"I'LL SHOW YOU CRAZY," Defendant Shirlynn LaChapelle Allegedly Said, Before Reportedly Waving Knife At Her Daughter In Law....

Facebook photo used under First Amendment fair comment and criticism, blog post by John Hoff. See commentary below about the use of this photo. The two other women pictured in this photo are not involved in the alleged incident. 

As reported earlier today, Shirlynn LaChapelle, who lives in Maple Grove but plays a prominent role in North Minneapolis issues including past involvement in The Neighborhood Hub and the defunct Northside Marketing Task Force, was recently arrested over an alleged assault.

I now have a copy of the charging document containing further details of the alleged incident, click here for a copy.

Allegedly, Maple Grove police were called to...

...a residence in Maple Grove in response to a report of a domestic assault. The residence in question is most likely 9654 Harbor Lane North because that's the address listed for LaChapelle on the complaint AND the complaint itself states she was living with the alleged victim, her daughter in law and son.

Officers made contact with the victim "T.L." who is identified as LaChapelle's daughter-in-law. TL stated LaChapelle had made threats with knives. (Plural in original complaint)

LaChapelle--who has worked as a Realtor for Medina Realty--had moved in with TL and her son, whose initials are JL. According to TL, on the evening in question there had been an argument and TL admitted she "threw wine" at "the Defendant," who would be Shirlynn LaChapelle. Allegedly, Shirlynn responded by grabbing a knife, holding it up, and saying, "See bitch."

Shirlynn then reportedly began to "chase" TL and TL thought she was going to get stabbed. TL was also afraid for her children.

JL, the son, said he observed his mother grab a knife from the counter and say something like, "I'll show you crazy." 

TL saw his wife getting chased around the house by his mother before both TL and JL ran upstairs, according to the criminal complaint.

Shirlynn LaChapelle reportedly admitted she grabbed a box of knives to scare TL and let TL know she was "serious." She supposedly admitted to doing this in order to scare TL.

This blog anticipates that if LaChapelle has no other convictions she may well get some kind of pretrial diversion and nothing will come of this. Intoxication may come into play as a defense, as well.

It is not expected that the dictionary definition of "crazy" will be redefined or that any new illustrations will be added, but nice try.

In regard to the photo used in this blog post which, of course, is used under First Amendment Fair Comment and Criticism. There were a limited number of photos available on Shirlynn's Facebook profile. The only photo of Shirlynn by herself was blurry and this blog strives to avoid blurry and low quality photos. Other photos were blurry and/or showed various other people. 

There was a nice photo of Shirlynn at a wedding with, interestingly, her hand only about a foot from a table knife on a table set for wedding guests. However, guests were visible and it didn't seem right to use somebody's wedding photo in this way. Ultimately, I decided on the photo above because it wasn't blurry and showed a good likeness of Shirlynn. It also appeared to document that Shirlynn had taken a "no violence" pledge, which was a noteworthy aspect of the story. The two other women pictured in the photo have no connection to this story and I do not know their names.