Uncontrollable Cops in Minneapolis Destroyed Case Files During 2020 Protests Including Exculpatory Evidence for Criminal Defendants

From [HERE] Andy Mannix reports in the Star Tribune: “As an unruly crowd besieged Minneapolis’ Third Precinct headquarters last summer, officers on the other side of the city destroyed a cache of documents, including inactive case files, search warrants and records of confidential informants. 

The uncontrollable cops claimed ‘If the Second Precinct fell, this sensitive information could wind up in the wrong hands, Johansson wrote. "The data contained in these files could put the lives of CIs or various other cooperating defendants at risk.

Public defender Elizabeth Karp says the officers acted without oversight and against policy when they destroyed critical evidence in the charges against her client, 36-year-old Walter Power. Power is charged with a felony for allegedly selling drugs. Police collected evidence against him based on search warrants that were destroyed by the officers and through cellphone data that has since been lost, according to Karp's motions that ask the judge to throw out the case.

Karp, who declined to comment beyond court documents, also asked Judge Todd Fellman to issue an order prohibiting police from "destroying or misplacing any more evidence related to this case."

"There is nothing to suggest the unrest that Minneapolis is experiencing will end any time soon," Karp wrote in court documents. "As such, this court must ensure the integrity of the judicial system remains intact and that all evidence used to build a criminal case ... is preserved."

Asked for comment Wednesday, Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder said the department is investigating. "We are conducting an internal investigation to understand what happened at the Second Precinct, how the decisions were made and whether there were broader issues with documents, records or files stored in our facilities during the riots," said Elder. "Any disciplinary decisions would be made through the normal process after an investigation."

Tara Niebeling, a spokeswoman for Mayor Jacob Frey's office, said he "strongly supports MPD's decision to conduct a thorough investigation into this matter and is committed to full transparency throughout the process."

Fellman has set a hearing on the motions for July 27.

The rioters never came for the Second Precinct that week. In the days following Floyd's killing, most violence was concentrated on the Third Precinct — across the Mississippi River and more than 5 miles south of the Second Precinct — and the Lake Street area and Fifth Precinct.

Some who breached the Third Precinct did steal items from the building. Police arrested Branden Michael Wolfe on June 3, 2020, wearing a police vest, duty belt and carrying a tactical baton. Wolfe later was convicted of helping to set the fire in the building, sentenced to more than three years in federal prison and ordered to help pay $12 million in restitution.

In a private police report, Minneapolis officer Logan Johansson disclosed that he and other investigators in the Second Precinct to the northeast decided to destroy the documents shortly after May 28 ‘in direct response to the abandonment of the Third Police Precinct in Minneapolis by city leadership.’ … The decision to destroy the files is now at the center of a legal battle playing out in Hennepin County courts. Public defender Elizabeth Karp says the officers acted without oversight and against policy when they destroyed critical evidence in the charges against her client, 36-year-old Walter Power.”