Hennepin County Attorney’s Office aims for faster reviews of law enforcement cases

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty visited the Brooklyn Park Police Department in 2023 to observe roll call and go on a ride-along. Ahead of her visit, she asked if anyone in the department had ideas for how her office could better work with police.

Andrew McComb had an idea: Change how the Attorney’s Office conducts reviews of cases involving law enforcement.

The meeting with the 22-year veteran police officer was a jumping off point for Moriarty’s office to finalize a new process for how it will review cases involving law enforcement officers, she told the Minnesota Star Tribune this week.

The new policy aims to reach a case decision within 60 days of an investigation into law enforcement being turned over to the Attorney’s Office. In the past, that decision could take more than a year.

“My goal was to put together a process where we could be transparent both for the person who made that complaint and the officer,” Moriarty said. “We have that policy.”

In 2020, McComb was shot while trying to arrest a man suspected of violating a protection order. He also shot the suspect, Tyrice Laws, who was later convicted of attempted murder of a peace officer and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Still, because it was an officer-involved shooting, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension started an investigation into McComb’s actions, along with his fellow officers on the scene. The completed investigation was turned over to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, which, at the time, was overseen by Mike Freeman.

For months, McComb heard nothing. More than a year later, as Laws’ trial was set to begin, the Attorney’s Office asked McComb to be a witness. It was a vertiginous request. McComb was being asked to testify about the shooting while still being under investigation for his conduct in that shooting.

He told the prosecuting attorneys he wasn’t comfortable providing testimony until he heard back on the investigation into his actions.

“I don’t trust anybody,” McComb said. “I’m not going to testify in court knowing you might use this against me.”

McComb said he was told the BCA investigation into his use of force against Laws had been put on a shelf and, more or less, forgotten by the Attorney’s Office. “It was very frustrating and disheartening to hear,” he said.

Once he said he wouldn’t testify, things moved quickly and he was giving a declination notice that the Attorney’s Office wasn’t pressing charges. The letter also said he and his fellow officers had been investigated for second-degree assault.

“In that situation, it’s like, man, knowing what happened, knowing I got shot, you’re looking at me for second-degree assault?” McComb said.

The entire process left McComb feeling like he was in the dark. He knew other officers felt the same. So, when Moriarty visited, he brought up the issue.

“Not that I thought I was going to get any hard answers,“ McComb said. ”I wanted to at least give my perspective and that way I could say, ‘I tried.’”

Moriarty said that after speaking with McComb she examined the process the office had used in the past and found there wasn’t any set policy.

“The BCA would give us the investigation and then it went into a dark hole, as far as I could tell,” she said.

There are three outcomes for any case being turned in: decline charges, press charges or defer charges, which means more investigative work is needed before a determination is made.

The Attorney’s Office said in 2024 there were 17 officer-involved cases submitted for review. Seven were for use of force, seven were for criminal sexual conduct, two were for “other death review” and one was for theft. Of those, 14 were closed without charges and three remain under review.

Earlier this week, the Attorney’s Office declined to press charges against three Minneapolis Police Department officers involved in the shooting death of Michael Warren Ristow in June.

Those are the kinds of decisions that have not always come quickly.

Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley said an internal database his office keeps shows the average time it has taken the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office to make a charging decision on an officer-involved case from his department is 17 months.

Bruley said that was frustrating to him for numerous reasons. If he puts an officer whose conduct is under review on the street before an investigation is complete, it could frustrate community members who want accountability. If he keeps an officer, or multiple officers, off the street for a year or two while an investigation is ongoing it can hamper the effectiveness of his department.

“I have been very critical of certain things [Moriarty] has done or said, and I’ve been vocal about that,” Bruley said. “But when she does it right, like here, I step up and say ‘I appreciate the changes and it’s the right work.' And this is absolutely the right thing to do.”

McComb said the new 60-day goal was a surprise.

“It’s such a drastic change,” he said.

Hennepin County Managing Attorney Mike Radmer, who worked in law enforcement before becoming an attorney, was heavily involved in crafting the new policy. He said transparency and communication is the primary goal.

The Attorney’s Office will make a managing attorney the primary touch point for any law enforcement official or attorney looking for updates on a case. A separate attorney will conduct the case review. The reviewing attorney will not be responsible for prosecuting a case if the Attorney’s Office decides to press charges against an officer. That separation should create an independent review.

If a charge is declined, Moriarty, or someone she designates, will be in charge of making personal phone calls to the appropriate police chief so they can alert their staff. The policy also clarifies that the county attorney will not use a grand jury to determine charges in law enforcement cases, unless it is mandated by law like a first-degree murder charge.

Moriarty knows her reputation with law enforcement has been under fire. Her decision to charge Minnesota State Patrol trooper Ryan Londregan with second-degree murder, before ultimately dropping the charges, remains a raw decision.

“I don’t have any control over how they feel about me,” Moriarty said. “The only thing I can control is what we, as an office, do to continue to work with them, to be transparent, to communicate with them.”

She added: “That is why we’re here. That is what the public wants.”

Radmer noted there are dozens of career prosecutors in the office who have lengthy working relationships with law enforcement officers.

“I think, on a staff level, that has gone really well and continues to go well,” Moriarty said.

McComb said when Moriarty came to visit his department, it ended with just the two of them and a public relations staffer sitting and talking. He said it was a glimpse into Moriarty that he hadn’t quite expected.

“Coming into the belly of the beast, coming to a patrol briefing, I give her credit for that and making changes,” McComb said. “I’m sure her and I wouldn’t agree on a lot of things, but at least we agree on this.”