Prosecutor sues Hennepin County, Mike Freeman for violating terms of $190K discrimination settlement

When Hennepin County prosecutor Amy Sweasy Tamburino won a $190,000 settlement in April stemming from a discrimination and retaliation complaint against her employer and boss Mike Freeman, one condition was her earning a new title: principal attorney.

But Freeman sent out an email weeks later announcing that six other attorneys would also have the prestigious and rare title, according to a lawsuit filed this week. Sweasy, an attorney in the office since 1995 who has prosecuted dozens of high-profile cases, said in the lawsuit that it's one of the many ways Freeman violated the settlement.

Months after the settlement was reached following her complaint to the Department of Human Rights, Sweasy is again accusing Freeman of ongoing retaliation and undermining her new role in the office. Freeman is retiring after 24 years and was Sweasy's boss for most of her career. She says in the lawsuit filed Wednesday that the county, also named in the complaint, allowed Freeman to continue violating the agreement.

Freeman declined an interview but emailed a brief statement: "We intend to vigorously defend this lawsuit. We will have no further comment while this matter is pending."

Sweasy's attorney, Sonia Miller-Van Oort, also declined an interview but provided a statement highlighting her client's "25-year track record of success prosecuting some of the most serious criminal cases in this county."

Miller-Van Oort said that Sweasy is widely respected, and after calling out Freeman's "inappropriate and unlawful behavior," all parties reached a good-faith resolution.

"Ms. Sweasy has met all of her obligations under the settlement agreement. Ms. Sweasy wants to do her job — as we all do — free of intimidation and retaliation. Defendants' conduct over the last 6 months has made that impossible. As a result, our client was forced to file this new lawsuit to address ongoing breaches of the contract and the intentional and calculated interference and retaliation she is experiencing professionally."

Part of the agreement meant she would no longer report to Freeman or have private interactions with him to stop any of his retaliatory conduct directed at her. The agreement also allowed her to develop and lead the new Complex Prosecution Unit, which handles significant homicides, child abuse, domestic abuse, cold cases and matters relating to career offenders.

But shortly after the agreement was in place, Miller-Van Oort said, "evidence came to light that neither the County nor Freeman ever intended to comply with parties' agreement, and they haven't."

Sweasy most recently was involved in the prosecution of the Minneapolis police killings of George Floyd and Justine Ruszczyk Damond. Freeman doesn't allow her new unit to handle police use of force cases, which she had worked on for years.

Sweasy's lawsuit claims Freeman mocked and defamed her in and outside the office while making direct efforts to sabotage her work. She claims that Freeman told other attorneys to not apply to work for Sweasy's new unit and there would be repercussions if they did.

Part of her work with the unit focused on drafting new grand jury protocol. In his tenure, Freeman was often criticized for convening grand juries to investigate fatal shootings of civilians by police. In 2016, he vowed to stop the decades-long practice.

But two years later, Freeman convened a grand jury in order to gather evidence in the third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter case against Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor — which Sweasy prosecuted. However, Freeman maintained that he would make the charging decision on his own.

Sweasy also claims in the suit that at a launch party in September to announce the new strategy to curb violent crime, Operation Endeavor, she told city and law enforcement leaders about her new unit. Afterward they started sending her various drug and homicide cases. But in mid-October, Freeman instructed an office manager to not allow Operation Endeavor cases to go to Sweasy's unit.

The lawsuit said that her career in the county attorney's office "had been derailed by Freeman's malicious and persistent pattern of retaliation," which led to meeting in December 2021 and January 2022 to mediate claims of the last lawsuit. They entered a settlement agreement in April and she dismissed that lawsuit.

According to the lawsuit, Sweasy states that Hennepin County is aware of her reports against Freeman's continued misconduct and contractual breaches. Further, she says the county has "perpetrated and condoned the misconduct and almost-daily retaliation against Sweasy to continue."

She said the retaliation is "extraordinary" because of the persistent effort by Freeman, an elected prosecutor, "to undermine prosecution of serious, complex felonies in a county beset by rising crime."

Sweasy seeks at least $50,000 in damages for claims of Freeman and Hennepin County breaching and interfering with the settlement, fraud, civil conspiracy, and violating the Minnesota Whistleblower Act for her reporting Freeman's unlawful conduct between 2019 and 2022.