A Whack On The Side Of The Head

Usually, when someone files a complaint against their spouse for assault, and then later recants and asks that charges be dropped, it is because, even though the assault actually did occur, the person complaining, for some reason, has decided that they don’t want to see the charges through, to the conviction of their spouse. There are a lot of reasons this happens. Fear of retaliation. Fear of the future alone. Fear that life without an abusive partner is worse than life with one. A belief that, “deep down inside, this is really a good person, he just let his anger get away from him, and it was probably my fault, anyway, that he lost his temper and hit me, and so if I just treat him better, he will treat me better, and we’ll be happy together.”

Usually.

In the much-publicized case of Nicole and Dave Weiler, it now appears that’s not what’s going on.

Special Prosecutor Ladd Erickson said this week “Nicole Weiler’s May 20th statement and additional circumstantial evidence not available to the prosecution at the time this charge was filed, now suggests David Weiler is innocent of this charge,” according to the Bismarck Tribune.

Erickson was referring to a statement by Nicole Weiler on May 20 that her husband had not hit her, as she had reported to police last winter. Erickson’s statement was pretty unequivocal, and prosecutors are not generally inclined to dismiss these kinds of charges lightly.

So it now appears that Dave Weiler did not hit his wife (this time). But somebody did. She was pretty beat up when she called police in March. We’ll see if the prosecutor files charges against somebody else.

A friend of the couple told me yesterday that Nicole Weiler is a little “wacky.” Well, I’d probably be a little wacky too if some big dude who had access to me 24/7 had been whalin’ on me for years. Just because Dave Weiler has only been convicted once doesn’t mean he’s only hit her once. I’m no psychologist, but I know that fear is often at the root of mental health issues. And anger is often at the other end.

Fear and anger. I hope both these people get the help they need. I hope Dave Weiler has the sense and compassion, now, to resign the visible position he holds which makes this a front page story instead of a “nubs of the news” mention. I hope he understands that if he had resigned after this first conviction, she would have seen little reason to file a second, and allegedly false, complaint, which his children read about in the paper. Most kids like it when their parents are on the six o’clock news. Not the Weiler children, I suspect. I hope he understands what his selfish desire to be a State Legislator has wrought on those children. I hope I never read either of their names in the newspaper again, unless it’s for the fact they won a medal at the Prairie Rose State Games, or something positive like that.

If he doesn’t have enough sense to do that, then I hope the recall effort by the folks in District 30 is successful. That would be a well-placed, well timed, whack on the side of the head. Turn about, after all, is fair play. Figuratively speaking, of course.