Dan Abrams smears Michelle MacDonald
Dan Abrams smears Michelle MacDonald
Abrams becomes the latest member of the MSM to go out of his way to mischaracterize the Rucki case.
Dan Abrams has become a media mogul.
He has his own shows on News Nation, Reelz, A & E, and he’s a legal analyst for ABC.
He also runs several websites like Mediaite, Law & Crime, and more.
As a graduate of Columbia Law School, one would expect Mr. Abrams to have a good handle on legal matters. That may be why he hosts Court Cam on A & E.
That show was the latest MSM show which smears Sandra Grazzini-Rucki (SGR) and anyone who helps her in her child custody case with David Rucki.
Mr. Abrams- who did not respond to an email for comment on his website- reached deep into the vault to September 2013, when Michelle MacDonald was forced to conduct part of a custody trial handcuffed in a wheelchair.
Abrams spun this incident against SGR and her attorney.
Sadly, I am not surprised that Abrams spun this to make Michelle look bad.
ABC’s 20/20 did the hatchet job “Footprints in the Snow” which laughably claimed that there was no evidence that David Rucki is violent. Below is his daughter Samantha speaking of his violence starting at 4:50-7:10.
“Before the whole divorce, he’d always come home drunk, or he’d beat my mom to no end. I mean he went after her with an organ leg once. He legit went after her with an organ leg.” Samantha said in the audio. “He’s choked, slapped, hit and verbally abused her.”
The Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Daily Mail, and others have also smeared SGR and Michelle previously.
The hearing Abrams covered is notorious in the evolution of the Rucki case.
It was the second day of a two-day custody trial. Michelle had filed a federal lawsuit against the judge David Knutson prior to day one and asked him to recuse.
Knutson assured Michelle he could remain objective despite being sued and refused to recuse himself.
{Knutson finally recused himself on April 17, 2015, twelve days after my first article on this case.}
Approximately a year prior, Knutson had issued an order which removed- forcefully- SGR from her home and granted custody to David Rucki’s sister- Tami Love.
None of this was mentioned by Abrams, but he can be excused for this.
What’s inexcusable is his narrative that what happened on September 12, 2013, was Michelle MacDonald’s fault.
In the report, Abrams flashes to Michelle taking a photo inside the courtroom while claiming that he didn’t know why she would take this photo.
He should have asked. Michelle has explained why many times. After the first day’s hearing, Knutson claimed the second day had been cancelled. Michelle found out late in the evening on September 11, this was not so and made it to the hearing, almost by accident. She took a photo of the schedule to prove the second day had never been cancelled, despite what Knutson had said.
Michelle told me that no one from A & E or the show contacted her; in fact, she didn’t know this segment aired until I told her.
Because Michelle took this photo, Dakota County (MN) Sheriff’s Deputies took her into custody during a break, purportedly for a contempt of court citation.
Never mind that a judge is generally supposed to issue a contempt of court citation, not a deputy. I’m sure this was all on the up and up, and Abrams- and his Columbia University law degree- would know.
A contempt of court citation for taking a photo seems thin, but alas.
So far, Abrams has still not gotten anything wrong.
Then, he claims that Michelle was put into the wheelchair because she refused to cooperate.
He provides no evidence, besides his word; there is no video of her failure to cooperate in his report. He doesn’t even provide a statement from anyone.
Video from the interrogation- which Abrams didn’t bother to track down- is found in two parts: part one and part two.
Michelle said that deputies repeatedly asked her what her name was; she told me she was confused.
“You know my name,” she has said she told them.
“But she refuses to cooperate or give any of her personal information,” Abrams states, totally mischaracterizing what happened.
They threw her into the wheelchair while she was still confused and kept her locked up, she told me many times.
Michelle was then required to conduct the trial, after this incident, still locked in a wheelchair. There’s even video of this. Michelle is wheeled in at 1:10:00.
“The attorney is brought back to the table to finish off her hearing after refusing to stand or walk on her own,” Abrams claims.
He provides no evidence of this either. Michelle said she was kept locked in the wheelchair so she couldn’t stand or walk.
Abrams makes it seem like she wanted to finish the hearing locked in the wheelchair. Michelle has never said that.
Abrams mentions that Michelle was locked up for thirty-six hours, after completing the hearing in this position. He never explains why taking a photo and even failing to provide her name would get her locked up for so long.
One important thing Abrams fails to mention is that Michelle’s client- SGR- disappears after she is wheeled in. You can see that by going to any portion of the above video after 1:10:00; SGR is no longer there.
That seems like an important piece of information, that her client disappeared after she was taken into custody for snapping a photo.
Dan missed it.
He did mention the federal lawsuit, but he did not mention that Michelle filed it before this incident. Michelle explained further.
I sued on behalf of Sandra the day before this incident and asked that he recuse himself. That case was later dismissed on judicial immunity grounds.
I did bring my own case on my own behalf for civil rights against the county, sheriff, and that was dismissed on immunity grounds as well.
None of that is in Dan’s story either.
{Check out the book Michelle and I wrote on this case “Sandra Grazzini-Rucki and the World’s Last Custody Trial”}
For good measure, Dan mentions that Michelle has been sanctioned multiple times by the BAR. I featured her in whistleblowing attorneys.
Add Dan Abrams to the list of people talking about Michelle’s suspensions.
He said she was suspended once for sixty days for taking the photo and again for “impugning” David Knutson.
She “impugned his integrity” by stating that this hearing had “no {due} process.”
Abrams did not say how she impugned Knutson, only that she had.
She was forced to conduct part of this hearing handcuffed to a wheelchair, but saying there was no due process somehow impugns Judge Knutson’s integrity.
The entire BAR disciplinary hearing is below.
The interview Megan Fox and I did with Michelle is below. She comes on about thirty-six minutes in.
I also reached out to the public relations department of A & E, which broadcasts Court Cam, but they also did not respond.
If you’d like to send an email to A & E, send to press@aenetworks.com
Michael, I sent an email to Abrams. I thought he was a good guy reporter on the courts...his laziness, flippant and inaccurate account of Michelle MacDonald's case is the kind of reporting that endangers the livelihoods of good attys who fight for safety of domestic violence victims and their children!