GOP apologizes to family for using photo of child abuse victim in anti-Dayton ad

Yvonne Dean saw the Republican Party of Minnesota's ad against DFL Gov. Mark Dayton Thursday morning and was stunned. At the tail end of the 30-second spot was the smiling but battered face of her grandson, 4-year-old Eric Dean, whose death at the hands of his stepmother last year exposed gaps in the state's child protection system.

"I was just in shock," Dean said. "I couldn't believe that they used Eric in that way, his memory in that way."

Party officials ultimately agreed to take down the photo, but not before first insisting the ad would run.

When Dean, who identifies as a Republican, first spoke Thursday morning to state Republican Party Chairman Keith Downey, she said he apologized for not notifying the family beforehand, but he said the party had checked with lawyers and was within its legal rights to include the boy's image.

"Our family's trying to heal, and with this now, it's bringing everything up again, and it's just so hard to move on," Dean said shortly after that call.

Pressure to pull the boy's photo began to build as the campaign of GOP U.S. Senate candidate Mike McFadden said in a statement that "the death of children has no place in political campaigns" and urged the party to immediately remove the boy's photo from the ad.

A short time later, Dean said Downey called back and reversed course. Though details of their agreement were initially in dispute, Dean said late Thursday afternoon that she was satisfied that Eric's picture would be edited out and was OK with the image of a September Star Tribune headline about the case that didn't specifically mention the boy by name.

Downey did not respond to an interview request from the Star Tribune. Party spokeswoman Brittni Palke said the party was paying six figures to air the ad statewide; she would not reveal the firm that produced it. Titled "Incompetence," it criticizes Dayton for his handling of several high-profile issues during his first term.

Dean lives in Starbuck, and is the mother of Eric's father, David Dean. Amanda Peltier, who was married to David Dean and was Eric's stepmother, was convicted of the boy's murder and now is serving a life sentence. Yvonne Dean's concerns about the ad were first reported Wednesday night by Michael Brodkorb, a former Republican political operative who now blogs for the Star Tribune.

Eric Dean's death in 2013 was preceded by 15 reports of maltreatment. Last May, before the details of the death were widely known, Dayton signed a law passed by the Legislature that prohibited county agencies, when deciding whether to investigate a new report, to factor in past reports of abuse that had been rejected.

The ad's narrator calls it "downright horrifying when [Dayton] signed a law making it more difficult to investigate maltreatment cases." The bill actually passed after Eric's death and was not connected to the case, although it codified what had previously been Department of Human Services practice in child abuse cases. The bill was sponsored by DFL lawmakers and got 35 Republican votes in the House and Senate.

Once details of Eric's death became publicly known, Dayton and the bill's backers said they had not foreseen that provisions in the bill would make it more difficult for authorities to respond to multiple reports of child abuse. Dayton has since convened a task force on child abuse and charged it with making recommendations to strengthen the state's child protection system.

Johnson also has been critical of Dayton's role in the legislation, though his campaign was not involved in preparing the ad. Yvonne Dean said Johnson called her personally Thursday afternoon, said he did not know the contents of the ad beforehand, and apologized.

Patrick Condon • 651-925-5049