HILLSBORO, N.D.--A judge here granted a request on Wednesday from a Portland, N.D., woman who asked for a restraining order against her brother, to whom she once donated a kidney.
Calling the case "really hard to believe," Traill County District Court Judge Thomas Olson granted the petition filed last week by Lori Thompson for a restraining order against her brother, Keith Flaten.
The sister donated a kidney to Flaten in 2011.
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Thompson told the court her husband and teenage son witnessed a confrontation last month at her Portland home in which Flaten approached her following threats to choke her.
The brother said he never got physical with his sister or with any other family member. He told the court Thompson filed the case in order to embarrass him.
Flaten, of Hope, said he has never suffered from mental health issues and has been a fully recovered alcoholic for almost a decade and a half, contrary to his sister's claims in a recent interview.
"She's vicious and cruel," Flaten said. "I wish the judge would have seen my side."
Olson ordered Flaten to have no contact, electronic or otherwise, with his sister for a year, and cautioned Thompson to avoid her brother as well.
"It's pretty clear this family dispute has a lot more to do with than just [this issue]," Olson said. "Sadly, you folks just can't get along."
