Star Tribune
Ruling likely puts pressure on Minneapolis to settle lawsuit by journalists, observers say
A blistering ruling by U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina Wright this week likely puts pressure on Minneapolis to settle a lawsuit by journalists accusing police of violating their constitutional rights, according to observers with knowledge of such cases.
No trial date has been set, and there is no hint that settlement talks are in the works. But Wright’s sharply worded language suggests that the suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union-Minnesota (ACLU-MN) has been put in a stronger position, several attorneys said.
The Minneapolis City Attorney’s Office and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office had sought to quash the case with a summary judgment motion, but they were rebuffed by Wright.
“If you lose a motion for summary judgment, it typically raises pressure on parties to reach some settlement,” said Senior District Judge Kevin Burke, former Hennepin County chief judge.
Wright, Burke said, “is a pretty moderate person. So if you have language [she used], my suggestion is that that record is pretty damning for the city.”
Attorney Jordan Kushner, who has frequently brought lawsuits by protesters, said it’s been the pattern of the city to settle such cases “once it’s clear that they are going to be liable.”
Kevin Riach, one of the attorneys representing the journalists, said they had not yet heard from the city, and the City Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
“We are always happy to entertain discussions with the city about resolving this matter, but if it doesn’t resolve we look forward to proving our case in trial,” Riach said.
Former City Council Member Cam Gordon said he believed Wright’s ruling puts pressure on the city to settle. “In my experience, the city has preference for settling rather than exposing themselves and the public to the truth,” he said.
In her ruling Tuesday, Wright wrote that the record “provides substantial evidence that [Minneapolis Police Department] officers deliberately and systematically targeted journalists, including plaintiffs, who were identifiable as members of the press and not committing any crimes.”
She added: “Plaintiffs have provided evidence of continuing widespread, persistent pattern of unconstitutional misconduct by MPD, deliberate indifference by city defendants, and evidence of a causal link between MPD’s custom and plaintiff’s injuries.”
The ACLU-MN also is suing the Sheriff’s Office for the alleged mistreatment of journalists and violation of their rights during protests in 2021 in Brooklyn Center after the police shooting death of Daunte Wright, when then-Sheriff Dave Hutchinson was in charge.
The Sheriff’s Office, which declined comment Friday, has claimed “qualified immunity” shielding a government official who does not violate an individual’s statutory or constitutional rights.
Wright granted summary judgment on one such claim but denied it on another. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office filed a notice Thursday on behalf of the Sheriff’s Office with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that it intends to appeal the denial of qualified immunity.
Jeff Storms, an attorney who has represented clients suing the city, said an opinion like Wright’s “always puts pressure on a city to resolve the matter.”
Robert Bennett, who has also frequently sued the city, said Wright’s ruling was consistent with investigative findings of Minneapolis police by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Minnesota Human Rights Department.
The ACLU-MN sued the State Patrol in the same case, but it settled in 2022 after the patrol agreed to an enhanced process for reviewing the complaints of journalists and an injunction preventing the patrol from assaulting or detaining journalists.
A St. Paul man who was in critical condition following a fire last week at his home in the Battle Creek neighborhood has died, marking the city’s eighth fire death this year.
According to a news release from the St. Paul Fire Department, the man was found unconscious in the basement of a house on Nelson Street early in the morning of Oct. 17, after fire crews had extinguished a fire at the two-story residence. Paramedics undertook life-saving measures before taking him to the hospital.
No one else was injured in the fire, which was found to have been accidental and started in the engine of a car parked in the tuck-under garage. The fire was confined to the garage, but heavy smoke filled the house. Smoke detectors enabled others in the house to exit safely, officials said.
That hasn’t ebbed with Simpli-Fi. The startup incorporated in 2018 as a company based out of Florida that integrated technology systems together in commercial buildings to work as a single unit. But business sputtered when the COVID-19 pandemic began, and Campbell had to make staff cuts to his team of 16 employees. He called it one of “the worst times” of his life.
“But during that time is where we made a pivot,” Campbell said.
He set out to find a new technology, eventually spotting NASA’s electronic nose thanks to Brown Venture Group, a St. Paul based firm that supports Black, Latino and Indigenous tech startups. Campbell’s brother, Paul Campbell, is a partner at the firm but said he recused himself from the investment decision.
Chris Campbell was skeptical of the electronic nose’s capabilities at first but sprung for a commercialization license after spending a year researching the technology. By this past summer, he had moved the company to Minnesota and specifically the Osborne building because both are “known for device creation,” he said.
Simpli-Fi’s sensor packs some of the science of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry — which require huge machines — into a sensor the size of a dime, Campbell said. Using nanotubes, the sensor picks up metabolic qualities in the air and breath, he said.
For now, the company is focused on the C. diff-sensing Provectus Canary device, which scans the air around a hospital patient to detect the bacteria that causes the infection, which has gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhea. The company is working toward the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval for using the sensor to detect various diseases.
A Minneapolis man was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison for murdering his neighbor in their North Side apartment building last year.
Walter Lee Hill, 59, had pleaded guilty on Monday to second-degree intentional murder. He will get credit for having served nearly a year in jail.
Police were called to the Gateway Lofts on W. Broadway Avenue last November on a report that someone was shot. Officers found Donald Edmondson, 60, dead on the floor of his apartment with a gunshot wound to the chest.
A video camera in the hallway showed Hill knocking on Edmondson’s door, reaching into his sweatshirt pocket and firing his gun once. Hill then left in his Lexus, which officers found near Elliot Park downtown.
They spotted Hill walking nearby, asked for his ID and arrested him when he said something to the effect that they had the right guy.
A witness told police they saw Hill shoot Edmondson, and another said there had been an ongoing dispute between the two. Two days before the murder, Hill had called police because he believed neighbors were breaking into his apartment.
In a statement, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said Edmondson “should still be alive. A violent act committed with such disregard by Mr. Hill has taken him from his family. This sentence delivers accountability and protects our community, and I hope it brings some measure of peace to Mr. Edmondson’s loved ones as they attempt to move forward with their lives.”
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