Star Tribune
Minnesota state trooper’s defense may call use-of-force expert for testimony
A Hennepin County judge has approved a defense request to subpoena an independent use-of-force expert consulted in the murder case against a Minnesota state trooper, but denied a flurry of other evidentiary motions they raised.
Judge Tamara Garcia ruled that Trooper Ryan Londregan’s attorneys made a “plausible argument” that reports, meetings notes and other draft documents produced by the expert, Jeffrey Noble, are relevant to the defense’s case and that he should be allowed to testify.
For weeks, both parties have argued over what, if any, information the defense is entitled to from Noble, a retired deputy police chief from Irvine, Calif. retained by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty during the charging review process.
Noble’s preliminary opinions sparked controversy after court records revealed that he had opined to prosecutors that Londregan acted reasonably to protect his partner when he shot and killed motorist Ricky Cobb II during a traffic stop last summer.
“The danger was not hypothetical,” Noble observed, according to a two-page summary of the virtual meeting between Noble and Moriarty’s staff on Oct. 13, 2023. However, Noble asked for more time to review the case and “refrained from offering an ultimate opinion” on whether lethal force was justified, the memo states.
Moriarty did not wait on his final report. She charged Londregan, 27, with second-degree murder, manslaughter and assault, two days before dismissing Noble from further work on the case.
Since then, the defense has sought to verify Noble’s statements by requesting that he hand over any records, notes or communications on Londregan since his first contact with Moriarty’s office. Prosecutors quickly moved to quash the subpoena last month, arguing that it was “extremely overbroad and burdensome.”
In her 17-page order, Garcia noted that Noble has not objected to the subpoena, nor has the state provided any information about the burden to him.
“Londregan has also made the plausible argument that the documents are relevant to his defense, even if the materials are not dispositive to the case,” Garcia wrote in her April 3 ruling. She went on to say that compliance of the subpoena “is not unreasonable under the totality of the circumstances.”
Garcia denied five defense motions seeking to compel various categories of discovery materials from Moriarty’s office regarding Noble, including all text and email communications between him and members of her staff.
Such administrative correspondence is protected as “work product” under the law, Garcia ruled, and therefore not required to be disclosed by the state. She did, however, order that prosecutors turn over all external communications with the media — such as public press releases — as well as a list of every individual interviewed in connection with the case.
Londregan’s attorneys hoped to depose Noble ahead of the upcoming omnibus hearing on April 29. But Garcia denied that request, citing court rules saying that a deposition may only be ordered when there is “reasonable probability that the witness will be unavailable to testify at trial.”
“[The defense] has not shown that Noble is unavailable to testify at either a hearing or trial,” she wrote,” she said, according to the recently filed order. “Indeed, all input from the parties indicates that Noble is alive, in good health, and perfectly willing to fly to Minnesota if subpoenaed or retained as an expert witness… The fact that Noble lives in California does not make him unavailable.”
Noble has provided expert testimony in previous police killing cases in Minnesota, including George Floyd and Philando Castile. He was most recently consulted last year in a St. Paul police deadly use-of-force case, where 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 state Attorney General Keith Ellison and Ramsey County Attorney John Choi’s decision last month to rule the shooting justified and not charge St. Paul officer Abdirahman Dahir.
Anti-police brutality activists interrupted a Minneapolis City Council meeting Thursday to call for Police Chief Brian O’Hara’s firing, saying his department failed a Black man who begged police for help for months, to no avail, before he was finally shot in the neck by his white neighbor.
John Sawchak, 54, is charged with shooting Davis Moturi, 34, even though three warrants had been issued for his arrest in connection with threats to Moturi and other neighbors.
Activists showed up at the council meeting and asked for time to talk about the case. Instead, the council recessed and activists took the podium and castigated the city for failing Black people, even as state and federal officials are forcing the police department into court-sanctioned monitoring because of past civil rights violations.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, founder of the Racial Justice Network, said O’Hara needs to be held accountable.
