Star Tribune
Evidence under debate as Minnesota state trooper charged in motorist’s killing appears in court
The Minnesota state trooper charged with killing motorist Ricky Cobb II during a traffic stop last summer appeared in court Thursday for arguments over what information his attorneys are entitled to from an independent use-of-force expert.
District Judge Tamara Garcia heard arguments amid escalating tensions between the defense and prosecutors in Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty’s office. Recent developments in the murder case show that Moriarty’s independent use-of-force expert gave a preliminary opinion that trooper Ryan Londregan acted reasonably when he shot Cobb as he attempted to flee. And the State Patrol’s own use-of-force trainer said in a new affidavit that Londregan didn’t violate policy and his statements to prosecutors were taken out of context.
Defense attorneys have subpoenaed the independent expert, Jeffrey Noble, to hand over any records or communications on Londregan. Noble, a former police chief from California, has provided expert testimony in previous police killing cases in Minnesota, including George Floyd and Philando Castile.
Chris Madel, one of Londregan’s attorneys, told Garcia that he wants the information directly from Noble because the county attorney’s office has made “multiple misrepresentations of fact, including the criminal complaint itself.”
“We’re supposed to take their word for what Noble said?” Madel said in court.
“[Prosecutors] say it’s all innocuous. If it’s innocuous, why not just produce it to shut me up?” Madel said. “The reason they are not doing this is plain.”
Madel said Noble agreed to comply with the subpoena, but Garcia has put the subpoena on pause until she makes a final ruling.
Prosecutors say they’ve already handed over required information to the defense. Assistant County Attorney Joshua Larson said the court should consider the relevance of the materials and whether the defense’s request was “made in good faith and not merely a fishing expedition.”
Larson disputed Madel’s assertion that Noble’s initial written thoughts on the case amounted to a final conclusion. He also insisted that the criminal complaint issued by Moriarty’s office was “fair and accurate” as written.
Moriarty charged Londregan, 27, with second-degree murder, manslaughter and assault in the fatal shooting of Cobb last summer during a traffic stop on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis. Charges were filed without the full report from Noble, who wrote that Londregan acted like a reasonable officer would to protect his partner who was being dragged by Cobb’s vehicle.
A State Patrol use-of-force training coordinator, Sgt. Jason Halvorson, also opined in a newly filed affidavit that Londregan followed his training. Halvorson’s statements were included in the criminal complaint filed by prosecutors, who he said “lied by omission” when they cherry-picked from his 37-page interview, “thereby purposefully misleading the reader of the complaint.”
Moriarty based the complaint on the legal analysis that Londregan violated trooper policy by firing at a moving vehicle. But Halvorson disagreed.
When the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension handed over its investigation to prosecutors, Moriarty announced that an expert opinion was critical to making her charging decision, but she stopped working with Noble.
Madel accused Moriarty’s office of shopping for another expert that aligns with her “ideology rather than the facts of the case.”
Noble was consulted as an expert witness in a 2023 St. Paul deadly use-of-force case, in which he concluded that the officers were in “imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury” when they shot and killed 65-year-old Yia Xiong as he wielded a knife.
That analysis helped inform Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Ramsey County Attorney John Choi’s decision Wednesday to rule the shooting justified and not charge St. Paul officer Abdirahmin Dahir.
In light of the Dahir case, Madel disputed previous arguments from Moriarty’s office claiming that Noble didn’t issue a full opinion on Londregan because he wasn’t well-versed in Minnesota’s new use-of-force statute. Madel said that Noble knows the new statute because he cited it in Dahir’s case.
The statute stipulates that a threat must meet a three-pronged threshold to warrant deadly force: It can be articulated with “specificity;” it’s “reasonably likely to occur” if the officer doesn’t act; and it must be addressed through “deadly force without unreasonable delay.”
In court Thursday, Londregan sat between his counsel, eyes fixed ahead, and did not speak during the hourlong hearing. Behind him in the courtroom gallery sat his wife and rows of supporters.
His next scheduled court appearance is April 29.
Garcia lightly admonished the parties, reiterating her desire that they stop filing so many affidavits, exhibits and motions that don’t have an express purpose before court hearings.
“We all want a fair and orderly trial,” she said, noting that the case should be prosecuted “only in this courtroom, not the court of public opinion or the media.”
Calls for reassignment
Recent developments in the case are drawing concern from the state’s top elected officials on both sides of the political aisle.
Gov. Tim Walz openly questioned Moriarty’s handling of the case and Ellison said he is studying the situation. Walz has the authority to intervene and reassign the case to Ellison, as happened last year with another controversial murder case in Moriarty’s office.
While executing that statutory authority is extremely rare, and Ellison said he wouldn’t ask Walz to give him a county attorney’s case again, six of Minnesota’s eight-member U.S. House delegation have now called for Ellison to take the case.
Walz said he would know more by Thursday when the judge weighed in, but Garcia didn’t make any officials rulings and the expert remains in limbo. Law enforcement groups and Minnesota House Republicans have called for Moriarty to be taken off the case.
Moriarty’s office issued a statement after Thursday’s hearing encouraging elected officials and others not involved in the case “to take the judge’s comments to heart and refrain from creating more confusion by commenting on the ongoing case.”
