One of the candidates in a five-way City Council race to represent the Near North community of Minneapolis is facing a domestic assault charge from an incident with his girlfriend last summer.

Lennie C. Chism said Tuesday that he will plead not guilty to the fifth-degree domestic assault charge and that he is the victim of a setup by a woman scorned. Monika C. Shannon of Minnetonka obtained a protection order last month against Chism in connection with the Aug. 30 incident.

Chism, who is running for the Fifth Ward seat, is the second candidate for Minneapolis office against whom charges have been disclosed in the past week. Mayoral candidate Al Flowers faces a marijuana possession charge from a Sept. 23 raid on an Edina house. He pleaded not guilty.

The alleged incident involving Chism, who said Tuesday that he is married but separated, occurred in Minnetonka. According to a Minnetonka police report, nine officers responded to a call and found a car belonging to Shannon parked on a Hwy. 169 ramp with the pair inside. They arrested Chism for domestic assault. Shannon told police that she had been trying to break up with Chism.

The police report cites a witness who said that Chism tried to drive Shannon's car away while she tried to block it with her body and was bumped by the slow-moving car. The witness said Chism then pushed her into the driver's seat, and they left in the car. Chism dismissed the witness as a former boyfriend of Shannon's.

"Nothing like a pissed-off woman," Chism said. "When you get a young lady that gets pissed off, it doesn't take much to get a police officers to take a statement. Once that ball gets to rolling, it gets rolling."

The candidate already faces a theft charge filed last year stemming from Shannon's claim that he stole a bed from her apartment while she wasn't home. That charge is listed as continued for dismissal, which usually means the charge will be dropped if there is no similar trouble, according to Desyl Peterson, Minnetonka city attorney.

Chism founded the nonprofit group Springboard Economic Development Corp., which landed a Minnesota Department of Transportation contract for outreach efforts for state hiring and disadvantaged business programs. The city last month arranged the razing of a two-story commercial building that it had condemned at 2426 Plymouth Av. N., the former site of Uncle Bill's Food Market, which Springboard purchased for $3,000.

Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438