Eagan Police photos document Rep. Thompson alleged assault aftermath

EAGAN, Minn. (FOX 9) - As lawmakers continue to call for his resignation, Minnesota Rep. John Thompson (DFL-St.- Paul) has questioned the authenticity of domestic assault police reports, but photos provided Thursday by the Eagan Police Department appear to show Thompson in a 2004 case.

Those photos show minor injuries sustained by Thompson and his then-girlfriend, whom he married in 2020. They also show a broken table and two telephones Thompson allegedly disabled as she tried to call 911.  

According to the police reports, on August 9, 2004, Eagan police were investigating a 911 hang-up call from an apartment complex on Golfview Drive.

Thompson’s girlfriend told police he punched her in the face and choked her in the presence of three children. She identified Thompson running from the apartment.  

Police officers noticed she was shaking and had several bruises on her body, which they photographed.

She told police the trouble began the previous day at a community pool, when Thompson berated her 5-year-old daughter, calling the girl a "f—-ing bitch," a "little motherf—-er," and a "spoiled ass." She said Thompson told her, "f—- you, f—- your daughter, I hope you both die."

She said that evening Thompson became angry that she changed the password to the answering machine. She told police he put his hands around her neck and began choking her, and said, "I’ll choke you until you can’t breathe anymore."

She told police she nearly passed out when Thompson struck her in the face. She said she tried to call police but Thompson grabbed the phone and dismantled it. 

She said she ran into the hall to try and get a neighbor to call 911, but Thompson dragged her back to the apartment.

Once again she tried to call police from a kitchen phone, but Thompson grabbed the chord and broke the chord in half, she told police.  

To defend herself, she said she grabbed a small club and hit Thompson to get him to let go.  

She told police she tried to climb out the window, but Thompson grabbed her and pulled her back in and began choking her. He then allegedly grabbed her and threw her into the kitchen table, which broke.

Thompson left the apartment with his two young sons from another relationship.

The 5-year-old girl told police she was afraid of Thompson and that she saw him push her mother into the kitchen table and saw him "pounding" on her. 

The woman said she had dated Thompson for five years.  She had recently moved to the apartment complex, didn’t know anyone and didn’t have any money, she told police.

She said Thompson had assaulted her the previous year in Superior, Wisconsin, and she received a concussion. Thompson was jailed for the assault and plead guilty to disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Eagan police officers took the woman and her 5-year-old daughter to a domestic abuse shelter. 

Thompson’s two children were placed on a 72-hour child protection hold until they could be returned to their mother in Chicago.

Thompson was arrested and placed in the back of a squad car. According to an officer's report, "He (Thompson) told me that I had nothing better to do with my time and was treating him as if he were a murderer."

The officer said Thompson declined to give a statement and continued to yell and swear. Thompson claimed he was the one who had tried to call police and that the table had been broken previously.

The case was forwarded to the Dakota County Attorney’s Office to review for charges of domestic assault and mental abuse of a child. Thompson does not appear to have been charged with any crimes stemming from the incident.

Thompson has faced cascading crises since he accused St. Paul police of racial profiling him after a traffic stop on July 4 for not having a front license plate.

Thompson presented police with a Wisconsin driver's license that had been renewed as recently as November 2020, the month he was elected to the Minnesota legislature from a St. Paul district.

In an effort to ascertain his residency history, FOX 9 discovered five domestic assault cases involving Thompson from 2003 to 2011, from Superior, Wisconsin, Eagan and St. Paul.

That reporting led to calls for Thompson to resign from both Democratic and Republican Party Chairs, Gov. Tim Walz, and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.

On Wednesday, Thompson was found guilty in a Hennepin County jury trial of a misdemeanor, obstruction of legal process, stemming from a disturbance at North Memorial Hospital when he and several other people refused to leave the hospital.  

After Wednesday’s verdict, Thompson’s attorney, Jordan Kushner, once again questioned the "authenticity" of the police reports and denied past domestic assault allegations against his client.  

Kushner suggested the reports had been altered and came from "law enforcement groups." FOX 9 obtained the reports from public records requests made directly to the police agencies.

After Wednesday’s verdict, Thompson spoke to the media with his wife, who was his accuser in the 2004 Eagan domestic assault, by his side.  

Thompson did not take questions, but said he was going to take a few days to consider his options.