Statement from Mike Freeman on downtown marijuana arrests

Below is the statement from Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman regarding inquiries about downtown marijuana arrests:

“First, these undercover drug stings by the Minneapolis Police Department occurred without our knowledge. Because they occurred over a period of months and were distributed to about a half-dozen of our attorneys for prosecution, we did not detect any pattern,” said Freeman.

“Second, for several years now we have been aggressively offering diversion in low-level drug cases. In fact, in one-fourth of these 47 cases, we already had either dismissed the case, diverted the case or asked for a stay of adjudication, which would result in no sentence and the charge reduced to a misdemeanor.

“However, when we learned about this situation on Tuesday, we took immediate steps. First, I spoke to Police Chief Medaria Arradondo and said I would not be charging these types of cases. And, we began an immediate review of the remaining cases brought to our attention. We started making new offers to the defendants and we are in the process of dismissing them.”