If -- If -- Pastor Dixon Assaulted His Wife, It Was Somewhat Foretold

​We told you earlier today about prominent pastor James Dixon being charged with assault his wife after an incident in which police reports say he "threw her to the ground."

The media reports caught the eye of longtime Metro critic Tom Bazan, who immediately thought of his own run-in with Dixon, when the pastor was serving on Metro's board of directors.

As we reported it last year, the two got crosswise after Bazan, in response to a request to tone down his rhetoric, asked Dixon (somewhat bizarrely, to be sure) "Have you stopped abusing your wife?"

(Bazan told Hair Balls today that he was "asking a rhetorical question that has no answer" as a way of responding to Dixon's criticism.)

Things went somewhat downhill at the board meeting from that point.

As we reported back then:

Board member Bishop James Dixon told Bazan that Metro would continue bus services, and he also asked Bazan and all citizens to address the board with a gentler tone.

"I can handle my wife inquiring, but the accusation shuts me down. I don't accuse her, I inquire," Dixon said, drawing laughs with his domestic metaphor. "We want to see you as allies, not adversaries. That's all I'm saying."

"Have you stopped abusing your wife?" Bazan asked. The laughing stopped.

"I've never abused my wife, never," Dixon said as Chairman David Wolff tried to interrupt. "Hold on, hold on, hold on. You crossed the line. No, no, no, I need to retract that. I'll never abuse my wife and don't ever say that."

"I was referring to the transit dependent bus riders..."

"That's not my wife," Dixon yelled. "I used an analogy."

"Well I was just making a joke in regards..."

"It's not a joke and you don't do that Mr. Bazan," Dixon said. "Don't joke like that, please. You'll see another side of me: James Dixon, not the Bishop."

The two eventually took it outside, where they talked it out.

"He had such a strong response, it took me by surprise," Bazan said today. "And now there are stories about domestic assault. It's pretty bizarre."