Police: Couple’s violent past led to killing

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By Tom Saul | Friday, July 11, 2008 |

Just 11 days before Thursday’s fatal stabbing of an employee of a circus visiting Davenport, the woman accused of killing him tried to attack him with a hammer and knife during a circus stop in Ohio, according to police reports.

Mauricio Droguett, 52, escaped that attack by fleeing into an office, police in Ohio said, but Thursday morning, Droguett was stabbed multiple times as he walked inside NorthPark Mall.

Droguett, 52, is a comptroller for the Carson & Barnes Family Circus based in Hugo, Okla. The woman accused of killing him, Debi Joy Olson, 53, is his ex-wife.

Olson, who was charged with domestic violence and carrying a concealed weapon in Eaton, Ohio, after the June 30 incident, was charged Thursday in Scott County with first-degree murder and willful injury in connection with the 7:24 a.m. attack. She was restrained by a co-worker of Droguett and mall security until police arrived to arrest her.

“There was a history here and evidence of prior involvement,” Davenport Police Capt. David Struckman said during a news conference describing events that led up to the attack here. “There is evidence of other court orders in three other locations not in Iowa or Davenport.”

Since Droguett started his current tour with the circus in Dallas, Texas, on March 14, there have been three incidents involving Droguett and Olson, said Harry Dubsky, marketing director for Carson & Barnes.

“They were domestic disputes,” Dubsky said. “I’m not aware of any of the details, but there was an arrest last month in Ohio.”

In fact, the relationship between the two was marked by periodic spasms of violence, according to court records and police reports.

In Sarasota, Fla., where the two lived, court records show that the couple was divorced in July 2004. Two years later, in July 2006, Droguett sought and received an injunction to stop Olson from contacting him following a domestic violence incident in which she was listed as the defendant. Details of the incident were not available.

In 2001 in Sarasota, Olson, while still married to Droguett, was arrested and charged with battery causing bodily harm, according to online court records. Details of the case and its disposition were unavailable, as was the name of the victim.

In the Ohio incident, Preble County sheriff’s deputies arrested Olson at the Preble County Fairgrounds in Eaton where the circus was performing. After fleeing, she returned and was spotted by deputies who questioned her. She acknowledged trying to hit Droguett with the hammer but denied attacking him with a knife, according to a report on the incident.

Olson denied having a knife in her possession, but when deputies seized and searched her purse, they found the hammer and “two large knives,” the report said.

“We asked Debi (Olson) why she came back to the fairgrounds (and) she said just wanted to talk to her ex-husband,” the report said.

In Davenport, Droguett was walking in the mall for exercise with a co-worker as crews set up circus equipment in the north parking lot behind the Sears and Von Maur department stores, Struckman said. The circus held performances there Thursday.

As Droguett and the co-worker approached the south entrance to Von Maur inside the mall, Olson appeared and began stabbing Droguett, Struckman said. He was stabbed more than 10 times in the torso and groin. Police on patrol near the mall arrived inside of two minutes but found Droguett dead at the scene.

Mall security was on the scene immediately and helped to restrain the woman, Struckman said. He emphasized that the attack had nothing to do with business at the mall.

“This is a very upsetting crime, but one of those types of crimes that can’t be predicted,” Struckman said. “It was one person targeting another.”

Dubsky said Droguett came from a circus family and was once a performer doing juggling and balancing acts. He worked for Carson & Barnes for about a year and has a daughter who is a school teacher. Since news of the incident spread through the circus community, “I’ve been getting calls at my office all day.”

“I’ve known him since I was 2 years old, and I’m 45 now,” Dubsky said. “He was a straight-up guy.”

Tom Saul can be contacted at (563) 383-2453 or tsaul@qctimes.com.