Star Tribune
Three groups vying to monitor Minneapolis’ consent decrees flaunt their credentials
Jetting into Minneapolis this week for back-to-back community meetings, three national firms that specialize in evaluating law enforcement tried to assure residents they would be fair but critical if chosen to be the independent monitor of Minneapolis police reforms.
Representatives of Effective Law Enforcement for All, Jensen Hughes and Relman Colfax attended two community engagement sessions Tuesday and Wednesday that took place south of downtown, at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and Plymouth Congregational Church. Representatives of each firm had 15 minutes to present their teams, resumes and approach. They spent one hour answering questions that probed their contractual history with Minneapolis and how they would handle resistance to the court-mandated measures that the city has agreed to adopt.
“The independent evaluator is an essential third party — not one of the local city stakeholders — selected to oversee the transformational changes required by the court-enforceable settlement agreement,” said the Rev. DeWayne Davis, of Plymouth Congregational Church, who hosted both events. “Your voice in this process matters a great deal.”
After the police murder of George Floyd, state and federal investigations into the Minneapolis Police Department found civil rights violations and disproportionate force used against Black and Native American people spanning a decade. The city has since entered into a settlement decree with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, prescribing a litany of trainings, policy changes and measurable outcomes that the police department must accomplish before the agreement can be lifted.
The U.S. Department of Justice is still negotiating the terms of its consent decree with Minneapolis, but officials intend for the independent evaluator chosen to oversee the state and federal processes.
The Teams
Effective Law Enforcement for All (ELEFA): The nonprofit has partnered with police departments in Orlando, Fla., and Montgomery County, Md., to conduct voluntary audits and issue recommendations for reducing use-of-force incidents.
Their team in Minneapolis would be co-led by Michael Harrison, a former Baltimore police commissioner and former superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department — both agencies under federal consent decrees.
“What we’ve tried to do is form a team that understands this challenge from both sides,” said David Douglass, a former federal prosecutor and longtime deputy monitor for New Orleans. “Success ultimately will be measured by stories not told. Complaints not made. Litigation not filed. Lives not lost.”
Jensen Hughes: This global law enforcement consulting firm monitors in Bakersfield, Ca., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The firm has an established relationship with Minneapolis, which hired Hillard Heintze — a Maryland-based risk management consultant acquired by Jensen Hughes in 2019 — to assess its response to civil unrest after Floyd’s murder. That 86-page report detailed a critical breakdown in communications and emergency planning by city leaders that left residents feeling abandoned in May 2020. It offered recommendations to change how MPD deals with crowd control and lawful protests.
Jensen Hughes is currently under another contract with the city to conduct a comprehensive training assessment of MPD.
“We have an understanding of how the department operates and we have an understanding of your experiences,” said Sydney Roberts, a former inspector general who would serve as the team’s deputy monitor if selected.
Relman Colfax: The Washington, D.C.-based civil rights law firm’s cases deal with education, housing and public service discrimination. It represented a group of Flint, Mich., residents subjected to contaminated drinking water, resulting in a court-enforced settlement agreement.
Their team members include longtime Minneapolis officer and former Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mike Davis, Metro State University Associate Professor Dr. Raj Sethuraju, and Christy Lopez, a former federal litigator who served as co-monitor of Oakland’s consent decree.
“We believe that having the community participate early, throughout and even after the monitorship process is the way to have a successful collaboration between the community and police department,” said civil rights lawyer Reed Colfax, who would be lead evaluator.
Community Reception
On both nights, activists in the crowd held up signs depicting raccoons stacked in a trench coat with the slogan: “We refuse Jensen Hughes. You’re Hillard Heintze in disguise.”
Michelle Gross of the watchdog group Communities United Against Police Brutality said Hillard Heintze’ civil unrest after-action report was overly sentimental about what law enforcement experienced during the Floyd protests and glossed over violence against peaceful demonstrators and journalists, some of whom lost eyes from police projectiles.
“If they get picked, we’re going to go to court and fight it, I can promise you that,” she said.
Questions from the audience pressed members of the teams to explain what they would do to counter noncompliance by the police department or institutional resistance to change from city leaders. Two of the firms, ELEFA and Relman Colfax, said they would go so far as to ask the court to impose sanctions on the city.
“Yes, we have the ability to say so when they’re wrong, and we have leverage under the consent decree to go to court if necessary,” said Douglass. “But that’s the most expensive and least efficient way.”
Some police departments are under the false impression that they can wait out the monitor, said Angie Wolf of Relman Colfax. Jensen Hughes vowed to never “run out of stamina” even if MPD dragged its feet.
Northside resident Angela Williams quizzed the finalists about their track records reforming other law enforcement agencies, noting that police killings, misconduct complaints and racial disparities remained prevalent even after formal intervention by the DOJ.
