Police association responds to Hennepin County Attorney’s accusations of intimidation

NINA MOINI: Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty has dropped charges against state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of motorist Ricky Cobb II. Londregan was one of three troopers who tried to arrest Cobb during a traffic stop last summer in Minneapolis. Cobb tried to drive away, and Londregan shot into the vehicle. Londregan pleaded not guilty to murder and assault charges last month.

Moriarty explained that choice in a press conference this morning. Reporter Estelle Timar-Wilcox was there. Hi, Estelle.

ESTELLE TIMAR-WILCOX: Hi.

NINA MOINI: Estelle, why did she say that. She's dropping the charges now?

ESTELLE TIMAR-WILCOX: Yeah, she gave two main reasons for this decision. First of all, she said, Londregan said in a court hearing in April that he saw Cobb reach for his own Londregan's gun. He says he was worried that Cobb intended to harm him or his partner. And Moriarty said her office wasn't aware of this defense earlier, and it makes it difficult for them to prove that Londregan's use of force was not justified.

And second, Moriarty says a state patrol trainer recently gave a declaration saying he never instructed troopers not to fire into a moving vehicle, so Londregan wasn't violating his training. And in her press conference this morning, she said dropping the charges was one of the hardest decisions she's ever made. Here's Moriarty on continuing the case.

MARY MORIARTY: Ethically, we can't as prosecutors, but also practically, we know we're not going to get a conviction in this case.

NINA MOINI: And this case has been controversial since the start really. What led up to the decision to drop the charges?

ESTELLE TIMAR-WILCOX: Yeah. Ever since Moriarty charged Londregan, she's faced very public criticism from law enforcement groups and elected officials. There were calls from political leaders for Governor Tim Walz to take the case from her office and reassign it. There were also some staff shakeups on the case. Moriarty recently enlisted four outside prosecutors. They're former federal prosecutors who now work at a law firm in DC.

Still, though, despite all that, she stood by her initial decision to charge Londregan. She said it made sense based on the evidence she had at the time. And she pointed out that the special prosecutors in their report agreed that the charges were initially appropriate, and that the troopers mishandled that traffic stop that led to Cobb's death.

NINA MOINI: What did Moriarty have to say about the public controversy today?

ESTELLE TIMAR-WILCOX: She had some really harsh words for a lot of offices across the state. She criticized what she called systemic issues in the state patrol, like flawed training. And she criticized Governor Tim Walz for saying he'd consider taking the case from her and for his oversight of the patrol.

MARY MORIARTY: What I haven't seen asked a lot is, hey, governor, don't you have a conflict here? The state patrol provides your security detail. You oversee the state patrol, which has some major issues with training.

NINA MOINI: And we understand the governor just weighed in on this, saying that he expressed his concerns with the case and that he wasn't trying to politicize it. Estelle, have we heard from any of the other groups, or anyone else in response?

ESTELLE TIMAR-WILCOX: Yeah, a lot of these groups have chimed in. The Cobb family's attorney put out a statement this morning. They say they're disappointed, but not surprised. And family members are going to speak to the public tomorrow. And Londregan's attorney Chris Madel weighed in, too. He said it's about GD time, except he used the actual word, which we don't say on air. He'll speak to reporters today. And in a moment here, we're going to hear from a spokesperson from the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Union, which Moriarty also criticized this morning.

NINA MOINI: That's right. We are going to hear a response there. So now that the criminal charges are dropped, what happens with the case?

ESTELLE TIMAR-WILCOX: Well, there's still a federal lawsuit that the Cobb family has filed against Londregan and his partner for use of excessive force. And Moriarty says while she can't move forward with the prosecution, she wants to see systemic changes. She noted that the special prosecutors on the case made several recommendations for the patrol, including that they prohibit shooting into a moving vehicle and revise their use of force and de-escalation training.

NINA MOINI: That's Estelle Timar-Wilcox. Thank you so much for your report.

ESTELLE TIMAR-WILCOX: Thanks, Nina.