“Their comments disregard the established legal process, politicize the case, threaten the possibility of a fair trial, and ignore that there is a grieving family that is watching this unfold in the press,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, a group of criminal justice reform advocates and longtime Moriarty supporters issued their own news releases defending the progressive county attorney, arguing that intervention by state leaders would threaten the autonomy of her office to make prosecutorial decisions and hold law enforcement accountable.
“Mary has been a staunch ally in our fight for justice, especially for families shattered by police violence,” said Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality. “It’s imperative that she be allowed to continue without state interference that would undermine the progress made in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.”
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and her daughter were among the throngs Friday as President Joe Biden delivered the apology that many Indigenous Americans thought would never come.
“I think he really said the things that people have been waiting to hear for generations, acknowledged just the horror and trauma of literally having our children stolen from our communities,” said Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. “It’s a powerful first step towards healing.”
Hundreds of boarding schools operated in the 19th and 20th centuries, separating Indigenous children from their families and forcing them to assimilate to European ways. Many children were abused, and at least 973 died, according to a report from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Other Minnesotans reacted similarly to Flanagan, saying they welcomed the apology but that additional action is needed to help Indigenous people move forward.
Anton Treuer, a professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University, wrote in a newsletter that the apology was “a welcome first step on the journey to healing.”
“There is no way to truly right historical injustices for the children buried at Carlisle, Haskell, and other schools, but these words set a new tone for the country and will help heal the anguish so many Natives have carried for so long,” Treuer wrote. “It gives me hope that we can come together to reconcile and heal our troubled nation.”
Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, the first Indigenous woman to serve in the state Senate, called Biden’s apology encouraging.
“This recognition of past wrongdoings is an important step towards healing relationships between the United States and the sovereign nations affected by these past systems,” Kunesh said in a statement. “This dark period of American history must be remembered and taught.”
“I have done everything in my power to remedy this situation, and it continues to get more and more violent by the day,” Moturi wrote. “There have been numerous times when I’ve seen Sawchak outside and contacted law enforcement, and there was no response. I am not confident in the pursuit of Sawchak given that Sawchak attacked me, MPD officers had John detained, and despite an HRO and multiple warrants — they still let him go.”
On Friday, five City Council members sent a letter to Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara expressing their “utter horror at MPD’s failure to protect a Minneapolis resident from a clear, persistent and amply reported threat posed by his neighbor.”
Council Members Andrea Jenkins, Elliott Payne, Aisha Chughtai, Jason Chavez and Robin Wonsley went on to allege that police had failed to submit reports to the County Attorney’s Office despite threats being made with weapons, and at times while Sawchak screamed racial slurs. Sawchak is white and Moturi is Black.
The council members also contend in their letter that the MPD told the County Attorney’s Office that police did not intend to execute the warrant for “reasons of officer safety.”
At a Friday afternoon news conference at MPD’s Fifth Precinct, O’Hara said police had been working to arrest Sawchak since at least April, but “no Minneapolis police officers have had in-person contact with that suspect since the victim in this case has been calling us.” The chief pointed out that Sawchak is mentally ill, has guns and refuses to cooperate “in the dozens of times that police officers have responded to the residence.”
O’Hara put aside the option to carry out “a high-risk warrant based on these factors [and] the likelihood of an armed, violent confrontation where we may have to use deadly force with the suspect.” The preference, he said, was to arrest Sawchak outside his home, but “in this case, this suspect is a recluse and does not come out of the house.”
ROCHESTER – The Federal Transit Administration has green-lighted an $85 million grant supporting the development of the city’s planned Link Bus Rapid Transit system.
The FTA formally announced the grant on Friday during a ceremonial check presentation outside of the Mayo Civic Center, one of the seven stops planned for the bus line. The federal grant will cover about 60% of the project’s estimated $143.4 million price tag, with the remaining funds coming from Destination Medical Center, the largest public-private development project in state history.
Set to go live in 2026, the 2.8-mile Link system will connect downtown Rochester, including Mayo Clinic’s campuses, with a proposed “transit village” that will include parking, hundreds of housing units and a public plaza. The bus line will be the first of its kind outside the Twin Cities — with service running every five minutes during peak hours.
“That means you may not even need to look at a schedule,” said Veronica Vanterpool, deputy administrator for the FTA. “You can just show up at your transit stop and expect the next bus to come in a short time. That is a game changer and a life-transformational experience in transit for those people who are using it and relying on it.”
The planned Second Street corridor is already one of the busiest roads in Rochester, carrying more than 21,800 vehicles a day, and city planners have talked for years about ways to reduce traffic congestion in the city’s downtown. Local officials estimate that the transit line, which will rely on a fleet of all-electric buses, will handle 11,000 riders on its first day of operation and save eight city blocks of parking.
Speaking to a crowd of about 100 people gathered on Friday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said the project shows Rochester is thinking strategically about how it handles growth.
“If you just plan the business expansion, and you don’t have the workforce, you don’t have the child care, the housing or the transit, it’s not going to work very well as a lot of communities across the nation have found,” Klobuchar said.
