Fikru Bayissa violated retraining order by apologizing to ex-girlfriend in court

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Fikru Bayissa probably shouldn't have apologized

​Fikru Bayissa grabbed his former girlfriend Elizabeth Dahl by the hair last March. He bashed her head into a car steering wheel and dashboard. He choked her until she couldn't breathe. The next day, he followed up with threatening text messages. But when he turned and apologized to her in court last week, he got into more trouble.

Dahl, you see, had earlier won a protective order against Bayissa, the result of an on-again-off-again violent relationship: It "prohibits the defendant from having any contact whatsoever with Ms. Dahl."

As Bayissa was being sentenced and standing before Bastian, he "turned his torso around and directly addressed Ms. Dahl, who was seated in the courtroom seats behind the bar," the complaint said. "The defendant told Ms. Dahl that he was sorry for what had happened.

The protective order, it turns out, applies in court the way it does everywhere else. Dahl complained. And after three months in the Ramsey County workhouse, Bayissa now faces charges because he tried to apologize for his original offense.

His lawyer, as you might have guessed, is appalled because Bayissa apparently shouldn't have apologized for beating the woman.