Hennepin County's top prosecutor declined Friday to file charges against officers accused of supplying drugs to young men in a botched drug training program.
The announcement comes more than four months after law enforcement officials suspended the program that trains police to recognize drug use, put a state trooper on paid leave and launched a criminal inquiry into the conduct of a Hutchinson officer. The allegations first came to light in a video featuring Occupy Minneapolis activists who claimed officers offered them marijuana to smoke in front of them.
The state initially found no evidence of misconduct but suspended the program when an officer said he had seen the Hutchinson officer provide marijuana.
Following an investigation by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), County Attorney Mike Freeman said prosecutors chose not to charge the officers because witnesses gave conflicting accounts of what happened and no marijuana was saved as evidence.
"At the end of the day, after that investigation had been completed, we have to evaluate whether there's sufficient admissible evidence to establish probable cause to bring a charge," Freeman said. "If it's not there, we can't charge it. That's our job."
He said witnesses were confused about dates, as well as the last names and the jurisdictions of the officers.
The officer who stepped forward also offered a different version of events than the man who allegedly received the marijuana. Freeman added that a potential "critical witness" disappeared and "did not want to be found." Freeman did, however, recommend changes to the program.
Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE) training is commonly practiced by law enforcement across the country. It involves police examining people who already are under the influence. In the video, which did not document any officers supplying drugs, officers from jurisdictions across the state return repeatedly to Peavey Plaza in downtown Minneapolis to pick up new participants among a crowd of Occupy activists.
