Puckett denies assault charge in court
Leslie Brooks Suzukamo
St. Paul Pioneer Press (KRT)
MINNEAPOLIS — Former Min
nesota Twins star Kirby Puckett
broke his silence Monday and
denied that he dragged a woman
into the men's room of an Eden
Prairie restaurant last fall and
groped her, saying instead he es
corted her in on his arm "like a
gentleman would."
Puckett, 43, a Hall of Famer, 10
time All-Star and hero in the Twins'
two World Series championships,
gave a markedly different account
of events the night of Sept. 5 at the
Redstone American Grill from his
alleged victim.
A witness also testified that the
woman bared her breasts to him
earlier that evening and a forensic
pathologist testified that the quick
flashing could account for a small
bruise seen by police and a doctor
on the woman’s right breast several
days after that night.
Monday’s testimony was a
chance for Puckett to refute the
story of the alleged victim, a 34
year-old Bloomington woman who
had taken the stand for the prose
cution last Thursday and testified
tearfully at times that a large man
grabbed her, dragged her into the
restaurant’s men’s room and
pushed her into a stall.
There, she testified, the man
bent her over a toilet and groped
her breast. She was later examined
by a doctor and photographed by
Eden Prairie police, and found to
have bruises on her arm, ankle and
right breast.
The alleged victim works as a
mortgage loan officer. The St. Paul
Pioneer Press generally does not
name people who report being vic
tims of sexual assault.
Puckett, charged with one count
of felony false imprisonment and
two misdemeanor counts of crimi
nal sexual conduct and assault,
faces up to a year in jail if convicted.
Under questioning from his chief
attorney, B. Todd Jones, Puckett
denied assaulting the woman.
Puckett’s testimony was his first
telling of the events of that night.
He had not given a statement to po
lice, authorities said.
Puckett was somber on the
stand, peering out behind dark
glasses he wears due to his glauco
ma. He said he went to the restau
rant with two friends to celebrate
the birthday of one of those friends,
Dwayne Harris of Eagan, who helps
Puckett try to stay in shape at the
Lifetime Fitness center in down
town St. Paul, where Harris is oper
ations manager.
Harris testified that he followed
Puckett to the men’s room that
night and was shocked when he
saw the alleged victim emerge from
the men’s room right before Puck
ett was about to enter.
Harris said he watched Puckett
and the woman enter the men’s
room together, and then the
woman leave “not more than 10
seconds” later.
When the trial resumes Tuesday,
Prosecutor Alan Harris said he’ll
call up to five witnesses. Closing ar
guments are expected Wednesday.
© 2003, Saint Paul Pioneer Press (St
Paul, Minn.). Distributed by Knight
Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
Senate
continued from page 1
in financial aid along with increases in
tuition. Diamond did not know how
many standing committees the sen
ate requires and couldn’t name any
senate duties.
Q: How will you figure out how
to spend the
surplus?
Diamond: My
biggest spending
priority actually
would just be
getting people
back. Having
been overseas,
I’ve seen what
campus life is
like in other
countries, and
it’s a little more
vibrant. Like at the University of Hei
delberg (Germany), they have just
tons of cultural activities day in and
day out, every week of the term, and
their terms are 20 weeks long. So any
group that came forward with a pro
posal to throw some sort of event that
would bring people back here and
kind of create more of a campus com
munity would get a priority from me.
Q: What is the most important
thing you should know in order to deal
with the budget process?
Diamond: A good knowledge of
arithmetic would help. I remember
there was an incident last year with
some basically numerical errors at
one point in the budget process, and
that sort of thing should just be assidu
ously avoided. There’s no need for
anything like that. Obviously, it’s not
that hard to go over numbers and
make sure that everything adds up.
Joseph Jenkins, a second-year law
student focusing on environmental
and natural resource law, is an officer
in Phi Alpha Delta and a member of
the Pro Bono Committee. Jenkins is
also the University’s American Bar As
Diamond
sociation law student representative.
He feels the most important issue fac
ing students he would be representing
are costly and unnecessary regula
tions on events. Jenkins did not know
how many standing committees the
senate requires and misidentified the
senate duties as Senate Rules Section
6. He said the most important duty is
showing up to
meetings.
