Lawsuit: After a Black Man Complained that Minneapolis Cops Assaulted Him During a Traffic Stop, Police Use Fabricated Evidence to Obtain a Warrant, Raid His House and Get Him Locked Up for 7 Months
/From [HERE] Minneapolis man who was the subject of a botched drug raid has filed a federal lawsuit against several police officers, alleging they needlessly beat him during a traffic stop and one of them later "fabricated and/or misrepresented evidence to a Hennepin County judge" to obtain a warrant for his home.
The lawsuit alleges Minneapolis officers Tony Partyka, Neal Walsh and other unidentified officers violated Moore's civil rights by "unnecessarily and recklessly using excessive force to pull Moore from his vehicle, throw him to the ground" and beat him on the side of the road during a routine traffic stop, leaving Moore with a broken nose and other injuries.
A few months later, Partyka violated Moore's civil rights again "as retribution for Moore's complaints to the Minneapolis police department" about the use of force when he led a SWAT raid into Moore's north Minneapolis home with a no-knock warrant, according to the suit.
Hennepin County Judge Paul Scoggin ultimately threw out the drugs and other evidence recovered in the search, after Moore's public defenders exposed what Scoggin called a "reckless disregard for the truth" on the part of Partyka.
"Unfortunately for Moore, the warrant was only quashed after he had unjustly been forced to spend over seven months in jail when he was arrested after the illegal search of his residence," the lawsuit states.
The Minneapolis City Attorney is reviewing the lawsuit, but declined to comment on the allegations, said city spokesman Casper Hill.
The Star Tribune first reported on Moore's saga in May 2021, after the charges against him were dropped. Chief among the questions that unraveled the case: Did Partyka embellish — or fabricate — key information from a trusted informant? [MORE]