In a newly filed affidavit in trooper Ryan Londregan’s murder case in the fatal shooting of motorist Ricky Cobb II, a State Patrol use-of-force trainer accused prosecutors in the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office of lying and opined that Londregan followed his training and did not violate policy.
State Patrol trainer says trooper Ryan Londregan followed training in fatal shooting of motorist Ricky Cobb II
The trainer said prosecutors lied and took part of his 37-page interview out of context.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
March 20, 2024 at 7:55PM
It’s the latest development in the case that is growing increasingly political, as Londregan’s defense attorneys and prosecutors in County Attorney Mary Moriarty’s office clash repeatedly in court filings and in the press. Both parties head to court Thursday morning to argue over Moriarty’s independent use-of-force expert, who she stopped working with after the expert said Londregan acted reasonably.
In a defense filing Wednesday, Sgt. Jason Halvorson, a 25-year veteran of the force, said a senior prosecutor who wrote the criminal complaint took his statements out of context and “lied by omission.”
According to that complaint: Halvorson was asked whether a reasonable officer would believe that pointing a gun at a fleeing driver and yelling at the driver to stop would cause the driver to stop. He said “No.”
He was asked, “Would it be foreseeable to expect the exact opposite, meaning [the driver] would continue to leave?” He replied, “That was probably his intention was to flee the area, so he’s gonna keep going in that direction away from me.”
Halvorson said in Wednesday’s filing that senior prosecutors Mark Osler and Josh Larson attended that interview with Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agents, and said the prosecutors asked him the hypothetical questions and cherry-picked from the 37-page interview.
“The truth in this matter is that I went on to explain that choice of actions in this context are ‘situationally dependent,’” Halvorson wrote.
Upon his review of the interview transcript, the trainer said his exact words were: “If you’re throwing out so many hypotheticals it’s just one of those situations where it’s each individual situation is all dependent upon the actions of the actual suspect you’re dealing with and how they comply to the de-escalation and how they actually respond to the de-escalation.
“And If I’m not seeing the actual responses that I’m looking for, I have to make the decision quickly of what my next move is gonna be.”
He said Osler excluded critical facts and context from the complaint, “thereby purposefully misleading the reader of the complaint.”
A statement from Moriarty’s office Wednesday said defense attorneys were using the court to file “baseless press releases” with false accusations.
“There is significant evidence that supports the charges in this case. The complaint is accurate and lays out the evidence to establish probable cause,” the statement read. “We will address the voluminous defense filings and litigate the case in court, and not in the press.”
Moriarty’s office charged Londregan with second-degree unintentional murder, first-degree assault and second-degree manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Cobb during a traffic stop on July 31, 2023. Troopers pulled Cobb over on Interstate 94 in Minneapolis for driving without taillights around 2 a.m. and attempted to remove him from the vehicle after learning he’d been accused of violating a standing domestic order for protection.
As Cobb shifted the vehicle into drive and took his foot off the brake, the car lurched forward, dragging another trooper positioned at the driver’s side. Londregan fired twice from the passenger side, striking Cobb twice in the torso.
In the affidavit filed Wednesday, Halvorson said he has served as the use-of-force training coordinator for 10 years and trained Londregan, as well as trooper Brett Seide, who was trying to get Cobb out of the vehicle before Londregan arrived.
The trainer said he did not perform a complete use-of-force review. He said he offered to do one, but Larson and Osler didn’t accept it.
A complete review, Halvorson said, requires meeting with Londregan — and that he understood Hennepin County District Court has issued an order preventing Londregan from speaking with witnesses about his case.
The complaint also states: “Under State Patrol policy, any use of a firearm is deadly force. A firearm may be readied for use only in situations where it is reasonably anticipated that firearms may be required. State Patrol policy also states that members shall not shoot from or at a moving vehicle, except when deadly force is authorized, and that troopers should make every effort not to place themselves in a position that would increase the possibility that the vehicle they are approaching can be used as a deadly weapon against them or others.”
But to that, Halvorson wrote in the affidavit that he did not rely on patrol vehicle pursuit policy because “this was not a vehicle pursuit.” The trainer added that Londregan “did not violate the use-of-force General Orders, including, but not limited to the use-of-force policy ...”
“Trooper Londregan acted in accordance with his training,” Halvorson said.
Moriarty’s independent use-of-force expert, Jeffrey Noble, a former police chief from California who is frequently used as an expert in police cases, including the killings of George Floyd and Philando Castile, is being subpoenaed by Londregan’s defense attorneys to provide all records from his work with prosecutors.
Prosecutors said they handed over all Noble-related records to the defense, but the defense argues there’s more information they are entitled to Judge Tamara Garcia ordered the subpoena to be on pause until she makes a determination on Noble.
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