Q: How will
you figure out
how to spend
the surplus?
Jenkins: Well,
for one thing, do
you have to
spend the sur
plus? You could
use it for some
thing larger — a
concert or im
provements to the school or some
thing like that. One thing that you’ll
want to do is definitely talk to organi
zations to hear what they have going
on. If you save the surplus, save for it
for a reason, but don’t save it if there’s
organizations that can use it to put on
a function or what-not for the school.
Q: What is the most important
thing you should know in order to deal
with the budget process?
Jenkins: Well, you need to know
how much money you have and what
your limits are. That way you can fo
cus on that and be able to see ahead
and be able to plan the best. I was in
the student government when I was
an undergrad, and our budget was
just so haphazardly done because the
administration wouldn’t tell us exact
ly how much it was, and so it’s defi
nitely a problem when you can’t put
down a solid plan.
Faryl Kagan refused an interview
with the Emerald; he said some of its
editors have “serious issues with mis
construing information.”
Mike Martell, a sophomore pre
business major, is the incumbent.
Martell also sits on the ASUO Child
Care Task Force. He said higher edu
cation funding is the most important
issue facing students, adding that the
student senate should get more in
volved with the issue. Martell identi
fied two of the five standing commit
tees required by the senate and said
the most important duty as a senator
is fulfilling office
hours.
Q: How will
you figure out
how to spend
the surplus?
Martell: I
don’t think any
body really
knows how to
spend it exactly.
It’s kind of on a
what-comes-up
basis: special
circumstances, emergencies, when
something breaks. There’s a new in
surance policy where the deductible’s
gone up from 8500 to $2,500, so if a
large piece of equipment breaks, that’s
what the surplus is used for. Then just
other new activities that haven’t been
budgeted that add to the cultural and
physical development of campus. (To
receive surplus) funds, (student
groups) need to be relatively fiscally
responsible. They have to have what
they need budgeted with line-item de
scriptions and be prepared.
Q: What is the most important
thing you should know in order to deal
with the budget process?
Martell: When you’re starting the
PFC process, just knowing that it’s a
huge time commitment. And you
have to be very dedicated if you want
to get through, because the groups are
dedicated, and if you’re not dedicated
you’re doing a disservice to these
groups. Just be prepared to spend a lot
of time.
Kevin Odil, a freshman history ma
jor, is not involved with any groups on
campus. Odil said the most important
Martell
issues facing students are the inciden
tal fee budget and the rising cost of tu
ition. Odil did not know how many
standing committees the senate re
quires and couldn’t name any specific
senate duties.
Q; How will you figure out how to
spend the surplus?
Odil: Well, we have a huge amount
of money right
now. Next year,
they’re going to
add the amount
of students that
are coming
here, and so
there’s no real
reason why we
should add
more to the
budget. I mean,
each student
does not need to
pay more in incidental fees, and this
year it went up like 12 percent. With
more students and more money —
the economy is strapped, people don’t
have the money to pay on more inci
dental fees. Next year, I heard tuition
is probably going to go up. I mean,
people don’t have the money to spend
on more incidental fees.
Q: What is the most important
thing you should know in order to deal
with the budget process?
Odil: Well you have to — I mean,
there’s a lot of rules, there’s a whole
packet of how you (deal with) the
budget. You have to go over and look
at previous budgets — pay increases,
things of that nature — to make sure
that the budget falls in line with the
rules and the needs of the group. I
mean, because costs go up, and that’s
the thing that everyone knows. Some
times you have to spend more on the
same thing that you got last time.
Mena Ravassipour, a sophomore
general science major, currendy holds
senate Seat 11. She is involved in sev
eral committees, including the Facul
ty Personnel committee and the Uni
Odil
versity Executive committee. Ravas
sipour said students have individual
concerns, but particularly want equal
rights and a fair PFG process. Ravas
sipour identified four of the five stand
ing committees required by the sen
ate and said going to meetings,
attending office hours and having a
presence around groups were among
the most impor
tant senate du
ties.
