Minnesota law enforcement group files ethics complaint against Hennepin County Attorney

A Minnesota law enforcement group has filed an ethics complaint against Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, claiming her actions in prosecuting a state trooper in the fatal shooting of a motorist violated rules of professional conduct.

Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association Executive Director Brian Peters and attorney Jim Schultz filed the complaint last week with the state’s Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board.

The 17-page complaint stems from Moriarty’s prosecution of Trooper Ryan Londregan for the fatal shooting of Ricky Cobb II during an attempted traffic stop in July 2023. Londregan had been charged with murder, manslaughter and assault — but those charges were dropped in June, with Moriarty saying at the time that new evidence made it impossible to prove unauthorized use of force.

The MPPOA said Londregan should never have been charged in the first place. And Peters said it’s the first time the MPPOA has filed such a complaint against a prosecutor.

“The men and women that go out and protect and serve want to know that politicians have their back when it’s proven that they’ve done their job, and she has proven in this case that she’s above the law, and she’ll go to any length to convict a cop,” Peters told MPR’s Minnesota Now on Tuesday.

In an earlier statement, echoing arguments made in the complaint, Peters said “Moriarty’s obviously unethical conduct can be explained only by a desire to prosecute a peace officer — regardless of the facts — to achieve political ends. Moriarty admitted that even the decision to finally dismiss this case was based on her preferred policy goals, and not in the interests of justice.”

Moriarty’s office, in a statement in response to the complaint, called it “an unsurprising action by the MPPOA, an organization that has consistently lobbied against attempts to hold law enforcement accountable and opposed regulations that would ban law enforcement from being involved in white supremacist groups.”

The complaint accuses Moriarty, and people she supervises, of making “numerous” statements about the case “that they knew would be substantially likely to materially prejudice a jury.”

It also claims that Moriarty knowingly made false statements about the Londregan case, and took actions “prejudicial to the administration of justice.” Among other actions, it accuses Moriarty of dismissing an independent use-of-force expert “when it became clear that his analysis would not support the charges Moriarty had already determined she would bring.”

The complaint seeks a “thorough investigation into these matters and appropriate action to address these issues.”

“Her motive was to successfully prosecute a cop, no matter the facts. Trooper Londregan, this was a case in which he was forced to make a split-second decision and the interests of justice were clearly not served by bringing the case, but she went forward anyway,” Schultz told Minnesota Now on Tuesday.

Correction (July 23, 2024): A previous version of the attached audio incorrectly stated the charges.