Star Tribune
State Patrol trainer says Trooper Ryan Londregan followed training in fatal shooting of motorist Ricky Cobb II
In a newly filed affidavit in Trooper Ryan Londregan’s murder case in the fatal shooting of motorist Ricky Cobb II, a State Patrol use-of-force trainer accused prosecutors in the Hennepin County Attorneys Office of lying and opined that Londregan followed his training and did not violate policy.
It’s the latest development in the case that is growing increasingly political as Londregan’s defense attorneys and prosecutors in County Attorney Mary Moriarty’s office clash repeatedly in court filings and in the press. Both parties head to court Thursday morning to argue over Moriarty’s independent use-of-force expert, who she stopped working with after the expert said Londregan acted reasonably.
But in a defense filing Wednesday, Sgt. Jason Halvorson, a 25-year veteran of the force, said that a senior prosecutor who authored the criminal complaint took Halvorson’s statements out of context and “lied by omission.”
According to that complaint: Halvorson was asked whether a reasonable officer would believe that pointing a gun at a fleeing driver and yelling at the driver to stop would cause the driver to stop. He said “No.” He was asked, “would it be foreseeable to expect the exact opposite, meaning [the driver] would continue to leave?” He replied, “That was probably his intention was to flee the area, so he’s gonna keep going in that direction away from me.”
Halvorson said in Wednesday’s filing that senior prosecutors Mark Osler and Josh Larson attended that interview with BCA agents and the prosecutors asked him the hypothetical questions and cherry-picked from the 37-page interview.
“The truth in this matter is that I went on to explain that choice of actions in this context are ‘situationally dependent,'” Halvorson wrote.
Upon his review of the interview transcript, the trainer said his exact words were:
“… if you’re throwing out so many hypotheticals it’s just one of those situations where it’s each individual situation is all dependent upon the actions of the actual suspect you’re dealing with and how they comply to the de-escalation and how they actually respond to the de-escalation. And If I’m not seeing the actual responses that I’m looking for, I have to make the decision quickly of what my next move is gonna be.”
He said Osler excluded critical facts and context from the complaint, “thereby purposefully misleading the reader of the complaint.”
A statement from Moriarty’s office Wednesday said defense attorneys were using the court to file “baseless press releases” with false accusations.
“There is significant evidence that supports the charges in this case. The complaint is accurate and lays out the evidence to establish probable cause,” the statement said, adding later: “We will address the voluminous defense filings and litigate the case in court, and not in the press.”
Morairty’s office charged Londregan with second-degree unintentional murder, first-degree assault and second-degree manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Cobb during a traffic stop last July 31. Troopers pulled Cobb over on Interstate 94 in Minneapolis for driving without taillights around 2 a.m. They attempted to remove him from the vehicle after learning he’d been accused of violating a standing domestic order for protection. As Cobb shifted the vehicle into drive and took his foot off the brake, the car lurched forward, dragging another trooper positioned at the driver’s side. Londregan fired twice from the passenger side, striking Cobb twice in the torso.
In the affidavit filed Wednesday, Halvorson said he has served as the use-of-force training coordinator for 10 years and trained Londregan, as well as Trooper Brett Seide, who was trying to get Cobb out of the vehicle before Londregan arrived.
The trainer said that he did not perform a complete use-of-force review. He said he offered to do one, but Larson and Osler didn’t accept it.
A complete review, Halvorson said, requires meeting with Londregan, and Halvorson said that as he understands, Hennepin County District Court issued an order preventing Londregan from speaking with witnesses about his case.
The complaint also states: “Under State Patrol policy, any use of a firearm is deadly force. A firearm may be readied for use only in situations where it is reasonably anticipated that firearms may be required. State Patrol policy also states that members shall not shoot from or at a moving vehicle, except when deadly force is authorized, and that troopers should make every effort not to place themselves in a position that would increase the possibility that the vehicle they are approaching can be used as a deadly weapon against them or others.”
But to that, Halvorson wrote in the affidavit that he did not rely on patrol vehicle pursuit policy because “this was not a vehicle pursuit.” The trainer added that Londregan “did not violate the use-of-force General Orders, including, but not limited to the use-of-force policy…”
“Trooper Londregan acted in accordance with his training,” Halvorson said.
Moriarty’s independent use-of-force expert, Jeffrey Noble, a former police chief from California who is frequently used as an exert in police cases, including the killings of George Floyd and Philando Castile, is being subpoenaed by Londregan’s defense attorneys to provide all records from his work with prosecutors.
