Minneapolis attorney moves to dismiss client’s charges, saying her drug inquiry is ‘smear campaign’

A Minneapolis attorney has asked that murder and kidnapping charges against her client in the death of real estate agent Monique Baugh be dismissed because of excessive pretrial publicity — including what she calls an “orchestrated smear campaign” against her and her client by the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office.

Sarah Gad filed a motion to dismiss in Hennepin County District Court arguing that media coverage, public statements from Hennepin County officials and prosecutorial conduct has continually undermined Lyndon Wiggins’ ability to receive a fair trial. She said she is now being targeted as well.

Last month, multiple news outlets, including the Minnesota Star Tribune, reported Gad was the subject of an investigation into drugs being smuggled into the Hennepin County jail. Those reports stemmed from two search warrant affidavits filed in District Court which claimed Gad used attorney-client privilege to avoid detection and slip papers soaked in cocaine and fentanyl to two of her clients, including Wiggins. Gad has not been charged in relation to those warrants, which she claims in her filing were “leaked” to media.

Megan Larson, public information officer for the Sheriff’s Office, said there was nothing unique about the filing of the warrants and they were available to “any individual who went to the courthouse.”

“It’s baffling that Ms. Gad would accuse HCSO of leaking the warrants,” Larson said. “These warrants were only reported on after they were publicly filed.”

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said Wednesday that no casework against Gad has been submitted for charges. Larson said the investigation is ongoing.

In asking Judge Mark Kappelhoff to dismiss the charges against Wiggins, Gad details extensive allegations that Hennepin County built its initial conviction using “highly questionable tactics” and will now have to retry the case after already publicly declaring Wiggins guilty — including in a Hulu miniseries.

She also draws attention to “an unfounded investigation” into her conduct.

Wiggins was convicted in Hennepin County District Court on two counts of aiding and abetting first-degree murder and one count of aiding and abetting kidnapping in the 2019 killing of Baugh, of Minneapolis. That 2021 conviction was overturned last year by the Minnesota Supreme Court, which unanimously ruled the District Court gave the jury faulty instructions that could have led to a wrongful conviction.

The case was sent back to District Court. Shortly thereafter, Wiggins hired Gad as his lawyer.

Over the course of two months, Gad said she attempted to deliver hard copies of evidence to Wiggins but the Sheriff’s Office “repeatedly confiscated them,” the motion states. Gad said she had no idea that the confiscation of those materials was related to an investigation into whether she was smuggling drug-laced documents into the jail.

The search warrant was filed last year by deputy Kelly Howe, who cited suspicious passing of documents between Wiggins and another inmate, also a client of Gad.

Gad writes that these were the only documents tested for narcotics that were linked to her inside the jail. No narcotics were found.

Two “unrelated papers” in Wiggins' possession were found to have trace amounts of narcotics, but Gad writes there was no indication that the amount of narcotics on the paper was anything more than “incidental transfer” and were never linked to her. Wiggins was never disciplined or charged with any crime because of the search.

That lack of evidence didn’t stop the Sheriff’s Office from continuing to investigate her, Gad alleges. Howe dug into the garbage cans in the alley behind her townhouse and found liquor bottles with “trace amounts of illicit substances.” Those trace amounts were found using what Gad calls the “widely criticized ion testing method.” In a footnote, she writes that ion testing has been found “legally worthless” because of its high sensitivity to detect trace amounts of narcotics. “It is never used as a standalone method in criminal prosecutions and is inadmissible as conclusive evidence in court.”

The Sheriff’s Office used those bottles to obtain a warrant and subject Gad’s home to “a full-blown narcotics raid” Jan. 29.

Gad writes that a receipt issued to her immediately after the search showed it uncovered “no controlled substances or items specified in the warrant.” Howe then applied for another search warrant for Gad’s phone based on finding printer paper and a Ziploc bag with “fine powder residue” inside her guest bedroom. Gad writes that Howe falsely claimed the guest bedroom was her office.

“Both warrants containing these false and defamatory allegations — repeatedly referencing Mr. Wiggins — were promptly leaked to the media,” Gad writes, including headlines from the Minnesota Star Tribune, KARE 11, KSTP-TV and Fox 9.

In denying leaking the warrants, the Sheriff’s Office said that, “On March 4, Ms. Gad’s law office was provided with a copy of both search warrants and search warrant applications pursuant to the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. In addition, a copy of each warrant and warrant application has been available to Ms. Gad at the Courthouse since Feb. 10.”

The warrants alleged that an informant told deputies to look at Wiggins and Charles Kpaan Jr., another client of Gad, for drug activity. Kpaan was heard on a Dec. 21 jail phone call saying, “It is in the air, keep it sealed when you get it. Don’t worry, they won’t open it.”

Gad came to the jail Dec. 27, according to the visitation log for Wiggins. Video surveillance showed Gad giving Wiggins paperwork. Kpaan then came to Wiggins' cell and took the paperwork with him.

Jail deputies searched the area and several papers in a bin were seized, with some testing positive for cocaine.

On Jan. 8, a sheriff’s detective seized paper that “appeared wrinkled as if the paper was wet and then dried.” One of the pieces of paper came from Wiggins and tested positive for fentanyl.

Professional visit logs for Wiggins and Kpaan from Nov. 7 through Jan. 9 showed Gad as their only visitor.

“Due to this fact and the paperwork confiscated appeared to have been provided by [Gad] … the investigation focused on [her] as being a possible source of the contraband entering the jail,” the affidavit read.

When Gad was reached for comment on the search warrant by the Star Tribune last month, she said, “I would never engage in such conduct.” Her attorney, Ryan Garry, said: “She is an excellent and well-respected attorney in the state of Minnesota.”

Neither attorney returned messages for comment Wednesday.

As a medical student in 2012, Gad was in a car crash which led her to be prescribed pain medication. She became addicted to opioids and was in and out of jail from 2013 to 2015. She was charged with forging prescriptions in Pennsylvania and possessing controlled substances in Minnesota.

She later won a $380,000 settlement after suing the Cook County jail in Illinois for sexual assault. The settlement helped Gad pay for law school, which she attended with an ankle monitor, graduating in 2020 from the University of Chicago.

“My story, my history, really resonates with people,” she told the Star Tribune in 2023, when she announced a run for Congress, although she never appeared on the ballot. “It allows me to connect with them on a deeper level and understand the day-to-day issues that everyday constituents are facing.”

Paul Walsh of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.