Yesterday, in Mankato on a freelance assignment for City Pages, I attended a hearing for Jeremy Giefer and checked court records for investigative reporter Nick Pinto. He has incorporated the material into Jeremy Giefer charged with domestic assault before Pawlenty pardon, a new article at the Blotter.
Go read the entire article at the City Pages. Perhaps the most troubling discovery yesterday was the evidence that one of the people who wrote a letter supporting the pardon was the supervisor for the investigation of the 2003 domestic assault charge that resulted from Giefer slapping his son so hard across the face that he left a bruise.
Pinto writes:
The incident doesn't show up in an online search of Giefer's criminal record, but the records are available to anyone who asks for them at Blue Earth County Court, and would have been known to the Board of Pardons if they had scratched the surface of Giefer's court history before clearing his record.
Will Purvis's 2007 letter in support of Giefer's pardon. |
One person who unquestionably knew about Giefer's child-beating incident was Will Purvis, a Blue Earth County Commissioner who wrote a letter in support of Giefer's pardon application in 2007. "I have seen him interact with his wife and children and he is a good husband and parent," Purvis told the board.
Will Purvis signed the domestic assault complaint against Giefer two years before writing in support of his pardon. |
But just two years earlier, Purvis signed his name to a very different kind of document: acting in his capacity then as a deputy with the Sheriff's department, Purvis was the approving supervisor in the initial incident report. He also signed the complaint when Giefer was charged.
"The fact that his wife was asking for him to be pardoned played a big role in me writing that letter. He lived in the same community that I lived in, and was a businessman here. I had seen him interact with his family, and I didn't see any indication of any trouble there."
Purvis didn't respond today to calls for comment, but when City Pages spoke with him two weeks ago when Giefer's story first broke, he explained his letter of support this way:
Governor Pawlenty has made much of the claim that no one involved in the process knew knew anything about Giefer that argued against the Vernon Center man's claim to be a model father and husband--and that Giefer will be investigated for perjury. Will the same scrutiny be applied to Purvis?
The Mankato Free Press also covered the hearing and looked at the 2003 complaint, but didn't connect the dots with regard to Purvis's own involvement as member of the sheriff's department in 2003. In More charges filed against pardoned Vernon Center man staff writer Dan Nienaber reports:
Pawlenty and the Board of Pardons have drawn criticism for not thoroughly reviewing Giefer’s case, however. Letters sent to the board by several people described him as a family man who had changed during the past 15 years. One of those letters was sent by Blue Earth County Commissioner Will Purvis, a former sheriff’s deputy who lives near Vernon Center.
Court records show Giefer has had other legal problems since the 1994 case was closed. In 2003, he was charged with child abuse for bruising a 7-year-old boy by slapping him across the face. Giefer never denied slapping the boy, saying the child had repeatedly refused to go to bed. That charge was dismissed after Giefer completed a diversion program.
Giefer is also paying child support to a woman who became pregnant with his child during what she described as a two-year relationship that ended in early 2009. The woman requested an order for protection, saying Giefer continued to enter her house uninvited after they broke up. She accused him of exposing himself to her during unwanted visits, watching her house and “becoming threatening and hostile” when she was with other males.
The same woman was granted an order for protection against Giefer on Nov. 24, or about a week after Giefer was charged with sexually assaulting the second teen. That order was issued by Walker. The file was not available Monday.
Read the entire article at the MFP. Bluestem and City Pages will continue to cover the Giefer case.
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