Judge denies bid of St. Paul ex-cop sent back to prison after mistaken early release

Because of a Federal Bureau of Prisons error, former St. Paul Police officer Brett Palkowitch, who was convicted of using excessive force for breaking a man’s ribs, was mistakenly released then ordered back behind bars last year.

In a Nov. 25 order, a federal judge denied Palkowitch’s bid for compassionate release.

In late 2019 a jury convicted Palkowitch, 37, for a 2016 incident in which he kicked Frank Baker as a K-9 mauled his leg when officers mistook Baker for a robbery suspect.

Baker, who had no connection to any crime and complied with police, suffered two collapsed lungs and seven broken ribs. He would later reach a $2 million settlement with the city. Public records show that Baker died in 2022 at age 58. Attorney Bob Bennett, who represented Baker in his 2017 civil suit, confirmed the death.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Palkowitch wasn’t sentenced until a year and a half after his trial. In May of 2021, U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina Wright handed him a six-year prison term plus three years of supervised release.

But in May of 2023, federal prison officials mistakenly let Palkowitch out of a minimum security facility in Kentucky before later ordering him back.

In a letter to Wright included in court filings, the Bureau of Prisons says that it had assumed Palkowitch had been in jail since he was arrested and erroneously gave him more than two years of credit against his sentence. Like many federal defendants, Palkowitch was allowed to remain free until after his sentencing. The bureau declined a request for comment from MPR News.

In a court filing this summer, Palkowitch writes that he returned home to his wife and school-age sons and lined up a full-time job at a sporting goods store. But after nearly two months of freedom, Palkowitch says he got a phone call from his probation officer, who relayed to him that there had been a mistake and he’d be going back to prison for another two years. 

But the next day, another phone call came. The probation officer said that Palkowitch could serve the remaining two years on home confinement. Then later that day, Palkowitch received a third call, this time from a staff member at the Bureau of Prisons, who said the home confinement agreement had been revoked, and Palkowitch would be going back to prison after all. He surrendered to federal authorities, who returned him to the Kentucky prison.   

In arguing for compassionate release, Palkowitch alleges that the “unreasonable and capricious” actions of prison officials caused severe financial and emotional strain on his family. The former officer also writes that during his time locked up he earned early release credits under the First Step Act, a bipartisan federal sentencing overhaul passed in 2018. 

In its response opposing Palkowitch’s early release, the Justice Department pointed to the seriousness of the crime. Besides Baker’s severe injuries, an assistant U.S. Attorney noted that Palkowitch texted a photo of Baker in his hospital bed to another officer and boasted that he’d broken Baker’s ribs. 

Judge Wright has since retired. In denying Palkowitch’s request, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan acknowledged the toll on the former officer’s family, but writes that compassionate release is typically reserved for inmates facing extreme hardships such as poor health or physical abuse. 

The prison bureau’s website says Palkowitch is slated for release from a Minnesota halfway house in late August. 

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