Posted February 24, 2018 at 06:48 AM | Updated February 24, 2018 at 10:34 AM
Norm Frink was the chief deputy district attorney for Multnomah County and prosecuted Tonya Harding in the aftermath of the attack on Nancy Kerrigan. He had a front row seat to the facts in 1994, facts that apparently don't matter to those involved in the movie "I, Tonya."
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Norm Frink, a top lieutenant to District Attorney Mike Schrunk in 1994, found himself in front of the cameras as media from around the world descended on Portland.
The Oregonian/1994
BY NORM FRINK
Special to The Oregonian/OregonLive
Actress Margot Robbie: I remember at first I was trying to piece it all together. Ok, ok and then the FBI found that. I was trying to piece it all together and figure out, who, what actually happened?
Interviewer: What the truth is?
Robbie: What the truth is. And then it stopped being important about half way through my prep. I was like, it’s not even that interesting.
No, I haven’t seen the Tonya Harding movie, “I, Tonya.” But I had a front-row seat to the truth.
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The Oregonian
Robbie is a great actress, but that exchange in an interview on ABC was enough to end any desire on my part to see Hollywood’s glossy version of events.
I was the lead prosecutor on the Harding case, and if a movie seeks to make money from a real event, the producers, directors and actors should at least have the integrity to not ignore the facts.
I’ll try to tell you what I remember from 24 years ago. I can’t promise all my memories from the winter of 1994 are accurate, but, unlike Robbie, when we are dealing with real events, I think the truth is important and I will try to tell it.
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All smiles in 1991 with Nancy Kerrigan, right, and Kristi Yamaguchi in the center.
The Oregonian
When the attack on Nancy Kerrigan happened in Detroit, I was out of town. The event barely registered with me. I had no real knowledge or interest in figure skating.
It was only later when I returned to Oregon, understood the local connection and the media frenzy started that it began to register.
I was chief deputy district attorney in Multnomah County and the way I remember it was that District Attorney Mike Schrunk and I were sitting in his office with another prosecutor laughing. We were laughing because it appeared all the local connections were to Clackamas County.
If anyone in Oregon got stuck with this mess it was going to be the then Clackamas County district attorney, Jim O’Leary.
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The Multnomah County district attorney's office initially thought the case would land in Clackamas County, where Tonya Harding was living at the time. Instead, it landed with Frink.
The Oregonian
Then Schrunk’s secretary entered the room and said, “Mike, it’s Jim O’Leary on the phone and he’s laughing.”
It turned out the beginning of the conspiracy was the one event not in Clackamas County. That started a wild ride through the next few months that took us from the beginnings of the investigation to Harding’s conviction and to a later ban for life from the figure skating association.