Star Tribune
Robbinsdale police officer testifies why he stopped Myon Burrell, searched vehicle
Myon Burrell, the Minneapolis man whose life sentence for murder was commuted in 2020, argued in court this week for the dismissal of drug and gun charges filed against him last year, saying there was no probable cause to pull him over before his car was searched leading to the discovery of the contraband.
A Robbinsdale police officer testified in Hennepin County District Court in the ongoing criminal case against Burrell, 37, charged in September with fifth-degree drug possession and illegal weapon possession following the traffic stop by officer Andrew Nordby. At the time, Nordby said Burrell was driving erratically on N. 42nd Avenue and a billow of marijuana smoke emitted from his SUV.
Nordby took the witness stand for two hours Wednesday as parties argued over the legal basis of the traffic stop and search. Dash and body-worn camera videos played in court show the officer follow Burrell’s SUV for several blocks as it touched the dotted line two or three times. The video doesn’t show a billow of smoke coming from Burrell’s car after Burrell rolled down the window upon the stop, as referenced in criminal criminal charges.
Defense attorneys Paul Applebaum and Nico Ratkowski are challenging the stop and the alleged basis for asking Burrell out of his SUV. They argue that evidence seized in the traffic stop that led to the felony charges should be suppressed because Nordby lacked probable cause.
Burrell’s life sentence was commuted by the Minnesota Board of Pardons after he served 18 years in prison. The felony murder conviction remains on his record so he’s prohibited from possessing firearms. As a teen, Burrell was charged and convicted of the 2002 killing of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards, who was struck by a stray bullet in Minneapolis. Burrell, now 37, always maintained his innocence.
Applebaum asked Nordby several times if he knew who Burrell was when he pulled him over at N. Indiana Avenue and Lake Drive on Aug. 29 around 11 a.m. Nordby said he didn’t know who Burrell was. In fact, videos show Nordby asking Burrell how to pronounce his last name.
Nordby said there was no discussion prior to the stop about Burrell in the Robbinsdale Police Department, which Nordby joined in 2020 as his first law enforcement officer job.
Nordby said the “moving violations” of the SUV touching the dotted line and going 7 mph over the posted speed limit of 30 mph concerned him, and he suspected the driver was under the influence.
Applebaum asked Nordby if he agrees that drivers who are not impaired also touch dotted lines and speed.
“I agree with that,” Nordby said.
Prosecutors from Dakota County examined Nordby on the witness stand as well. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office recused itself from the case since Burrell was a paid staffer on Mary Moriarty’s campaign team when she successfully ran in 2022 to be Hennepin County Attorney.
Dakota County Chief Deputy Attorney Cheri Townsend clarified with Nordby that he didn’t see Burrell actively smoking, but the officer did see remnants of marijuana on the console. The officer agreed.
He also acknowledged that adult use of recreational cannabis was legalized earlier that month, but it’s still against the law to smoke it in a motor vehicle.
Nordby conducted field sobriety tests with Burrell on the sidewalk and then asked to search the SUV. Burrell did not give him permission. The body camera video shows that Burrell asked to call his lawyer and Nordby said yes. Burrell stepped to the side with his phone in hand when officers grabbed him and a struggle ensued. Burrell was placed under arrest after Nordby said he thought Burrell was attempting to flee.
Ratkowski said in a statement that Nordby’s testimony and video evidence “clearly demonstrate that the officer’s claimed reasons for searching Mr. Burrell’s vehicle were fabricated. Mr. Burrell’s constitutional rights were repeatedly infringed during the stop, and we are hopeful the Court will acknowledge as much.”
Both parties will submit final written arguments in the next few months before District Judge Peter Cahill takes the case under advisement. Burrell, who remains out on $100,000 bail, returns to court in May when a decision on the stop will be issued.
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.
