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MN: Admin Stopped Sharing ICE Evidence 10/23 06:23
(AP) -- The federal government has stopped sharing evidence with Minnesota
authorities who are investigating the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by
federal officers, state officials said in recent court filings.
Minnesota officials sued President Donald Trump's administration in March
for access to materials they said they needed to independently investigate the
shootings during Trump's immigration crackdown in Minneapolis earlier this
year. The Trump administration has suggested that state prosecutors don't have
jurisdiction to investigate federal officers, while Minnesota officials have
said they don't trust the federal government to investigate itself.
The state is still seeking the cell phones of the officers involved in both
shootings and recordings of key interviews.
State prosecutors announced in July that the federal government had begun
turning over evidence in the cases, including police body camera video and hard
drives containing statements. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said at
the time that the state expected to receive "all the evidence."
But Minnesota investigators said in October court filings that the transfer
of evidence stopped soon after the July announcement. Moriarty said the U.S.
Attorney's Office for Minnesota told her on Sept. 10 that evidence sharing
would be on pause indefinitely "in light of challenges with D.C.," according to
the documents.
State prosecutors have again asked a judge to order federal agencies to hand
over the evidence, arguing they "have identified no legal authority or rational
basis justifying their obstruction of state criminal investigations."
In a reply filed Tuesday, attorneys for the Justice Department argued it's
within their discretion to decline to share information with state authorities.
They cited the department's rules for responding to record requests, known as
the Touhy regulations, which apply only when formal legal proceedings are
underway. The attorneys said there was no active court case when Minnesota made
its requests.
Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension,
said in a legal declaration that federal authorities still have Good's
clothing, the cell phone of the officer who killed her and interview recordings
that state authorities have never been able to view.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Good, a
37-year-old mother of three, while she was leaving a Minneapolis protest on
Jan. 7. Bystander video shows Good in the driver's seat of an SUV, repeatedly
honking the horn, when masked immigration officers order her to step out of the
vehicle. She starts to pull forward, and an officer standing in front of the
car fires at her windshield. The officer, now standing about an arm's length
from the open window on the driver's side, fires twice more, according to an
analysis of the videos by The Associated Press and others.
Federal officials at the time said the officer acted in self-defense.
Good's death and that of Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse who was
killed weeks later by a federal officer in Minneapolis, ignited nationwide
protests against the Republican president's immigration enforcement efforts.
No criminal charges have been filed in connection with the fatal shootings.
Evans said the federal government also has not shared a recorded statement
from an officer who shot Pretti, the firearms used by the officers, their
phones, projectiles and casings, and a gun taken from Pretti before he was shot.
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