NINA MOINI: And as we mentioned, some of Moriarty's most pointed statements were aimed at a prominent law enforcement union, which she accused of helping the defense drum up a, quote, "political circus," making the situation more difficult for the family of Ricky Cobb II. Let's take a listen to a portion of her remarks from this morning.

MARY MORIARTY: The defense team, paid for by the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, encouraged over 100 supporters to be bused in, handed out free support Londregan T-shirts, and created a gauntlet downstairs that the Cobb family was forced to walk through to get to court. Some of them taunted Ricky Cobb's twin brother, Rashad. Members of our staff were frightened at the spectacle, which reminded them of January 6. How is this behavior acceptable?

NINA MOINI: Imran Ali is general counsel for the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, which represents more than 10,000 police officers and other public safety officials in the state. Thank you so much for being with us this afternoon.

IMRAN ALI: Thank you for having me.

NINA MOINI: I mean, that was a lot from county attorney Moriarty, very displeased. There was a big show of support for trooper Londregan throughout the entire process. Obviously, Moriarty felt it went too far, comparing it to January 6 when rioters stormed the Capitol in Washington and people lost their lives that day. What's your reaction to that comparison, and what's the reasoning behind the strategy of rallying that visible support and fundraising for trooper Londregan?

IMRAN ALI: Look, our goal, our association's goal today was to not come out publicly with any press release or any press statements. This is a difficult time not only for the community, for law enforcement and for Mr. Londregan's family. However, the press conference that was done this morning by the Hennepin County attorney was just so problematic and filled with inaccurate details and accusations.

And one thing that you heard, I think consistently was this county attorney will blame anyone and everything, whether it's training, whether it's the officer's actions, whether it's the governor, whether it's supporters. Everybody is to blame. But really, this comes down to her lack of competence in this case from the very beginning. This is something that our association believed from the very beginning.

Tragic, every single case involving a loss of life is tragic, but then we have to look at, does the law meet the facts? And in this case, it was clear this never should have been prosecuted from the beginning. I will say this. I was at the last court appearance, and what I observed was nothing even close to what I observed on the TV in January 6. To draw those two comparisons just really, I think, shows you the type of person that she is.

These were peaceful people that were there to support somebody that they believe to be an unjust prosecution. Not one time-- and I was there the entire time, not one time did I see anyone from the supporters of Mr. Londregan ever act out of course, act with any spite, or any sort of intimidation. In fact, it was actually the opposite. What I saw was from the supporters of Mr. Cobb's family, that's where we saw the instigation. And it just simply is not a correct characterization.

NINA MOINI: Lots of tense moments. And I do appreciate you being on, because there's more that we want to give you a chance to respond to. Moriarty said the defense, which I understand MPPOA funded in part, tried to sort of slow down the case through frivolous motions that MPPOA intimidated her and prosecutors and really made things personal. What's your response to those accusations?

IMRAN ALI: First of all, Mary Moriarty, county attorney Moriarty knows there's a difference between MPPOA as an association and the legal defense fund, which is the one that provides the lawyers. So she continually makes that-- doesn't draw the right comparison. But from the very beginning, again, this case never should have been charged. There was not even enough evidence in this case to go, we believe to even go forward. And then afterwards now to blame everything else is just simply-- it's just a miscalculation, but it's also just not true.

NINA MOINI: And let's talk about the evidence. Moriarty said that new evidence, submitted by the defense, would make the case impossible to prosecute. A big part of that evidence was a statement by trooper Londregan that he thought Cobb was reaching for Londregan's gun and feared for him and his partner's safety. Why did it take so long, if you could explain, for trooper Londregan to make that statement saying, you know, he was afraid for his life? Why not make that statement from the start of the investigation?

IMRAN ALI: That was probably the point when I was the most embarrassed for the county attorney and for our state. The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution says that every citizen-- police are citizens, is free from compelling to give any statement. And so the fact that we have a 31-year veteran defense attorney that has championed her entire career on the presumption of innocence, and not providing a statement, not being compelled to do so, it was a complete embarrassment.

