I just returned from Mankato, where I served as a stringer for City Pages' continuing coverage of the Jeremy Giefer case. In Pawlenty disregarded molester's disorderly conduct conviction to give daycare pardon, Nick Pinto reports:
Jeremy Giefer was back in court this afternoon for violating the terms of his bail agreement by making contact with the daughter he is accused of molesting for the past seven years.
When Giefer's son, who lives with him, met last week for a family therapy session with his daughter, who is currently staying with a foster family, Giefer tagged along, and came within feet of the car where his daughter was sitting.
In fact, Blue Earth County Assistant Attorney Brian Rovney told the court, it wasn't the only time Giefer has tried to contact his alleged victim. His daughter's foster family have had to buy her a new phone to put an end to the unwanted telephone calls. "This girl is 16 years old, she has been serially abused, and she is in extreme danger," Rovney said.
For the moment, Giefer's daughter is safe from the man accused of raping her; her father is back in jail tonight with bond set at $1 million.
Read the whole article at the City Pages. Pinto raises troubling questions about Giefer's run-ins with the law shortly before the pardon, as well as troubling personal conduct--the prank and a child conceived outside of his marriage within a year before the pardon. Pinto also interviews local law enforcement officer, Lake Crystal Chief of Police and State Representative Tony Cornish, who admits knowing of the scuttlebutt, but who says he was not contacted as part of the pardon process:
"Sure, I knew about him and the Pumpkinland incident," Cornish told City Pages today. "And I knew he was applying for a pardon, too, because he was talking about that around town. But I didn't have anything to do with the pardon application. Nobody asked me to do anything for it and I didn't talk to anyone about it."
So if Cornish knew the convicted sex offender in his town was applying for a pardon mere months after involvement in a disturbing incident taking sexual advantage of a drunk woman, why didn't he contact the Pardon Board to speak against Giefer's pardon?
"I'm not an official part of that process," Cornish said. "I was never requested or asked. Nobody sent me any request for information."
However, the application for the pardon wasn't simply talk around town.
According a staff member of the Board of Pardons to whom I spoke on the phone on Wednesday, November 24, notices of pardon applications are published in the local paper. This action is dictated by state law:
Additionally, the secretary shall publish notice of an application for a pardon extraordinary in the local newspaper of the county where the crime occurred. (638.06 ACTION ON APPLICATION)
Update: Cornish's lackadaisical attitude about the pardon runs counter to a recent assessment of the state legislator in Minnpost:
In the House, the most intriguing player to watch may be Tony Cornish, who will be head of the Public Safety Committee. Cornish is very conservative, likes cowboy hats and will have some hang-'em-high thoughts on crime and punishment.
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