Media Coverage

Troubling history emerges
By Steven P. Wagner swagner@forumcomm.com
Front page - 03/28/2007

Correction: Photo used with this article not Mevludin Hidanovic.
Mevludin Hidanovic’s path to freedom didn’t get any clearer Tuesday as more details emerged about his past and a conviction for a fight last summer at the Red River Valley Fair.

The details come in light of a juror who in January voted to convict him for engaging in a riot while armed, a charge stemming from a fight between Bosnians and Hispanics, and who now believes he’s innocent.

Court records and interviews by The Forum show the following:

• The self-employed scrapmetal dealer rejected a plea offer last week from prosecutors, an agreement that could have reduced his prison term from 18 months to 60 days.
• Hidanovic’s criminal history reveals an early turbulent history with his wife, Chanda, who now fights to exonerate him.
• Sheriff ’s investigators met with Mark Boening, a Cass County prosecutor, on Tuesday to discuss the juror’s claims that Hidanovic’s Bosnian ethnicity played a role in his conviction.
  

The details add layers of complications in Hidanovic’s attempt to gain a new trial. Attorneys on his behalf hope to convince a judge at an April 5 hearing to order a new trial, partly based on the juror’s claim.

The juror, Becky Rettig, filed an affidavit claiming she convinced jurors to convict Hidanovic based on her bad experiences with Bosnians.

The affi davit prompted Boening last week to offer Hidanovic a deal: Plead guilty to a misdemeanor menacing charge and receive a lighter sentence. The earlier conviction from the trial would be erased from his record.

“Normally, we don’t do our plea negotiations in public or on the front page of the newspaper,” Boening said.

The offer was made to clear up issues raised by Rettig’s affidavit, including possibly going to trial again and not getting a conviction. Boening said immigration issues facing Hidanovic, who fled Bosnia in 1992 and arrived in the United States and Fargo in 1999, didn’t affect his decision.

Hidanovic, in an interview from the Cass County Jail on Tuesday, said he turned down the offer.

“I don’t want to take that for something I didn’t do,” said Hidanovic, who fears he’ll be deported unless the convic tion is reversed.

Hidanovic’s history
Court records show Hidanovic has had at least three prior brushes with the law.

• He pleaded guilty in February to a menacing charge for a fight outside the West Fargo VFW last May, about a month before the Red River Valley Fair fight.
• A woman accused Hidanovic of dragging her by the hair and kicking her in the stomach. The woman said he knew she previously had surgery to remove a tumor. “I probably pushed her; I didn’t hit her,” said Hidanovic, who added he was breaking up a fight involving his brother.
• In 2005, Hidanovic pleaded guilty for misrepresenting the date he bought a fishing license to avoid a ticket for not having one.
  

The most serious allegations came in 2004 by the woman he married last year, Chanda Thomte.

In conversations with police, Chanda told officers that Hidanovic beat her five times the previous year, threatened to kill her and her father, directed other Bosnian males to follow her and attempted to push her car into oncoming traffic with his BMW.

Officers reported bruises, cuts and swelling to her left eye, jaw, arms and legs.

“She also has informed me that she would recant any statement she gives to me for fear that she would be in danger or her parents would be in danger,” Officer Julie Hinkel wrote in a June 21, 2004, report.

She attributed the couple’s problems to the inability to communicate and understand differences in their cultures. Counseling helped them work through problems, she said.

Unusual case
After his trial, Chanda Hidanovic said a polygraph proved her husband’s innocence. Three days later, the Bosnian community turned over $50,000 cash to free him from jail until sentencing.

At a Feb. 26 hearing, East Central District Judge Wade Webb ordered Hidanovic to spend 18 months in prison.

Rettig’s affidavit was filed two days later.

“I’ve never been involved in a case like this before,” said Boening, who plans to oppose a motion requesting a new trial.

The prosecutor also met with sheriff ’s officials to plan how they’ll interview the other jurors. The county’s most-tenured prosecutor said he’s never had a case in which a juror claims misconduct.

“I think we’re going to be asking for a chance to crossexamine her (under oath),” Boening said. Rettig said she changed her mind after pondering the wording of the charge against Hidanovic. She also didn’t realize it was a felony. “He should not be guilty of those charges,” she said Tuesday. “No, I’m not threatened. I haven’t been bribed. I just had a change of heart.”

Readers can reach Forum reporter Steven P. Wagner at (701) 241-5542