Kennadog, you're absolutely right. Petrie was not quoted: "I was surprised." Voison, characterized Petrie as not surprised: "Was he surprised? Of course not!" She did this after attending Petrie's news conference. Did she mischaracterize him? I don't know. But what I do know is that Petrie looks like an idiot if he was surprised or if he was not surpised. It's a no win.
If he was surprised, then looks like an idiot because he ignores the voluminous Ron-Ron history. And I'd bet that Petrie, Mr. Detail, has a notebook on Ron dating back to high school, that goes into every single character incident they could find before they traded for him, including the domestic violence. So if he's surprised, he's ignoring the obvious and really believing that, "It's going to be different this time."
If he's not surprised, Petrie's looks like an idiot because why the heck didn't he unload him earlier? What was he waiting for? If he's not surprised he would know that Ron Artest is like a stock without a balance sheet ---you do a pump and dump, you trade him quickly; you don't invest in him for the long haul.
The only way Petrie could come out of this without a huge black eye is if: (1) he never made the trade to begin with, or (2) he traded him sometime between the end of last season and the trading deadline. Otherwise, he's the one with egg on his face, whether he was surprised, or not.