explanation cutting off ongoing testimony to state, “I’ll issue my order by mail.”

No order could properly be rendered because the motion to modify the custody was never heard.

For approximately the first half of the hearing, the two sides argued about whether Lisa Elliott had properly served Sandra Grazzini-Rucki with two affidavits she’d filed with the court.

The two affidavits are remarkable themselves in their dichotomy.

On the one hand, Elliott submits an affidavit which is nothing more than three articles with Michael Brodkorb wrote on his blog which he dedicates to nothing but the story. Elliott’s paralegal, Allison Mann, even works on some of the stories with Brodkorb.

On the other hand, David Rucki submitted an affidavit in which he argued he should not submit to one of Davidson’s previous orders.

Rucki did not want to provide tax returns, even though Davidson had ordered him. He argued that they might be shared with the media, namely me.

“I am respectfully notifying the court that I will not be turning over my tax returns,” Rucki said in the affidavit, while also blaming me. “Attached hereto as Exhibit 3 is a copy of various emails from Michael Volpe an ‘investigative reporter’ who lives in Chicago and is working with Petitioner.”

In other words, David Rucki is in favor of media attention used in court in this case, if that media attention favors him; if it exposes him, he considers it harassing. Talk about hypocritical for a guy who has interviewed with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Sun Current, the local Fox station, 20/20, and others.

Attached are a series of emails I’ve sent to everyone I believe is responsible in any way for the atrocity inflicted on Sandra Grazzini-Rucki.

That affidavit can be found here. Also, Lisa Elliott’s affidavit citing Missing in Minnesota is here. 

Normally violating a court order should result in a contempt of court citation, but none was issued during the hearing.

After that was argued for about half the hearing, David Rucki and Sandra Grazzini-Rucki were sworn in when my name came up again.

I had gotten a hold of the affidavits and emailed them with questions- including to the judge- prior to the hearing and Grazzini-Rucki was asked if she provided them to me (she said no).

Then, Judge Davidson noted that she had received emails from me but that she did not open them and only forwarded them to a supervisor who “has been forwarding them to the authorities,” suggesting I did not have a first amendment right to send her and all her colleagues emails about this case.

David Rucki then testified.

He claimed he still made $50,000 per year working for TL Rucki- the company his family started and he claimed to have owned as recently as two years ago- even though he has not provided tax documents to confirm this and he lives in a mansion while owning three other homes.

Throughout his testimony which lasted five to ten minutes, Sandra Grazzini-Rucki interjected with objections.

She first objected to moving forward without David Rucki having to supply his tax documents, though the court had ordered it.

As a result, Rucki was then questioned by the judge about why he was not submitting them.

He repeated the same complaints he’d made in his affidavit, including: that it would be posted on the internet, that he’s being harassed, and that his family had already been through enough.

“I’m tired of being persecuted,” Rucki stated at one point.

Rucki claimed that his personal tax documents had been plastered on the internet, but at one point, Sandra Grazzini-Rucki noted that he’s never submitted any tax documents to be plastered.

“There is nothing on the internet because he has never provided any documents once over seven years,” she stated.

The Dakota County attorney then claimed that all appropriate income related documents had been filed- though again Judge Davidson ordered him to provide tax documents- when Grazzini-Rucki noted that a “prism report” was not filed.

PRISM stands for Providing Resources to Improve Support in Minnesota and it is managed by Minnesota’s Department of Human Services.

“County and state child support staff and contractors who provide centralized receipting services use PRISM” DHS says of who uses it.

Sandra Grazzini-Rucki said that there was no PRISM report and that she was told this was either because he was not using a social security number or because he was an employer not an employee.

Rucki then claimed he received 1099s from TL Rucki Trucking, though he’d previously claimed to receive W2s.

This caused another argument before Judge Davidson abruptly ended the hearing claiming she would render her order by mail.

Sandra Grazzini-Rucki had not yet even been allowed to present a case nor was the substance of her motion ever discussed.
Grazzini-Rucki was released from prison in May, finally completing her sentence for her role in hiding her two daughters from her ex-husband. She is still on parole but was served with papers to re-start her child suppot while still in prison. 
Though she has not had steady employment since being arrested in 2015, numerous Minnesota judges- Maria Pastoor, Jill Flaskamps-Halbrooks, and for now Davidson- have allowed her income to be imputed- or set artificially by these judges- in order to generate child support of nearly $1,000 per month.