Hot dish 09.17.24

By Ryan Faircloth

Good morning. GOP state Rep. Jeff Dotseth, a first-term lawmaker from Kettle River, was arrested in 2008 after his then-wife called police to report he’d assaulted her. Dotseth was initially charged with misdemeanor domestic assault and a judge granted a yearlong order for protection against him stating he must cease contact with his then-wife, Penny Dotseth, according to court documents not previously reported. He was also barred from using or possessing firearms while the order was in place and allowed only supervised visits with the 9-year-old daughter they shared.

Nine months after he was arrested, Dotseth pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail, which was stayed on the condition he remain law-abiding for a year, which he did. He was ordered to complete a compassion workshop and continue complying with the order for protection.

“Jeff claims to be a non-violent person. This is most definitely not true,” Penny Dotseth wrote in a 2008 sworn affidavit she filed along with a petition for divorce. She’s since remarried and now goes by Penny Kowal.

Kowal and her son both wrote affidavits that year alleging Dotseth abused them repeatedly over the course of a decade of living together. Kowal’s son was a child at the time of the alleged abuse and wrote his affidavit under oath when he was 25 years old. Both he and Kowal said Dotseth had punched, kicked, slapped and choked them over the years.

Dotseth denied the allegations in his own affidavit at the time and accused his then-wife of “hitting me, pulling my hair and screaming at me.” In a statement to the Star Tribune last week, he said he “went through an extremely difficult divorce and child custody dispute.”

“There were hurtful allegations made against me that I deny, including a sworn affidavit I filed under oath under penalty of perjury,” Dotseth said.

Months before Dotseth entered a guilty plea and the charge was reduced to disorderly conduct, Assistant Sherburne County Attorney Jennifer Holl informed him and his lawyer that the state intended to introduce additional evidence of similar conduct at trial, including an “incident that occurred in January 2008, where Defendant grabbed Penny Dotseth’s face, slapped her and threatened to rip her head off.”

Holl also informed them the state would introduce the 911 call audio and transcript, statements made by Kowal and the daughter she shared with Dotseth, and redacted squad video and audio.

REACTION: Minnesota DFL chair Ken Martin and House DFL leaders will hold a news conference Tuesday calling for Dotseth to suspend his re-election campaign. They’ll also call on House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, to expel Dotseth from the House GOP Caucus.

Demuth said in a statement to the Star Tribune last week that “domestic violence is an absolute red line for me — it’s never acceptable under any circumstances.”

However, Demuth said, “This case was resolved through the legal process more than 15 years ago, concluding with no charge or conviction for domestic assault. I spoke with Rep. Dotseth earlier today, and he reiterated the contents of what was in his affidavit denying the allegations that were made during the divorce proceedings.”

CHINA: U.S. House Republicans are probing Gov. Tim Walz’s ties to China, but some U.S.-China experts say the probe is unlikely to go anywhere, my colleague Sydney Kashiwagi reports.

Walz has visited China more than 30 times. He moved to China in 1989 to teach English and was one of the country’s first U.S.-sanctioned educators. Walz later launched Educational Travel Adventures, Inc., a company that took U.S. students on educational trips to China from the early 1990s through the early 2000s.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky, said he thinks Walz’s frequent China trips raise questions about Beijing’s influence on his decision-making.

“We’d like to know more. I don’t think he’s been forthcoming about why he spent so much time and took so many groups to China, and by accounts, he’s said very favoring things about China to his students over the years,” Comer said.

Walz’s spokesperson, Teddy Tschann, said in a statement that the governor has “stood up to the [Chinese Communist Party], fought for human rights rights and democracy, and always put American jobs and manufacturing first.”

Derek Scissors, a China scholar from the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank, said Walz visited the country when the U.S. was on friendlier terms with it. That context cannot be ignored, he said.

“We had a different view back then, and it was a consensus view. We didn’t see China as an adversary,” Scissors said. He said it’s unfair to apply current thinking about China to Walz back then.

SUPREME COURT: Minnesota’s newest state Supreme Court justice, Theodora Gaïtas, was ceremonially sworn in on Monday.

Colleague Jeff Day looks at four things you should know about Gaïtas, from her background as a public defender to her family and upbringing in Greece.

FORUM: The League of Women Voters of Minneapolis, with community organizations, is co-sponsoring a candidate forum for the open House District 61A seat at 6:30 p.m. at The Woman’s Club of Minneapolis. The two candidates on the November ballot — Katie Jones and Toya López — will participate. My colleague Josie Albertson-Grove previously reported on the DFL primary in this district that Jones won.

CX: Monday’s hot dish newsletter incorrectly said Walz had no events on his public schedule. Walz’s office announced he would “recognize the newest Supreme Court Justice Theodora Gaïtas.”

WHERE’S WALZ: Walz is scheduled to speak virtually at an event thanking state agencies for the work they’ve done implementing initiatives passed during the 2023 legislative session.

On the campaign side, Walz will speak at events in Georgia and North Carolina on Tuesday, including a rally in Asheville.

READING LIST

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