UPDATE: Ellis probably should have ‘confirmed’ this before tweeting it
l3wis
UPDATE: Ellis did apologize for his tweet yesterday, and in his defense, Hagen did have a brother die, even if it was a step brother.
If you’ve been following the Eric Hagen trial, you’ve noticed that J. Ellis has been tweeting for the Argus Leader. Did you catch the tweet yesterday that stated Eric Hagen’s brother might be dead?
That’s pretty sloppy journalism. According to a foot soldier who knows the Hagen family what made it truly a living nightmare is that Eric Hagen is from this area. His aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents were all alerted to that tweet and had several hours of crying and anguish before they could reach Eric’s only brother to confirm he was alive and ok. He travels a lot and lives in L.A., so it was very plausible Eric’s brother could have died and his relatives not been notified yet. With Ellis being part of the press pool, he may have had access to alternative information. While he does say that it ‘needed to be confirmed’ it should not have been tweeted at all until he knew for sure.
I’m starting to wonder if anyone at the AL even gives a rip anymore.
Oh, and BTW, not only is Eric’s Brother still alive, Eric is a free man;
Eric Hagen was acquitted Wednesday by a jury in Flandreau that needed only a couple of hours to deliberate. Hagen and his company consulted with the Flandreau Santee Sioux in 2015 on the project.The tribe eventually torched its crop amid fears of a federal raid, and Hagen was charged with several counts related to marijuana possession.
Hagen says the state overstepped its authority in bringing the case. He says he “never once thought that I was guilty.”
Oh the irony of this case compared to when Fatty Patty Powwers was running his political trinket business out of the SOS’s office. Jackley tries to charge Hagen with possession of a product the tribe owned, because Jackboots knew he couldn’t go after the tribe. When Stan Adelstein accused Pat Powerless, as sitting deputy SOS, of ‘borrowing’ intellectual property from the state to help his personal political consulting business, Jackley finds Mr. Fish & Chips NOT GUILTY of stealing (money or other materials from the state). Something he wasn’t accused of to begin with.
