Activist group claiming Yanez's White attorney displayed racism toward Black juror [jury was mostly white]

From [HERE] The leader of a local activist group concerned with police brutality is calling out one of the attorneys who represented former St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez for allegedly displaying racism toward a juror during the officer's trial.

Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality, filed a complaint in late June with the Minnesota Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility about what she says was unprofessional conduct on the part of defense attorney Earl Gray.

It's not clear whether the office will investigate the complaint or determine it lacks the requirements necessary to move to that stage.

Gray, along with attorneys Paul Engh and Thomas Kelly, represented Yanez in his successful legal case against manslaughter charges stemming from his decision to fatally shoot Philando Castile during a traffic stop last summer.

Gross attended the duration of the trial and said in a statement released Tuesday that Gray's behavior was unacceptable.

"I understand the need for lawyers to provide zealous representation of their clients but Mr. Gray's conduct toward a very earnest potential juror simply because of her ethnicity was beyond the pale," Gross said in the statement.

Gray, a longtime defense attorney, called Gross's complaint "ridiculous."

"She has the right to file a complaint, but if I had done something wrong in the courtroom I am sure Judge (William H. Leary III) would have sanctioned me and he didn't," Gray said.

A jury acquitted Yanez in mid-June after the officer testified at trial that Castile, a 32-year-old black man, ignored his orders not to grab for his gun. Yanez said he fired out of fear for his life. The state had argued that Castile was trying to comply with the officer's request to see his driver's license when Yanez, who is Latino, recklessly shot him.

Gross alleges in her complaint that Gray violated the Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct in his treatment of a young Ethiopian woman during the trial's jury selection process.

Gray twice tried to get the 18-year-old struck from the final jury panel, arguing that the woman had an insufficient grasp of the United States' legal system.

He also inappropriately asked her if she was a citizen and whether she grew up in a camp or village in Ethiopia and further if she attended school, the complaint argues.

The young woman told Gray she grew up in a house and that "of course," she attended school as a child, the complaint said.

He went on to ask her to define legal terms, such as "culpable negligence" and "impeachment" and instructed her to explain the country's criminal justice system.

When she struggled with the tasks, Gray moved to strike her for cause, telling Leary that the woman wouldn't "be able to contribute to jury deliberations," the complaint said.

Leary denied the motion, saying at the time that many people who sit on juries aren't familiar with the country's criminal justice system and that they don't need to be in order to competently serve as jurors.

Gray tried to strike the woman a second time during the defense's opportunity to exercise its allotted "peremptory strikes," or strikes granted without explanation so long as they are not motivated by race or gender.

The prosecution objected, arguing the strike was racially motivated. Leary ended up denying the defense's motion and the woman was ultimately seated on the 12-member jury.

"I am not an attorney but I believe Mr. Gray's conduct during this encounter violates Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct. ... in that his conduct with this potential juror had 'no substantial purpose other than to embarrass, delay, or burden a third person,' especially given that Mr. Gray asked no such questions of and displayed no similar animosity toward white potential jurors," Gross wrote in her complaint.

Gray said Gross's complaint was baseless.

"I wasn't insulting to the young lady," Gray said. "...This is a ridiculous complaint. It's just crazy."

Susan Humiston, the director of the Minnesota Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility, said she does not comment on complaints filed unless they result in public discipline.

Speaking in general terms, she said her office first determines if a complaint has grounds to be investigated before passing it onto a team of lawyers to begin that work.

Only about half of the complaints filed last year made it to that stage, Humiston said.

Most don't end up resulting in discipline, either. Only 44 attorneys were publicly disciplined last year and 115 privately disciplined, for example. The office has received about 1,300 complaints annually since 2009, according to its 2017 annual report.

Gray has never been publicly disciplined for his conduct as an attorney in Minnesota. His career dates back to the 1970s.

Gross said the office has not yet notified her whether her complaint against Gray will be investigated.