Q: How will
you figure out
how to spend
the surplus?
Ravassipour:
Well, I don’t
think it lays on
one individual
person. I think
it’s definitely a
group process. I
think PFG did a pretty good job this
year, and (when I attended PFG meet
ings), I thought it was really amazing,
and hence I’m running for PFG. I think
it would be an amazing process to get
involved with, and I think it’s impor
tant to be responsible when allocating
student funds.
Q: What is the most important
thing you should know in order to deal
with the budget process?
Ravassipour: Well, I think that
there’s many things that you should
know, but the thing that you should
remember is that there’s opportuni
ties out there, and you have to be
aware that there’s opportunities. And
so it’s not all about numbers. You have
to be aware that there’s opportunities
for groups to grow. I think the most
important thing is you need to re
member that we’re out there to create
better groups so more students can
get involved and so people can feel like
this is a community.
Ravassipour
Contact the news editor
atjanmontry@dailyemerald.com.
ASUO
continued from page 1
Association. Morales, also 23 years
old, is an undeclared junior.
Q: What are your campus ini
tiatives?
Melton: The first campus initiative
would be student empowerment,
which essentially means having more
student representation in decision
making bodies. So, for example, the
general assembly Ls made up of 1,500
administrators and faculty members,
yet there’s only 49 students.
Our second issue is fair housing con
tracts. This pretty much speaks to
there being no term, no grace period
for students to get out of their residence
hall contracts. For instance, if some
body wants to become part of the greek
system and can’t get out of their dorm
contract, it’s not giving that student the
experience they’re looking for.
Morales: The third issue is grad
uate and law school student advo
cacy. (We will) create a position in
our office that will advocate for
those students. Law school and
graduate students pay the same
amount of student fees; however,
they don’t receive comparable
services.
Our last issue is supporting interna
tional student issues. As we know, in
ternational students pay the same
amount of money to go here as out-of
state students,
yet don’t receive
or don’t have ac
cess to the re
sources that
they do.
Q: How
would you make
the ASUO rele
vant to stu
dents?
Melton: To
make some
thing relevant,
you first have to make it accessible. I
think you can never do enough work
around making the community that
you serve feel welcome. Then you
work on tangible issues that actually
affect people’s lives—like tuition, like
making sure there’s students repre
Melton
senting the rest of the student popula
tion in decision-making bodies.
Christa Shively, a 21-year-old sen
ior double major in history and
women and gender studies, is chair
woman of the Associated Students
Presidential Advisory Board and
chairwoman of the EMU Board. Twen
ty-two-year-old
Greg Bae is a
senior triple ma
jor in mathe
matics, eco
nomics and
political sci
ence. Bae is a
member of
Delta Sigma Phi
and has worked
with APASU
andospiRG. Morales
Q: What are
your campus initiatives?
Shively: To begin with, we want to
continue the leadership development
center initiative. (That) would be a
center on campus where people could
receive leadership training in a non
biased, non-political environment.
Bae: The second issue — the point
system. Our focus is to increase the
quality of life for residence hall stu
dents. In instituting a universal point
system (for food), we would spear
head a campaign to be able to use
those points for EMU vendors.
Shively: The EMU Board has
looked at doing
this for the past
couple years,
but we never re
ally had the
leverage to get it
done. I think it’s
something the
board is still in
terested in pur
suing. I think if
we were able to
mobilize
enough pres
sure from a broad base of students on
campus then housing could be per
suaded.
The third issue is diversity.
Bae: I’ve been working with the
MGG and APASU, so issues that per
tain to students of color is something
that really hits home with me. (We
plan) to introduce a new staff position
— the student events coordinator.
This person would bring the campus
at large together by having one place
where information on the student
union events, greek related events
and sporting events can be accessible.
Q: How do
you make the
ASUO relevant
to students?
Bae: Many
students don’t
have a lot of
knowledge of
what the ASUO
does and how it
affects campus.
The student
events coordi
nator or a bi
weekly ASUO column in the Emerald
would increase the awareness of how
the ASUO is relevant to their day-to
day lives as students.
Contact the news editor
atbrookreinhard@dailyemerald.com.