Hennepin County attorney wants to use forfeited money to pay outside lawyers in trooper’s dropped murder case

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office wants to tap criminal forfeiture money to pay a $578,028 bill from the Washington, D.C., law firm hired to take over the now-dismissed murder and manslaughter charges against state trooper Ryan Londregan.

The County Board advanced, with a 5-1 vote Tuesday, a request from County Attorney Mary Moriarty’s office to spend $700,000 in criminal forfeiture money as part of a supplemental budget appropriation. The board is expected to formally approve spending the forfeited funds at their final meeting of the year Dec. 12.

Commissioner Kevin Anderson was the only vote against the request. He opposed Moriarty’s request in April to hire an outside law firm and questioned why an additional appropriation was needed.

“We were told, whatever the expense was going to be, would have been in their budget, and it wasn’t,” Anderson said after his vote.

Sarah Davis, deputy county attorney, noted that criminally forfeited funds are available to her office annually, but the County Board must OK how the money is spent.

“This is not taxpayer dollars. That is one thing I want to make clear,” Davis told the board.

Most of the forfeited funds will go toward paying Steptoe LLP, a Washington, D.C.-based international law firm that Moriarty hired in April to take over the Londregan case. The Minnesota trooper was charged with murder, manslaughter and assault for the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a July 2023 traffic stop.

Minnesota law dictates how money from forfeited property is distributed: 70% to the law enforcement agency to supplement operations or expenses; 20% to the prosecuting authority’s operating fund; and 10% to the state treasury credited to the general fund.

In a comment provided to the Minnesota Star Tribune, Moriarty said her office’s success in filling job vacancies decreased its available budget which led to the use of the criminal forfeiture funds. She said her promise to the County Board earlier this year was that the cost of hiring Steptoe would not come at the expense of Hennepin County taxpayers and it would not prevent her office from hiring new staff.

“We have followed through on both those commitments,” Moriarty said.

After working on the Londregan case for a few months, Steptoe lawyers recommended Moriarty drop the case. She agreed in June, citing expert analysis of video of the traffic stop as well as arguments Londregan made in court.

Moriarty needed the County Board’s OK to hire an outside law firm for a criminal case. It’s common for county officials to use outside attorneys in civil matters, but nearly all criminal cases are handled by the county attorney’s office.

When she sought approval to hire Steptoe, Moriarty told the board her office did not have enough attorneys with the experience required to handle such a complex case. The request came after the assistant county attorney who was leading the case walked away from prosecuting the trooper.

Moriarty faced questions and criticism over her decision to prosecute Londregan. Both Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison raised questions about the case, while the trooper’s attorney and other law enforcement advocates accused Moriarty of bias against police.

Londregan’s attorney, Chris Madel, said the County Board’s decision to allow Moriarty to hire Steptoe was flawed from the start. He also took umbrage with the recent agreement to increase Moriarty’s salary from $195,065 to $224,820 in 2025.

“They never should have approved it in the first place and they certainly never should have given her a raise,” Madel said.

In July, Moriarty released invoices from Steptoe totaling 733 hours of work on the Londregan case. She also released an 858-page report compiled by the law firm that concluded there was “insufficient evidence to defeat trooper Londregan’s affirmative defense that the shooting was justified.”