Did son and campaign employee of Minnesota GOP governor candidate commit assault on passed-out girl?

[Minnesota Raindog]

In a story that originated in Minneapolis' City Pages, this is a photo taken from the Facebook page of Tripp Emmer, son and campaign employee of GOP Governor Candidate Tom Emmer:



Local blogger Spotty suggests this could be grounds for assault charges:

http://thecuckingstool.blogspot.com/2010/09/tripped-up.html

"That's Tripp Emmer, grinning and giving the thumbs up over an apparently unconscious young woman who has had penises crudely drawn on her cheek and arm.

Let’s be direct: this is assault."

Commenter Phoenix Woman suggests this statute would be a good place to start:

https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?year=2009&id=609.235#stat.609.235

Good ol' Republican family values. For the record, Proud Daddy Tom Emmer is one of the most extreme wingnuts to ever run for governor in Minnesota, and has two drunk driving tickets on his record. Son Tripp Emmer above also was charged with underage drinking in July.

What do DUers think? Assault?

[Enrique]

1. who would name their son Tripp? n/t

[Octafish]

3. Snootier GOP types, often.

It's short for Daddy Warbucks III.

[Enrique]

9. I see, it's like Griff Rutherford Harsh V

Meg Whitman's son.

http://gawker.com/5564226/billionaire-bad-boys-club-meg-whitmans-sons-arrest-for-beating-up-a-girl

(...)

A 22-year-old woman named Valerie Sanchez was riding a bus to Palo Alto's Blue Chalk Cafe on the night of May 26, 2006 when she crossed paths with Griffith Rutherford Harsh V, Meg's eldest son and a notoriously delinquent sophomore at Princeton at the time. According to a police report filed later that night, Sanchez and her friends had mocked his fraternity and said "fuck you" and "fuck your fraternity" to him before Sanchez swiped Griff's baseball cap off his head. The altercation escalated when both parties arrived at Blue Chalk Cafe. According to Valerie's statement to the police, they were inside the bar when Griff "pushed" her "with two open hands on her chest and shoulder area." She fell down and felt her right ankle "snap." A nearby security guard witnessed the event and corroborated Valerie's version of the events.

(...)

[Octafish]

14. Privilege.

Thanks to the dumbing down of private education, Griff the Fiff probably has no clue about noblesse oblige.

While he wasn't a real "Jr.," Smirko at Harvard had a similar cognitive issue.

[sakabatou]

4. To be fair, they had a another kid named Fall.

[h8okra]

40. good one

[tuckessee]

18. Same kind of people who name their kid "Beau". n/t

[Brickbat]

2. I don't think it's assault. I do think it's a felony-level act of classlessness, however.

[EOTE]

23. Most people wouldn't. Legally, however, it is. NT

[Sheepshank]

5. From the team that screeches 'morality'

this hardly seems like a morally noble act.

[Ozymanithrax]

6. The picture doesn't show evidence of assault...

From what I see, it is at the level of the old Police Academy movies where they caught some guy asleep on the beach and wrote things in sunblock on his face. There is no indication that he administered anything to make the girl sleep.

609.235 USE OF DRUGS TO INJURE OR FACILITATE CRIME.
Whoever administers to another or causes another to take any poisonous, stupefying, overpowering, narcotic or anesthetic substance with intent thereby to injure or to facilitate the commission of a crime may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than five years or to payment of a fine of not more than $10,000, or both.

Certainly, someone should talk to the young woman involved and see if all they used was ink.

[Enrique]

10. I thought it was an abu Ghraib reference

with the penises and the thumbs up.

[Ozymanithrax]

12. No, it was a sexual reference to the prowess of those young idiots...

and a power reference to their ability to humiliate a young woman who fell asleep.

Now, if they administered a date rape drug, that would assault.

[progressoid]

24. Hmmm...

[Ozymanithrax]

35. You second picture was actually considered a crime.

Young idiot males have been doing things like what they did to the sleeping woman long before Abu Gharib. The thumbs up signal is ancient and used widely in many cultures. In ancient Rome, it meant life.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

37. Rush Limbaugh used to make the same point you're making.

[progressoid]

38. In reverse.

Although, I wasn't really trying to make any point. Just posting both pics for consideration.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

41. It's a load of horseshit either way you look at it.

[Swede]

15. It is an assualt using common law:

Generally, the essential elements of assault consist of an act intended to cause an apprehension of harmful or offensive contact that causes apprehension of such contact in the victim.

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/assault

[LostinVA]

21. Exactly -- it's assault

[Ozymanithrax]

36. If a statute is written that way then it would be assault.

The statute the OP linked to did not say that.

[LostinVA]

20. If they drew the graffitti on her, then it's assault

In many states.

[COLGATE4]

30. It may not be an assault (due to her being unconsious) but

it IS a battery.

[Evasporque]

7. doossh bahgs....nt

[Raschel]

8. Is every conservative a hypocrite?

Wow, it seems like they all have messed up families while they tout family values.

[gophates]

11. Yes.

Duh.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

13. That would probably be up to her.

[mzteris]

17. actually, if she's underage or incapcitated,

it's not.

And why do I get the feeling that "drawing" isn't all they did?


The girl may well be too intimated, ashamed, or scared to say anything, btw.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

25. Umm, yeah, it is.

If she wakes up, sees the drawings, and has a good humor about the whole thing, then no harm and no foul.

If she wakes up and is... less than good humored about it, she can probably claim assault.

[mzteris]

29. IF - it's just drawings . . .

did you notice how/where the other guy is lying....

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

32. And there's no evidence that it's anything more than drawings.

Sure. Maybe they raped her. Or stole one of her kidneys. Or took her insurance card, went on a fun run to the nearest emergency room and committed insurance fraud.

But there isn't any reason to believe any of that happened except for maybe wishful thinking.

[jayfish]

34. Oh shit, call the police!

http://www.comedycentral.com/tosh.0/tag/passed-out/

[Odin2005]

44. Why did I KNOW you would say that?

:eyes:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

45. How did I know you'd be wrong and disagree?

[tuckessee]

16. Grasping at straws.

This is the most desperate and lame attempt I've seen in a while.

[jayfish]

28. +1

This is pretty common stuff. Our already overcrowded jails would be doubly so if crap like this was treated as assault.

[LeftinOH]

19. It is for the girl in the photo to determine, regardless of how it may look. n/t

[LostinVA]

22. The law doesn't work like that in many cases

[progressoid]

26. Favorite quote: "Don't blow your wad in the first period!" -- Thomas Emmer Jr.

From his facebook page:
http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2010/09/the_facebook_ph.php?page=3

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

27. For all we know, the young woman might have been in on it. It is for her to take action

if she didn't know what happened to her and was offended by it.

[Scurrilous]

31. Kick

:kick:

[EC]

33. Yeah,

and their real assholes too.

[Evasporque]

39. Minnesotans won't like that...

Anyone who raises their child to behave like an ass is likely an ass as well.

Seen it over and over again. Jerky mean parents raise jerky mean kids...80% of the time.

Drawing penises on a passed out girl is nasty. If the disrespect her that much what else did they do to her?

DooshBahgs

[h8okra]

42. Probably

nothing. My experience is that guys who draw pictures of big penises are usually "Impotent and Limp" as Sister Sarah would say.

[Odin2005]

43. Yep, assault!

:puke: