A federal appeals court has unanimously upheld the dismissal of a civil lawsuit that was filed against Minnesota State Trooper Ryan Londregan by the estate of Ricky Cobb II, who was shot and killed by Londregan during a traffic stop in 2023.
The Cobb family claimed in their civil lawsuit that Londregan’s and Trooper Brett Seide’s actions during the stop constituted unreasonable seizure and excessive force.
But Judge Nancy Brasel rejected those arguments in an October 2024 ruling — and now the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed.
In regards to the unreasonable seizure claims, the court wrote that “since neither of these seizures were unreasonable, Troopers Seide and Londregan did not violate a constitutional right and are entitled to qualified immunity.”
Addressing the excessive force arguments, the court found that Cobb’s estate “has not shown it was clearly established that deadly force violates the Fourth Amendment if used to protect an officer reaching inside a suspect’s car when the suspect shifts the car into drive and the car begins to move.”
In January 2024, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty brought three felony charges against Trooper Londregan, including second-degree unintentional murder. The charges were connected to a July 2023 incident where Londregan fatally shot Cobb after he began to flee in his vehicle during a traffic stop, knocking Londregan and Seide to the ground.
Throughout the high-profile case, an initial use-of-force expert left the prosecution, multiple State Patrol trainers issued sworn declarations stating that Londregan acted in accordance with his training, the lead prosecutor departed, and Moriarty hired an outside team of Washington, D.C. lawyers to manage the prosecution at a cost of more than $500,000.
Moriarty ultimately dropped the criminal charges against Londregan in June 2024.
“Judge Brasel threw the case out, and now a unanimous Eighth Circuit panel just agreed that the video doesn’t match Mary Moriarty’s ridiculous story — the Court said it ‘blatantly contradicts’ it. Zero dissents. That’s a case built on nothing — filed just because someone hates cops,” said a Tuesday statement from attorney Chris Madel, who represented Londregan in both his criminal and civil cases.
Madel plans to seek legal fees from Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office, saying Ellison ignored the statute that requires his office to represent Londregan without conditions.
“Keith Ellison told us in writing that his Office would only represent Trooper Londregan if Trooper Londregan agreed to relinquish his right to settle the case to Ellison. Ellison also said he had to waive conflicts and to permit Ellison to share any confidential information he chose to whomever he decided. No way were we going to let that happen,” Madel added.
“Ellison is going to have to answer for this anti-cop bullshit. We’re not done.”
Alpha News has extensively covered the case and it is featured prominently in Alpha News’ documentary, “Minnesota v. We the People.”
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
