Mark Olson convicted on one count, acquitted on another
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The St. Cloud Times and the Star Tribune have stories. Here's the info from the AP:
Jury splits verdict in trial of Minn. lawmaker
ELK RIVER, Minn. (AP) - State Rep. Mark Olson was convicted Friday of one count of misdemeanor domestic assault and acquitted on a second charge of intentionally inflicting bodily harm, also a misdemeanor.
The verdicts were returned by a jury of five men and one woman after about three hours of deliberations. Sentencing was set for Aug. 8.
Prosecutors alleged Olson, an eight-term Republican from Big Lake, pushed his wife down three times behind their home on Nov. 12.
Olson, 52, claimed during trial he was a battered spouse and that the Nov. 12 incident came after frequent arguments with his wife over raising her five children.
He said that in the past, she hit him several times, stabbed his favorite dresser and cut his picture off their wedding album cover with what he thought was a knife.
Olson's wife, Heidi Olson, also claimed she had been abused.
During closing arguments, prosecutor Gretchen Ziehl told jurors that Olson intended to scare and harm his wife when he put his hands on her and she ended up on her backside.
Ziehl rejected his theory that he was acting in self-defense.
During her closing arguments, Olson's attorney, Jill Clark, asked the jurors to find that Olson had no intent to harm his wife or to cause her any fear when the two argued and eventually became physical.
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