And I'm a former federal-- sorry, not federal, I'm a former prosecutor, and I will say this. Every case that I have charged, every case that I've charged-- and there's been thousands of them-- one of the first things I think about is what the accused or defendant potentially could say. It's something we always think about. And so we anticipate that.

And so to have the county attorney say this is new information is not only disingenuous, but it really just takes away the fact that there is a complete incompetence from this county attorney. And moving forward, it's not just, I think, the law enforcement, it's also, I think, the community, we really need to make sure that everybody is treated fairly.

And right now, Nina, we have people of color all over the city and victims of crimes, victims of carjackings, victims of homicide. And I've reached out to them, they've reached out to me, and they just feel that there's no justice in place right now. There's no justice. There's no accountability. And so I don't see how that characterization is fair from county attorney Moriarty. It wasn't new information. It just is what should have been addressed early on.

NINA MOINI: I want to pivot a little bit to training, because while she won't be prosecuting the case, Moriarty did talk a lot about training and state patrol procedures. We know the state patrol will not comment right now because of ongoing civil litigation involving the Cobb family. But Moriarty said that the troopers should have given Cobb more information about why they were stopping him, and that they should have perhaps let him go because they knew where he lived and could have picked him up after, and that they should have really emphasized de-escalation.

As someone who represents the interests of officers, do you find her suggestions feasible?

IMRAN ALI: Well, I mean, I'm not going to get into the state patrol training, or any of the characterizations that were brought forward by the county attorney. But what I would remind, I think, the listeners, is that under the law that officers have to make these split second decisions, and they do so from an objective, reasonable standpoint. And policies and procedures and training encompass the current law.

And so anybody could have suggestions. And I know I mean, our law firm participates and hosts training all over the state and all over the country. Training is good. And I think that every cop I've asked around the state, they want to be the best. They want to learn more and more and more. And so training is always good, but I'm just not going to comment on the state patrol training.

NINA MOINI: OK. I want to end with this, because these relationships, and these intricacies, and these back and forths do impact everybody. Moriarty said the narrative that there's a war on law enforcement or it's open season, which I think is the terminology Londregan's attorney had used on law enforcement, is not the case and that she's just trying to make sure that everyone is held accountable to the law, whether they're are officers or not.

What do you think needs to happen to preserve the integrity of the justice system, and to try to mend these working relationships between law enforcement and the Hennepin County prosecutors and Mary Moriarty, because don't we all suffer when these parties can't work together in a functional way?

IMRAN ALI: Absolutely. And I think that's a really good point. I think that the first way to do it is to rely on facts, and not rely on either past campaign promises or political ideologies. If we rely on facts as a prosecutor, there are going to be difficult decisions. But nonetheless, those difficult decisions are decisions that are made.

And I think what we saw today it's not only trooper Londregan that was put through this process for six months and accused of a crime that he didn't commit, and that wasn't as part of policy and the training at least articulated by the Hennepin County attorney, but it's also the family of Ricky Cobb.

And a courageous prosecutor, one that relies on the facts and the law, would have that courageous discussion with the Cobb family very early on. But instead, we're here. And now it's turned into political theater. And it's really unfortunate because the politics really need to be taken out of all of this. And part of the reason that I walked away from being a full-time prosecutor a few years ago was there are too many politics that are inserted in there.

But remember, this is the same county attorney, after leaving the public defender's office, that went all on every single talk show she possibly could, went on the media and covered these very high-profile trials. And continued, during that process, to divide our state and divide our communities more and more.

So I've said it before, and I'll say it again, our association would love to sit down with county attorney Moriarty and have an honest and open discussion. And I've invited the county attorney to have those discussions, and I've just been rebuffed and declined. And I think the only way that we can move forward is through a thoughtful discourse that unites, stuff that doesn't divide.

NINA MOINI: Imran Ali, general counsel of the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, thank you for being here with us.

IMRAN ALI: Thank you.