“This is not the first time instance where the community has raised concerns about his poor judgment, poor leadership, blaming the community and excuses. It’s completely unacceptable for him to get away with it,” she said. “How many Black people’s doors have they kicked in for less?”
On Thursday the council voted to request the city auditor review the city’s involvement in and response to the matters between Moturi and Sawchak.
Mayor Jacob Frey released a statement in response saying he supports the council’s call for an independent review of the case, but O’Hara “will continue to be the Minneapolis police chief.”
Protesters also questioned why the public hadn’t heard from Community Safety Commissioner Toddrick Barnette, who called a news conference within hours to say he’s not going to fire O’Hara and the city leadership supports him.
A Girl Scout from Troop 58068 told the Woodbury City Council recently that they should allow backyard chickens in the city: They cheer people up, she said.
It turned out that chickens were on an upcoming agenda and, perhaps pushed a bit by the scout’s lobbying, the Woodbury City Council at their next meeting passed a new ordinance allowing for backyard hens.
The new ordinance went into effect on Oct. 23, the night of the council meeting, and will allow people who live on property zoned R-2, a “rural estate” district, to have backyard chickens. A typical city lot is zoned R-4 and those areas still cannot have chickens, the council said.
The city has received requests “here and there” for the last several years about backyard chickens, City Council Member Andrea Date said.
Backyard chickens come have home to roost — and never leave — in a host of other Minnesota cities that allow them, from Hopkins to Thief River Falls. It’s long been allowed in both St. Paul and Minneapolis, and new cities started approving backyard coops during the pandemic, when interest spiked.
In Woodbury, it wasn’t until the question was included on the city’s biannual survey that city staff knew how people felt. The survey found less support for chickens on a typical city lot — just 13% of respondents said they strongly approve of the idea while 43% percent strongly disapproved — but a majority approved of backyard chickens on lots of 1 acre or more.
The city’s rules until recently only allowed chickens on “rural estate” properties of five or more acres.
The new ordinance allows up to six hens, but no roosters, on property less than four acres that meets the zoning requirements. Larger properties can have an additional two chickens per acre above four acres. The ordinance also sets a height limit for chicken coops of 7 feet. No license or permit is required in Woodbury for backyard chickens.
Star Tribune
Anonymous donor pays overdue bill for Fergus Falls home where town’s first Black resident lived
A $10,000 overdue special assessment bill threatening tax forfeiture of a historic Fergus Falls home was paid off this week thanks to an anonymous donor.
Prince Albert Honeycutt lived at 612 Summit Avenue East, renamed Honeycutt Memorial Drive in 2021. Not only was Honeycutt the town’s first Black resident — settling there in 1872 from Tennessee — he was the state’s first Black professional baseball player, first Black firefighter and first Black mayoral candidate.
He was an early pioneer and prominent businessman who owned a barbershop in town. Missy Hermes, with the Otter Tail County Historical Society, said Honeycutt and his wife were likely the first Black people in Minnesota to testify in a capital murder trial of a man who was convicted and hanged in Fergus Falls.
“In other places, you would never have a Black person testifying against a white person, especially a woman, too, before women could vote even,” Hermes said. “Obviously he was respected enough.”
Nancy Ann and Prince Albert Honeycutt with their children inside the now-historic Honeycutt house in 1914. Photo from the collections of the Otter Tail County Historical Society.
When dozens of people from Kentucky moved to Fergus Falls in April 1898, known as “the first 85,” Honeycutt helped integrate them into the community.
He died in 1924 at age 71 and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Fergus Falls.
Up until 2016, several owners lived in the Honeycutt home. But the city bought and sold the house to nonprofit Flowingbrook Ministry for $1 to take over the tax-exempt property and operate the ministry.
Ministry founder Lynette Higgins-Orr, who previously lived in Fergus Falls, moved to Florida several years ago and little activity has been going on in the historic home since. But she said there are plans to make it into a museum.