“It should be the community who picks who they want to work with — not the mayor!” she said. “There’s too much money at stake.”
After reviewing community feedback, representatives from the DOJ, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, the City Attorney’s Office (including members of outside counsel Jones Day), the Office of Community Safety, MPD, the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department, the City of Minneapolis Department of Information Technology, the Mayor’s Office and the City Council will choose one team for the job. The city declined to identify the individuals on the selection panel.
The contract, which could cost up to $1.5 million a year, is subject to approval by the City Council with an anticipated start date of March 9.
Within 90 days of assuming its duties, the monitor team will need to develop a plan to implement the first four years of reforms. It must post semi-annual progress reports to its website, and survey police officers and the community on their satisfaction yearly.
The independent evaluator will have the power to approve new non-emergency policies and trainings before they can go into effect. But according to the city’s application, the independent evaluator “may only make recommendations, provide technical assistance, and issue reports,” and will not have the authority to require any city, police or state employee “to take or defer from taking any action.”
Star Tribune
Two more victims from encampment shootings identified as Mayor Frey says, ‘This is about fentanyl.’
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner has identified three murder victims from two separate shootings at homeless encampments this weekend in Minneapolis as three others were left with life-threatening injuries.
Christopher Martell Washington, 38, of Fridley, and Louis Mitchell Lemons, Jr., 32, of Brooklyn Center, were identified Monday afternoon as the two men who died from multiple gunshot wounds on Sunday afternoon in the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue. Deven Leonard Caston, 31, was identified as the victim at an encampment shooting near E. 21st Street and 15th Avenue S. that happened Saturday.
Minneapolis Police Spokesman Sgt. Garrett Parten, said it was unclear if there was a connection between the shootings but “we can’t rule it out.”
The city has dealt with several shootings in and around homeless encampments this year. Mayor Jacob Frey attended a news conference Sunday after the shooting on Snelling Avenue and said the city needs to continue to provide options for people seeking shelter. But, he said, encampments are not an alternative answer.
“Yet again we have more people that are dead,” he said. “We need to be honest and realistic about what is happening right now. We need to call a spade a spade. This is not about a lack of shelter. This is about fentanyl.”
Officers initially detained three people in the shooting of Washington and Lemons Jr., but were released after police found they were not believed to be involved in the shooting. No charges had been filed in either shooting as of Monday.
Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the area and lives nearby, was at the site of Sunday’s shooting. She said officials need information about what happened to better understand how to address situations like this long-term.
“This is an absolute tragedy, and this type of violence should never occur within our city,” she said. “It really makes me think about how we need to look at this more systemically and not just take a whack-a-mole approach and expect the problem to go away.”
Inside Paper Source, which has been in the mall since 2016, senior sales lead Carrie Helman-Menard said foot traffic has changed at the mall.
“It is quiet,” she said. “This street was a lot different even, you know, six years ago. The hobby stores down that way closed. Salut, closed. Anthropolgie, closed. J Crew, etc. There were a lot more people bustling, shopping.”
Grand, she said, can be that way again, but it “needs businesses. Needs people.”
A new development at Grand and Victoria could be just what’s needed, she said.
“People will come,” she said, pointing to her store’s customers continuing to walk through Paper Source’s door. “They get excited that something’s here. People are grateful. They’ll come in here and say, ‘Oh my god, I’m so glad you’re here.’ So that feels good. A lot of people want that hustle and bustle back.”
Simon Taghioff, president of the Summit Hill Association board, said Parritz made “an information only” presentation to the board earlier this month. Parritz, he said, shared “a lot of optimism in how it could transform that corner in a positive way.”
Star Tribune
Sentencing set for Monday morning for a Minnesota man who was drunk and speeding when he hit a woman’s SUV and killed her.
A man with a history of driving drunk received a four-year term Monday for being intoxicated and speeding when he hit a woman’s SUV on a southern Minnesota highway and killed her.
John R. Deleo, 54, of Lake Crystal, Minn., was sentenced in Brown County District Court after pleading guilty to criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the crash on Aug. 17, 2023, in New Ulm at Hwy. 68 and S. 15th Street that killed 82-year-old Sharon A. Portner, of New Ulm.
With credit for the two days he was in jail after his arrest, Deleo is expected to serve the first 2⅔ years years of his term in prison and the balance on supervised release.
A week ahead of sentencing, defense attorney James Kuettner asked the court to spare his client prison and put him on probation for up to five years.
Kuettner pointed out in his filing that Deleo stayed at the crash scene and attempted “to aid Portner, and he left [her] side only when directed to by law enforcement.”
The attorney also noted that Deleo has been sober since the crash, and therefore, at a particularly low risk for reoffending.
According to the criminal complaint:
Police arrived to find the two damaged vehicles near 15th and S. Broadway streets. Emergency responders took Portner to New Ulm Medical Center, where she died that day.
