The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office today released documents related to the case against Trooper Ryan Londregan, closing out its work in Ricky Cobb II’s tragic shooting death.
The primary document is a 69-page report written by special prosecutors in the case, as well as their invoices for service. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty promised to release that report when she announced the decision to dismiss the case against Mr. Londregan. Because the report references data that had not been previously publicly released, HCAO needed to first wait for the BCA to release its public case file, which has now happened.
The HCAO also filed motions seeking needed approval from the court to release grand jury transcripts and a sealed declaration from a law enforcement officer. The defense objected to these motions, and the court agreed to unseal the declaration but denied HCAO’s motion to unseal the grand jury transcripts. As such, the grand jury transcripts are not included in the documents released today, and any reference to evidence obtained in the grand jury proceedings has been redacted from the special prosecutor report and supporting exhibits.
“When we dismissed the case against Mr. Londregan because of new evidence, I promised to release this report and the grand jury transcript as soon as possible,” said Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty. “While the court denied our request to make the grand jury transcript public, I believe it’s still important to release as much of this information as we can. Such transparency is key to creating community trust. The family of Ricky Cobb II deserves this transparency, as does the larger community.”
The “Special Prosecutors’ Report and Recommendations” was written by Steptoe LLP, a group of former federal prosecutors retained as special prosecutors to assist with the Londregan case and examine the evidence.
There were several key findings in the Special Prosecutor’s report:
- The HCAO’s initial decision to prosecute Mr. Londregan based on available evidence was justified. New evidence – including sworn statements by troopers that were not previously shared with BCA or HCAO investigators or the grand jury – made it impossible for prosecutors to prove the case.
- Minnesota State Patrol (MSP) Troopers and training officers generally did not cooperate with the BCA and/or HCAO investigation. Approximately 37 MSP troopers either refused to be interviewed or did not reply to BCA interview requests.
- Many of the troopers – none facing charges – retained counsel for interviews with the BCA.
- Involved troopers delayed submitting reports for more than a week after the shooting.
- MSP trainers and officers waited months after the filing of charges to provide additional information related to Trooper Londregan’s training.
- Troopers had several non-violent options that could have prevented Mr. Cobb’s death.
“Generally speaking, the lack of full cooperation by members of the MSP was not only disappointing to investigators, given that these members pledged to uphold the law, but it also created an unnecessary challenge to BCA and the HCAO’s necessary fact-gathering. Such selective cooperation, depending on whether witnesses are sympathetic to the investigation, is unacceptable. It undermines the rule of law,” said the “Special Prosecutors’ Report and Recommendations.”
The HCAO released an executive summary of this report, which has detailed recommendations on how to avoid such tragedies in the future, on June 2.
Find the full redacted report online at: https://tinyurl.com/54myuvmw
The invoices can be viewed below:
Invoice 1
Invoice 2
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty serves as chief executive of Minnesota’s largest public law office. Moriarty manages a staff of more than 500 people, setting policies and priorities for prosecuting criminal cases, overseeing child protection and child support cases, and providing legal advice and representation to county government. The office is dedicated to protecting public safety and creating a more just and equitable system through transparency and accountability.