Sahan Journal recently spoke with the Hennepin County Attorney primary candidates about their campaigns. Their answers to each question have been edited for length and clarity.
What roles should the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office play in reviewing and prosecuting officer-involved killings?
Paul Ostrow:
It’s important that the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office respect the Constitution and respect the rights of everyone who was charged with a crime. A very significant part of that is full disclosure of any relevant police misconduct in a situation where a police officer may not have been truthful. Right now we’re not doing that the way we need to.
I’ve actually been involved in litigation on this exact issue because the city of Minneapolis is engaging in what’s known as “coaching.” By using this coaching, they’ve suggested that even when there’s a sustained violation by a police officer, that that’s not public and that no one can have access to it. That’s denying individuals their constitutional rights.
It’s really important for us to stress that the county attorney’s office does not have the authority to reform the Minneapolis Police Department or any other department. The county attorney’s office, however, has an obligation that when there’s a video or any report that shows that maybe there was something untruthful or there was excessive force, that that be provided to police administration. There needs to be a system to do that.
As far as police shootings are concerned, I want to take a really hard look at this issue. It’s a really tough issue because politics in my view should never determine whether a police officer is or is not charged with a crime. I do have some concerns about how we insulate that decision from politics—how we make sure it’s based on the law and the facts, and not on politics. I’m not certain where I’ve landed.
Mary Moriarty:
The county attorney’s office right now has an agreement with other county attorney’s offices to send cases where law enforcement has killed someone. I don’t agree with that.
For instance, the Dolal Idd case was sent to the Dakota county attorney and the Winston Smith case was sent up to the Crow Wing county attorney up in Brainerd. Nothing against those two county attorneys, but the people of Hennepin County did not elect them to make those decisions.
Transparency, accountability, and accessibility in the community is really important to me. If I am elected as a county attorney, I need to be making those decisions. Not a county attorney who can’t be held accountable by the people in Hennepin County. Now, I also understand fully that there’s a lot of mistrust with the county attorney’s office right now. Would that change if our office was handling those cases? Maybe, maybe not.
There are places to partner with our [Minnesota] Attorney General Keith Ellison, who’s done a really good job on those cases, but he also doesn’t have the resources. He has asked the legislature for more resources to be able to hire people to help with those cases not only in Hennepin County but in more complicated cases throughout Minnesota. And he has not received those resources.
Saraswati Singh:
It should play an important role–that’s part of our job. You have to review them to see whether they committed a crime. I’m also comfortable working with other county attorneys and the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office on those cases.
But the responsibility lies with me. If, for example, there’s a conflict of interest, those are things that I will take into account, too, in deciding whether my office is going to prosecute everything or work with another county.
A lot of people think it’s just the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office that worked the Chauvin case. No, it was prosecutors from both offices. I think that made sense for [Hennepin County Attorney] Mike Freeman, because people didn’t trust him to do the right thing.
That’s another reason why it’s important to have a new Hennepin County attorney. They tend to stay there for many years. Freeman was there for over 20 years, and that’s common. But it’s time for someone new.
Martha Holton Dimick:
Right now, they’re not processed through the grand jury because that procedure is something that people don’t like. So I believe that Mike Freeman took it upon himself to just review these cases on his own and then make a decision based on his review of facts, circumstances, and the law. Unfortunately, the [Derek] Chauvin case turned into a complete mess. The [Minnesota Attorney General’s Office] was asked to take over the case.
I believe that we can prosecute those cases on our own. And I believe that each case has to be looked at on a case-by-case basis. Look at the facts, look at the evidence, and look at the law.
We also have to not feel that we have to answer to activists. We don’t make any comments until we have everything. Now we certainly will be very transparent, since I don’t believe the office is transparent in a lot of matters right now.
When I first launched my campaign, I proposed an independent police accountability unit within the county attorney’s office. Prosecutors who work every day with police officers on prosecuting crime have a hard time being objective in making decisions about charging officers they work with. Having an independent unit within the office where those attorneys are not working day-to-day with police officers is a better way to do it.
When it comes to charging manslaughter or murder against a police officer, we need a process in place for external review of those decisions. That may include referral to another county attorney, a panel of prosecutors who look at cases, or the [Minnesota] Attorney General’s Office. We need a process that we vet with the community ahead of time, so that when an officer-involved shooting is up for potential criminal charge, we have a procedure in place that people have agreed to and can be followed.
There’s a lot of discretion and with the level of distrust of our criminal justice system, people think that every decision is made for political purposes. A process is important because it allows people to buy in ahead of time and then keep decision makers accountable for following it afterwards.
I plan to have an investigation unit in the Hennepin County office. It will be a walled-off unit of senior attorneys. And that unit will be charged with not just looking at law enforcement, it will be looking at all individual actors who act under the color of law in the criminal justice system. That includes prosecutors, public defenders, judges.
It’s misleading for people to think that law enforcement does what they do alone. Law enforcement does what it does, because the prosecutor allows it. The prosecutor does what it does, because the judges allow it. We need to look at our own house.
I like [Minnesota Attorney General] Keith Ellison, but we’re not going to hand it off to the attorney general’s office. That’s our responsibility. We’ll work with him, but we’re going to take up that charge because no one is above the law.
Thaddeus “Tad” Jude:
The Hennepin County attorney would oftentimes have a conflict if it involved a police department in Hennepin County, so it would have to be referred, I believe, to an independent agency. If there’s certainly a conflict that I would see in any case, I would refer it to an independent, unbiased agency to handle.