June 22, 2018
OUR MISSION
We serve justice and public safety through our commitment to ethical prosecution, crime prevention, and through innovative and reasoned client representation.
Dear Friends,
It
has been my practice over the years to report developments in the Hennepin
County Attorney’s Office and this letter will recap major events so far this
year.
The
Minnesota Legislature adjourned a month ago after a tumultuous session that saw
many of the bills crammed into two mega-bills and then they died when Gov. Mark
Dayton vetoed them.
Some
other bills were passed and signed into law earlier in the session and one of
those involved protecting the public from sex offenders. In January, the
Minnesota Court of Appeals issued a decision that seemed likely to immediately
release a number of sex offenders civilly committed as mentally ill and
dangerous or sexually dangerous.
The
Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, working closely with the Minnesota County
Attorney’s Association, convinced the legislature to pass a law that clarified
the language that the court objected to in its ruling. As a result, the sex
offenders will now be held until the psychiatrists and the courts agree they
have successfully completed treatment and can be eased back into the community.
In
March, I announced a third-degree murder charge against Officer Mohamed Noor in
the fatal shooting of Justine Damond Ruszczyk last July. I also charged
the officer with second-degree manslaughter because, along with my team of
three veteran prosecutors, we determined that Officer Noor’s conduct in
shooting Ms. Ruszczyk was not justified.
The next court hearing is scheduled for September.
Our
attorneys in the civil division spend their days protecting taxpayer dollars by
defending the various Hennepin County departments and the county board. Civil
Division Managing Attorney Dan Rogan argued very well before the U.S. Supreme
Court defending a nearly 100-year-old Minnesota law that prohibits the wearing
of buttons, clothes or other items with a political message inside the polling
area. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled that they agreed that polling
area of a building is a nonpublic space and so laws are appropriate for
regulating what can be worn. However, the justices ruled that the Minnesota law
was too broadly written and therefore violated the First Amendment.
Mr.
Rogan returned to Washington, D.C. to argue on behalf of the county board that
a move by the Trump Administration to end federal grants to a county program
designed to reduce the rate of teen pregnancies, was illegal. The federal judge,
seeing similar suits from other counties, states and nonprofits, ordered the
federal government to continue processing those grants and added Hennepin
County to an 80-group class action suit. That suit will ultimately decide if
the Trump administration order was legal.
The
Hennepin County Attorney’s Office continues to be an innovator in keeping our
youth out of the juvenile justice system. Since 2007, we have worked with
schools throughout the county to not send us minor incidents of pushing and
shoving or damage to property. Instead, the schools should handle that
discipline themselves and send us only the most serious offenses. The result is
that the number of cases sent from the schools for prosecution dropped 71
percent from 2,513 to 728.
For
those juveniles who commit crimes outside of school, we have been diverting as
many of the minor incidents as we can. Our associates at Headway Diversion
interview the youth and together they put together a plan that could include
apologies, community service and/or restitution, but keeps their record clean.
In 2017, we diverted one-third of the cases sent to us: 2,045 out of 6,072.
Of
course, we also have been charging and convicting people who are a danger to
society.
-
Beth
Freeman pleaded guilty to criminal vehicular homicide for driving under the
influence of drugs when she tragically struck and killed Wayzata Police Officer
William Mathews on U.S. 12 last year. She was sentenced to more than eight
years in prison.
-
Delorien
Chatman was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison for a downtown
Minneapolis shooting in August. Chatman was in a fistfight, was knocked down,
pulled a gun and fired, hitting an innocent bystander.
-
Marcus
Hallmark was found guilty of first-degree murder for fatally shooting another
man at a Minnetonka Park and Ride. He was sentenced to life in prison.
-
Minneapolis
Police Officer Thomas Tichich was sentenced to four years in prison after a
jury convicted him of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. He was fired
from the department.
I
am honored to serve as your county attorney, and with our fine staff, continue
to seek justice every day. I hope you have a wonderful summer.
 Michael O. Freeman
Hennepin County Attorney
CONTACT INFO
Michael O. Freeman
Hennepin County Attorney
300 S. Sixth St., Minneapolis, MN 55487
612-348-5550 - citizeninfo@hennepin.us
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