Heidi Olson takes stand in domestic assault trial of husband

Heidi and Mark Olson's fourth wedding anniversary is next week, but odds are they won't be spending it together. Unless, of course, Representative Olson's trial is still in progress in Sherburne County District Court.

Heidi Olson Wednesday testified against her husband, the veteran lawmaker being tried on two counts of domestic assault. She described a sometimes happy, sometimes turbulent marriage that took a turn for the worse in the past year.

When he emerged from jail last November Olson (R-Big Lake) told reporters he needed his wife's forgiveness. Heidi Olson indicated she may have forgiven but she hasn't forgotten.

She spent five hours relating details of the incident at the Olson's home in Big Lake that led to domestic assault charges last November. She also provided details of three prior incidents in which she alleges Olson became physical.

Judge Alan Pendleton reminded jurors that they could not try to convict Mark Olson for the previous cases, that the prior incidents were only being offered as evidence supporting the alleged assault November 12th.

On that day, Heidi Olson said, her husband pushed her down to the ground three times in the back yard of their home, and at one point blocked her from running back indoors.

She said she feared for her life after hearing Mark Olson say, "You've ruined my life! You've taken everything away from me! I have nothing to loose."

"Why don't you let me come here and let me finish the job? What should I do now, burn the house down?"

She said she eventually got into the house through at different door, and gathered up two of her children and ran to her car. She noticed her husband had driving his car into the woods, and said she became fearful Olson would hurt himself or her.

Ms. Olson said she'd been trying to talk to Mark for three days about how he had disciplined her autistic son Shawn, who was 12 at the time. Shawn is one of five children Heidi had with her first husand, snowmobile racing champion Darcy Ewing, who died in 2002 when his bicycle was struck by a car.

She said that on the previous Thursday, while she was away at a college class and suggested Rep Olson play Monopoly with Shawn and a younger son named Dylan. She said that Shawn, the autistic son, apparently tried to pay the wrong price for hotels and that Mark decided to "correct him" about it.

Heide said she'd been trying to talk to Mark about the episode because she felt he'd been too harsh with the child, but every time she tried to bring it up Olson would either hang up on her or leave the home.

She said when he drove up to the home that Sunday morning in November she walked outdoors and told him, "If you're not ready to talk about how you dealt with Shawn then I want you to leave my property."

Heidi recalled that Rep Olson proceeded to get out of the vehicle, pull a metal tape measure off of his belt, and begin measuring the back of the home. They had been planning to add a garage to the back of the house, and the project had been delayed by his relection campaign.

She said she crossed her arms and planted her feet, in hopes of stopping his progress with the tape measure. And that's when he grabbed her and threw her onto her back, according to Ms. Olson.

She said she clung to his sweater on the way to the ground, at which point Rep Olson said to her, "You tore my sweater!"

Heidi said she tried to stay calm, and remind Mark how much he loved his father, and how much it would hurt his father is Mark did something he'd regret.

She said her back pain continued for a month, and that she found a bruise on her posterior the next day.

On cross-examination, Mark Olson's attorney Jill Clark delivered a line of questioning intended to bolster a different version of the story.

"You hit the ground three times? Were your pant's damaged?"

"No, not that I'm aware of?"

"Were your pants taken into evidence? Or pictures taken of them?"

"No they weren't."

Clark said earlier in the week she will try to convince jurors he was the one afraid for his life. On several occasions during cross-examination she asked Heidi if she had struck Olson that day or chased him. Each time Heidi answered that she had not.

She did concede that during the first year of their marriage she became frustrated during an argument and struck Olson in the chest.

Rep Olson could be seen returning from lunch break Wednesday carrying defense exhibits 12 and 13, drawers from an antique dresser from the couple's bedroom. Heidi Olson admitted stabbing it with a fishing knife after an argument on the telephone with Olson.

"I was very angry with Mark. I didn't want to be that kind of person," Heidi Olson said as she broke into tears.

After regaining her composure she elaborated, "I didn't want to become that angry person I was becoming."

She told the court she went to a special program for abused spouses in hopes of learning how to avoid angry confrontations. Later she also conceded having gone through anger management counseling.

Mark Olson was not home at the time, but is expected to testify it made him fearful for his saftety because the dresser was symbolic of him.

Olson also said she used scissors to cut into the front cover of their wedding album to destroy a photo of the two.

"I was sorry I had married Mark. I cut it up. I was sad I married Mark."

The first question Mark Olson's defense attorney Jill Clark asked was, "Did you and Mark agree before you got married that HE would be the head of the household?"

Heidi responded that yes she had.

Clark referred to he head-of-household factor during the first day of the trial, arguing that investigators drew their own conclusions when Mark Olson said he was, "responsible for losing control of things under the pressure."

Mark Olson is expected to testify that he meant to say, as the head of a Christian household, he is ultimately responsible for any "discord" that occurs.

Clark also asked questions about why Heidi still referred to the large property on the banks of the Elk River as "my home" when in fact she had agreed to put Mark Olson's name on the title as an equal co-owner. Heidi said that was habit because she'd lived there almost her entire first marriage, and that the house had been paid off with insurance when he died.

On several occasions during cross examination, Clark asked, "Were you chasing Mark Olson?"

The answer was always no, but it was clear Heidi was becoming annoyed at the line of questioning.

Olson said that in February 2006 she and her husband were arguing again, and she felt threatened because he became angry. She testified she tried to run downstairs to call 9-1-1, but that Rep Olson he got down the stairs first and overturned a large book case at the foot of the stairs.

She said heard him rip the phone off the wall in the kitchen and throw it to the floor. She told jurors she grabbed her cell phone and shoved it into her pocket, and that Mark Olson jumped on her and tried to get to her cell phone.

When asked why she didn't call police after exiting the home she said, "I really don't know."

In another previous episode, in August of 2006 she said Olson threw two Bibles at her a total of eight times, bruising her on both arms. She said that confrontation came during an argument over air conditioning.

Heidi said it was very hot but that Olson wouldn't allow her to reinstall the window unit AC he had removed from the home. After days of what she described as unbearable heat she took her two youngest children to a motel in Monticello, but then returned to the home to make sure the windows were closed.

The next day her sister Holly Rebney came to Big Lake and took pictures to document the bruises on her arms. The defense attorney asked Ms Olson to demonstrate how she got bruises on the sides of her arms, implying it would be a difficult angle for the Bibles to strike if she was facing Olson during the alleged book barrage.

Heidi Olson was asked again why she didn't call the police after any of the four alleged attacks. Ms Olson said she was more focused on getting help for Mark, that she loved him and wanted him to get help.

It was her sister Cindy Green who called police on the day in November resulting in Mark Olson's arrest.

Another sister, Holly Rebney, testified Wednesday that the sisters had always been the one Heidi turned to in the previous incidents and they decided between themselves that they would contact authorities.

"We knew it was something she was never going to do."

Mark Olson's response will come Thursday when he takes the stand.

By John Croman, KARE 11 News

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