The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association (MPPOA) and 2022 Republican attorney general candidate Jim Schultz plan to file a professional conduct complaint against Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, Alpha News has learned.
The complaint is related to Moriarty’s handling of the criminal case her office brought against Minnesota State Trooper Ryan Londregan.
Primed for submission to the Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board, the Moriarty complaint accuses the Hennepin County attorney of prejudicial conduct and knowingly making false statements about Trooper Londregan.
In January, Moriarty brought three felony charges against Trooper Londregan, including second-degree unintentional murder. The charges were connected to a July 2023 incident that resulted in the death of Ricky Cobb II.
Moriarty’s decision to charge Londregan, and her office’s handling of the case, have been roundly criticized by law enforcement groups, elected officials, and many Minnesotans. At the beginning of June, Moriarty officially dropped all the charges against Londregan, but the legal fight between Moriarty and Londregan’s defense team has continued.
This week, the MPPOA and Schultz will officially file their complaint with the Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board, a professional standards board that investigates alleged lawyer misconduct, Alpha News is told. The board, which is an agency of the Minnesota Supreme Court, also has the power to bring disciplinary actions against those who have violated conduct standards.
In their complaint, the MPPOA and Schultz ask the board to investigate Moriarty for allegedly breaking three different professional conduct rules.
First, the complaint says Moriarty made extrajudicial statements she knew would be disseminated to the public that would “have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing a jury trial in a pending criminal matter.”
According to the complaint, Moriarty’s numerous extrajudicial statements included multiple public comments where she claimed Trooper Londregan received, but did not follow, his training. Additionally, the complaint says the county attorney’s extrajudicial statements included “Moriarty’s incessant tweeting about the case and Trooper Londregan.”
Summarizing the violation, the complaint says “Moriarty and those under her supervision repeatedly courted pretrial publicity that they knew would be substantially likely to materially prejudice a jury.”
The second rule infraction alleged in the complaint relates to Minnesota Rule of Professional Conduct 4.1, which states that a lawyer “shall not knowingly make a false statement of fact or law.” According to the complaint, “Moriarty and her office repeatedly violated this rule by knowingly making false statements of fact while representing the State against Trooper Londregan.”
The complaint says Moriarty repeatedly stated that there was sealed grand-jury evidence which supported allegations that Londregan did not follow his training and violated Minnesota State Patrol policy. A 60-page report, authored by lawyers Moriarty hired to work on the case, documents the grand jury proceedings. According to the complaint, the executive summary of that 60-page report admits that there is “no evidence” Trooper Londregan violated his training.
As such, the complaint deduces: “Both statements cannot be true–Moriarty either had evidence or did not.”
The complaint also alleges that Moriarty repeatedly claimed that no state troopers informed Ricky Cobb II that he was under arrest on the night Cobb died. However, the MPPOA and Schultz assert that Moriarty’s own criminal complaint against Londregan contradicts her claims that the troopers never told Cobb he was under arrest.
“Thus, either Moriarty’s claims to the media are false or the complaint signed on her behalf by her chief deputy violates [Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct],” says the complaint.
Finally, the MPPOA’s complaint says Moriarty violated a rule against engaging in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.
“Taken together, Moriarty’s conduct can be explained only by a desire to prosecute a peace officer–regardless of the facts–to achieve political ends,” says the complaint. “Moriarty admitted that even the decision to finally dismiss was based on the impact a verdict of acquittal would have on her preferred policy goals, not on the interests of justice.”
The complaint goes on to claim that Moriarty’s decisions to both prosecute Londregan and dismiss the case against Londregan were based on “political considerations.”
In their complaint, the MPPOA and Schultz referenced a Supreme Court case which said that a prosecutor’s “job is to seek justice rather than convictions.”
“Moriarty’s conduct is beneath the dignity of her office,” says the complaint. “Yet rather than acknowledge her errors in judgment or the deficiencies in the process she oversaw, Moriarty has repeatedly called her unjustifiable prosecution of an innocent man not only ‘ethical,’ but ‘courageous.'”
The MPPOA and Schultz conclude their complaint by asking the Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board to “thoroughly investigate these matters and take appropriate action.”
Alpha News will continue to update this story as new developments unfold. Check back for updates.
Luke Sprinkel
Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and the Middle East. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.
