Attorney: Police detective is being wrongly accused of falsifying warrant

The Hennepin County Attorney's Office may soon say more about at least 32 criminal cases facing dismissal because of the alleged actions of an Eden Prairie police detective. The attorney's office said Travis Serafin made unauthorized changes to a search warrant, but his attorney says his client did not intentionally falsify the warrant.

Sean Cole's drug conviction and sentence was vacated on Wednesday, though he's still in prison on an unrelated charge. His case is one of more than two dozen in which Serafin played a key role.

Last week, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office disclosed that Serafin changed a search warrant of a drug suspect's home after it had been signed by a judge, so the man's vehicles could be searched as well. David Brown, the chief deputy county attorney, said what Serafin did "was wrong and inexcusable."

But Serafin's attorney, Paul Rogosheske, sees it differently. He said Serafin made several errors because he was disorganized: he used the wrong template, misplaced documents and mistakenly filed paperwork.

Rogosheske says this is a case of a highly decorated police officer, with a lot on his plate, being sloppy.

"You should probably get disciplined for that, have to go to more training and maybe get a couple of days off, but it doesn't rise to the level of saying that you're misrepresenting material facts to the courts and the county attorney," Rogosheske said.

An internal investigation at the Eden Prairie Police Department came to a different conclusion, one which prompted Hennepin County's review of cases that involved Serafin. The Hennepin County Attorney's Office declined to comment. The police chief said last week he won't comment while an administrative investigation is underway.

McLeod County Attorney Michael Junge said in an email that he's been asked to review the case for possible criminal charges against Serafin, but declined to comment further.

Rogosheske said Serafin has been working as an officer in Eden Prairie for nearly two decades and hasn't had a complaint against him.

"He's just devastated, his whole career is ruined. It's wrong, he's a good cop," Rogosheske said.

As for what other cases are affected, hearings will be held next week in Hennepin County for two other men who were sent to prison based on Serafin's testimony.

Jess Braverman, an attorney with the special litigation unit of the Hennepin County Public Defender's Office, said she knows of "at least a dozen cases where he's played a central enough role that the county flagged the case for us, and we're trying to also see if we can identify additional cases as well."

Braverman thinks the case will linger in the minds of judges and attorneys.

"Our cases often do come down to an officer's version of events versus our client's version, and judges are often deferential to an officer's version of events, when, at times even when the evidence may point to the contrary, so I am hoping this does add another layer of skepticism," she said.

Serafin is still employed by the Eden Prairie Police Department. He's appealed the initial findings of the department's internal investigation.

Correction: Serafin's attorney's last name was misspelled in a previous version of this story.