Cops: Mpls Woman Faces Assault Charges After Starting Deadly Fight

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A Minneapolis woman has been charged with two counts of assault for starting a fight last year that ended with one of her companions dead and another woman facing prison time.

Molly Shannon Flaherty, 41, was charged with one count of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and one count of third-degree assault substantial bodily harm for her attack on Chrishaun McDonald.

Although the assault occurred in Minneapolis, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office asked Washington County to handle the case to avoid a conflict of interest, because Hennepin prosecutors were charging McDonald for the murder of Dean Schmitz in the same incident.

According to the criminal complaint filed May 11 by the Washington County Attorney's Office, McDonald, a transgender African-American woman, and her friends were walking along 29th Street shortly after midnight on June 5, 2011.

A small group of people were standing outside the Schooner Tavern and some of them began yelling racial, homophobic and transgender slurs at McDonald and her friends, according to the complaint.

McDonald and her group approached the other group, and Flaherty broke a bar glass across McDonald's face.

McDonald needed 11 stitches to close the cuts on her face, according to the complaint.

Flaherty made her initial appearance on May 16 and has an omnibus hearing on June 15.