“Why would a woman with no criminal history stab a good friend in the middle of the night for no apparent reason?
Why would that friend agree to be a character witness for the woman in a trial expected to begin in Hennepin County Court on Tuesday?
Because the two say they were both victims of a stranger they met in a northeast Minneapolis bar that night. They think he put a drug in their beers.
It’s a strange case, one that angers the woman’s attorney.
“There is no way this case should be going to trial,” said Brian Karalus. “I have never in my career seen a case where the victim agrees with the attacker that she wasn’t at fault. There is no motivation. This kind of case is the reason I became a lawyer.”
Nancy Fletcher, 43, got together with some friends who work at a prominent St. Paul restaurant on Jan. 1 to celebrate a birthday. At some point, some of them decided to go to the bar to sing karaoke.
They had been drinking moderately, according to one of them, Buffy Ess, but were not drunk.”