Prosecutors said they handed over all Noble-related records to the defense, but the defense argues there’s more information they are entitled to.
Judge Tamara Garcia ordered the subpoena to be on pause until she makes a determination on Noble.
Many residents in the apartments next to the proposed nightclub are visiting workers such as travel nurses or farm laborers, he said. “It makes no sense to have a nightclub that has concerts next to a place where people need to rest to work in the community,” Zuleger said.
He has said that the company also partners with addiction centers and women’s shelters to house Willmar’s most vulnerable residents, and some of these tenants would be too close for comfort to the new nightclub.
Instead of a nightclub, the site should be used for a Somali community center where children from the nearby apartments can play, Zuleger said. Willmar, a city of about 21,000 people, is about 24% Hispanic and 11% Black, with 16% of the city born overseas, double the average rate in the rest of Minnesota. About 43% of the company’s tenants are Somali, and Zuleger called them his “best-paying renters.”
But Doug Fenstra, the real estate agent helping sell the property at 951 High Av., said he had never heard about the possibility of a Somali community center before Zuleger brought up the idea at an October planning commission meeting.
On Wednesday, the planning commission deliberated whether a nightclub would fit the character of the neighborhood. They noted that there was already a brewery in the area.
They passed a motion granting the conditional-use permit.
“DHS and our state and federal partners have seen evidence that kickbacks are happening in Minnesota,” Inspector General Kulani Moti said in a statement. “That’s why we brought an anti-kickback proposal to the Minnesota Legislature last session. We will continue to work with the Legislature next session on ways to strengthen the integrity of our public programs.”
Nuway Alliance, one of the state’s largest nonprofit substance use disorder treatment providers, pays up to $700 a month for someone’s housing while they are in intensive outpatient treatment, the organization’s website states. The site lists dozens of sober housing programs clients can choose from.
Nuway leaders said they got an inquiry from the government about two and a half years ago indicating they are conducting a civil investigation into the housing model.
But officials with the nonprofit said in an email they believe what they are doing is legal and clients need it. More than 600 people are using their assistance to stay in recovery residences, Nuway officials stated. They said having a safe, supportive place to stay is particularly important for the vulnerable people they serve, more than half of whom reported being homeless in the six months before they started treatment.
Health plans knew about, approved and even lauded their program, Nuway leaders said, noting that health insurer UCare even gave it an award.
“The state of Minnesota has been fully aware of our program for a decade,” the organization said. “Since payors are fully aware of, and support the program, we struggle to see how anyone could argue it is improper, let alone fraudulent.”
Mounds View, the first Minnesota city to require homeowners to discharge racist language buried in deeds before they sell their homes, is celebrating a milestone: at least 100 homeowners have completed the process.
Officials say discharging the language is a symbolic step, but an important one.
“How could we call ourselves an inclusive community with the words ‘This home shall not be sold to a non-white person’ buried in the deeds?” Mayor Zach Lindstrom said at the state of the city address Monday.
Racially restrictive covenants, found in deeds around the Twin Cities and Minnesota, were legally enforceable tools of racial segregation for the first half of the 20th century. They barred homes’ sale to, and sometimes even occupancy by, anyone who wasn’t white until 1948, when they became unenforceable. Mapping Prejudice, a University of Minnesota research project uncovering these covenants, has found more than 33,000 of them in Minnesota, including more than 500 in Mounds View.
Many local cities have partnered with Just Deeds, a coalition that helps cities and their residents learn about and discharge covenants. In 2019, the Legislature passed a law allowing homeowners to add language to their deeds that discharges racist covenants but doesn’t erase them from the record. Earlier this year, Mounds View was the first to pass an ordinance requiring it. The city is also helping residents navigate the process.
Just because these covenants are no longer enforceable doesn’t mean they haven’t had long-lasting consequences, Kirsten Delegard, Mapping Prejudice project director, said at a Mounds View City Council meeting this summer: Minneapolis homes with racial covenants are worth 15% more than those without, she said. And neighborhoods with covenants remain the whitest parts of the Twin Cities.
Mounds View residents Rene and Steven Johnson were troubled to learn from Mapping Prejudice that their house, and many homes in their neighborhood, had racially restrictive covenants on them. It took some effort, including a trip to the Ramsey County Recorder’s Office, to find the document, which not only contained race restrictions but barred unmarried couples from owning the home.
The couple got their covenant discharged, and educated the city about the process, Rene Johnson said. That helped lead to the ordinance requiring covenants to be discharged before sale.
