As owners of a small business, Craig and I have worked hard for most of our lives. We don’t waste time. And we don’t quit easily.
Once in a great while, Craig takes a break to play a galactic starship game. A year or two ago, he told me about a match he was clearly going to lose—one last planet, opponent closing in, no way out.
So Craig did what Craig does: he refused to accept “that’s just how it ends.”
He made a backup before the last planet fell.
He lost. Restored the game. Then tried again.
Lost again.
And he kept restoring and trying—almost forty times—until he finally found the move that turned the game around.
When we began our civil lawsuit in Otter Tail County, Craig boiled that same determination down to one sentence:
“If you keep pounding on the door, eventually you’ll break it down.”
At the time, we believed that door led to justice.
What we didn’t understand yet was that the door wasn’t just locked.
It was rigged.
And that’s why we started writing.
Fighting Injustice
Here at Justice-Denied.org, we believe fighting injustice is a noble calling—one that demands our attention. When the justice system promotes a façade of fairness and impartiality, but delivers something altogether different, it’s time to act.
We must respond.
We must call it out.
We must educate the public.
We must demand change.
And we must do so peacefully.
In 1839, Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote the words, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” That phrase still matters because it captures something true: written words carry real power—power to expose, to persuade, to rally, and to demand accountability where silence has become the norm.
Exposing the Truth
It’s no secret that part of the impetus for this website was what we believe happened in our civil lawsuit in Otter Tail County. We have documented how Judge Kevin M. Miller appeared to ignore key evidence—communications summaries, conference calls, deleted texts, perjury, and conflicting testimony under oath—along with a recovered text message pointing to a revenge campaign against us.
We have written about a court system strained under Covid-era pressure and what looked like judicial triage: “I Can Limit Discovery” We have pointed out how 1845 New York case law—before Minnesota even became a state—was used to throw out defamation claims in our case.
And we have spoken openly about something that cut especially deep for me: how my history of childhood abuse and fear was, in our view, belittled—making it easier to dismiss my intentional infliction of emotional distress claim at summary judgment.
Going further, we have documented what we see as unusual tactics at the Minnesota Court of Appeals—extreme lengths taken to affirm district court decisions, even when judges stray from the law or rely on independent investigations. We have pointed out how our case appears to be a rare outlier in Minnesota appellate history (1 out of 192): an issue that should have been treated as structural error was instead treated as forfeited.
We have also uncovered a trail of undisclosed relationships—and efforts within Minnesota’s Seventh Judicial District to make the process more opaque after exposure to public light.
Oversight Bodies
We have also called out oversight bodies, including the Minnesota Board on Judicial Standards, when their public messaging doesn’t match what appears to be happening in practice.
Does anyone see a problem when an oversight body posts promotional videos on the Instagram channel of the very Judicial Branch it is supposed to oversee?
This isn’t just an optics problem.
It’s a problem with how things are.
It’s what “too cozy” looks like.
And Minnesotans are starting to notice.
Pounding on the Door
This fight takes persistence. And it takes people willing to speak up. Many Minnesotans see the problems. Few have the time, the documents, or the platform to expose them.
At Justice-Denied.org, we will keep pounding on the door:
- Exposing the façade
- Documenting duplicity
- Calling out judicial triage when it replaces impartial adjudication
- Educating the public
- Promoting judicial reform
- Demanding true justice for all Minnesotans
And we will use the power of the pen to do it.
♥ Marie Stevenson is a wife and mother, and is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a small business located in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Marie and Craig have been married for over 36 years.