Star Tribune
Seizure of Mike Lindell’s cellphone didn’t violate his constitutional rights
A panel of federal judges says the government didn’t violate Mike Lindell’s constitutional rights when FBI agents seized his phone last year in the drive-thru line at a Mankato Hardee’s.
The judges, upholding a lower court ruling, said the agents had a warrant that explicitly authorized them to search and seize his cellphone as part of a federal investigation.
“Lindell’s irritation as to where and how the government took possession of his cell phone does not give rise to a constitutional claim, let alone a showing of a callous disregard for his constitutional rights,” read the ruling issued Friday.
Lindell, the CEO of Minnesota-based MyPillow, is the subject of an ongoing federal investigation into the security breach and publishing of forensic images of election software used in the 2020 election in Mesa County, Colo. Lindell has repeated the false claim that voting machines were rigged to illegally give more votes to President Joe Biden than former President Donald Trump.
In a Star Tribune interview after his cellphone was seized, Lindell likened the FBI’s seizure of his cell phone to the “Gestapo in Nazi Germany.”
After calling his lawyer, Lindell turned over his phone, but he quickly sued to block the review of its contents and have it returned to him immediately, arguing he uses it for day-to-day work running his businesses.
But in its ruling, the panel said that Lindell acknowledged in a sworn declaration that he backed up the phone five days before it was seized, meaning he had access to “the vast majority of information” it contained.
“While he has been deprived of possession of his phone, he has not been deprived access to the phone’s contents, other than perhaps a limited slice of no more than five days’ worth of information that he has neither detailed nor identified with any particularity as vital to his businesses,” the ruling read.
However, the court said the government would need to provide justification for continuing to hold on to Lindell’s phone, which they’ve had for more than a year.
“Absent sufficient justification, the government has no right to hold onto property that is not contraband indefinitely,” the panel wrote.
No charges have been filed in this investigation, but Lindell is the subject of multiple lawsuits around his false claims of election fraud. He and MyPillow face a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voter Systems and Smartmatic. Lindell and MyPillow have also filed lawsuits against the voting machine companies.
A private arbitration panel has also ordered Lindell to pay a computer forensics expert $5 million after Lindell said he would pay that sum to anyone who could disprove data he claimed showed Chinese interference in the 2020 election. Lindell is countersuing in that case.
Staff writers Rochelle Olson and Ryan Faircloth contributed to this report
A driver who hit and killed a man who ran into a busy Minneapolis street has been spared prison and was sentenced on the lesser of two charges.
Camoreay L. Prowell, 38, of St. Paul, was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty in Hennepin County District Court to failing to stop for a traffic collision in connection with the death of Wilson G. Chinchilla, 26, of Minneapolis, on Oct. 19, 2022, on West Broadway near N. Logan Avenue.
Judge Hilary Caligiuri set aside a 13-month term and placed Prowell on probation for three years. He has about 3½ weeks left to serve in jail. As called for in the plea agreement, the more serious charge of criminal vehicular homicide was dismissed.
When asked about dropping the higher charge, the County Attorney’s Office said in a statement, “This office weighs the specific facts of each case to determine the appropriate resolution. In this instance, the charge for which Mr. Prowell was sentenced [Thursday] is correct and appropriate.”
The complaint said that Prowell was driving at the time after his license had been canceled. Court records in Minnesota revealed he’s been convicted three times for drunken driving and at least twice for driving after his license had been revoked.
According to the criminal complaint:
Police found Chinchilla’s body in the left lane of westbound West Broadway. Video surveillance showed that he ran out of a nearby home moments earlier toward the street.
Witnesses told police that a speeding SUV hit Chinchilla, slowed briefly as it continued west, then made a U-turn and returned to the scene of the crash. Prowell stopped, looked at the body and left.
Mychel Stowers was released on parole from prison about seven months ago after he pleaded guilty to second-degree intentional murder in 2008 for fatally shooting a man in a drug deal gone wrong. According to charging documents, Stowers was living at a halfway house and granted a pass to visit his ex-wife at her North End apartment on the same day that she was killed.
Mychel Stowers’ description also matched the man witnesses saw fleeing Damara Stowers’ apartment moments after the shooting. One witness said they heard no fights or arguments before four gunshots rang. They heard another gunshot five seconds later, and another witness reported seeing a heavyset man with a white shirt and blue shorts run south afterwards.
The apartment’s owner said they were preparing to evict Damara Stowers, adding that her ex-boyfriend, a stocky man in his 30′s or 40′s, was living with her.
Police heard reports of a carjacking minutes later, finding a man shot in his leg on 99 Acker Street. Surveillance footage reviewed by authorities show someone approach that man and point something at him before a flash appeared. The man fell and the shooter ran away, but returned moments later to take the man’s vehicle and leave. That man was treated at Regions Hospital for a broken femur from a gunshot wound.
Authorities believe the gun used to carjack that man on Acker Street was the same used to kill Damara Stowers in her apartment.
There have been 25 homicides in St. Paul so far this year, according to a Minnesota Star Tribune database. There were 28 by this time last year.
The Minneapolis Police Department is on track to rack up $26 million in overtime this year — about $10 million over budget — as the number of extra hours officers work continues since a flood of officers left the force after George Floyd’s 2020 police killing and unrest that ensued.
Police Chief Brian O’Hara provided the OT figure to City Council members during a budget presentation Thursday in which he added that the department has about 210 vacancies.
“We’re using overtime every day to do the most basic functions of a police department,” he said. “It is critically low staffing right now.”
Last year, MPD paid nearly $23 million in overtime — about half of that “critical staffing overtime,” in which officers are paid double their hourly wage.
Overtime is being driven by a wave of resignations and retirements at the department, which had 578 sworn officers as of Thursday, down from nearly 900 in 2019, a 36% decrease that has left it with one of the nation’s lowest ratios of officers to residents.
MPD was averaging about $7 million in overtime prior to 2020, when it shot up to $11 million and has increased every year since, reaching $23 million last year.
Mayor Jacob Frey has proposed a $230 million budget for MPD next year, a 6% increase from 2024, or $13.7 million. Of that, $13 million is budgeted for “constitutional policing” to comply with a state human rights settlement. State and federal officials are forcing the police department into court-sanctioned monitoring for civil rights violations.
Most of that goes to personnel, which comprises 77% of the budget, according to MPD Finance Director Vicki Troswick. The mayor proposes 966 full-time total MPD employees next year, compared to 935 this year. Of those, 731 sworn officers are budgeted for 2025. The city charter requires the city to employ 1.7 officers per 1,000 residents, or 731 officers, although the city has struggling to reach that number amid a nationwide law enforcement staffing shortage.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings