The law firm representing police officer Katie Blackwell in her lawsuit against Alpha News is currently being sued for malpractice.
Trautmann Martin Law, PLLC was retained by Blackwell, an assistant chief with the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD), to launch a defamation lawsuit against Alpha News. In her lawsuit, Blackwell alleges that Alpha News mischaracterized her words and painted her as a liar in “The Fall of Minneapolis,” an Alpha News documentary film.
Chris Madel, the attorney representing Alpha News and its writers, has described Blackwell’s lawsuit as “garbage.”
Operated by a “friend” of Rep. Ilhan Omar, Trautmann Martin Law is currently being sued by a former client for its alleged failure to provide adequate counsel in a legal battle with a Minnesota city.
In that malpractice lawsuit, Trautmann Martin Law is accused of legal malpractice/negligence, negligent misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duties, breach of contract, and breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
The complaint says that Mark VanGelder, a resident of St. Cloud, Minn., retained the legal services of Trautmann Martin Law to represent him in a legal case VanGelder brought against the City of Norwood Young America and its staff. The case involved a dispute between VanGelder and the city stemming from citations that were issued to VanGelder for parking trailers on his property, according to the lawsuit.
Jennifer Moore, an attorney with Trautmann Martin Law, was allegedly assigned to handle Mr. VanGelder’s case against Norwood Young America. Moore is also the attorney working on Blackwell’s case against Alpha News.
According to the malpractice lawsuit, Trautmann Martin Law said it would “aggressively prosecute [VanGelder’s] claims” and that the legal proceedings in the case would involve an extensive discovery process that would include interviews, production of documents, and depositions of the parties involved.
However, Trautmann Martin Law “conducted very limited discovery” and failed to “schedule or conduct any depositions” of the relevant city staff, the lawsuit says.
VanGelder’s malpractice lawsuit further states that Trautmann Martin Law “failed to make legally or factually sufficient arguments, asserted claims known to them to be unlawful and continued to assert such claims even after Mr. VanGelder questioned their asserting such claims, and failed to present legally sufficient evidence in support of those claims.”
The lawsuit says Moore “failed to competently carry out her assigned tasks.”
Among the other accusations, Trautmann Martin Law allegedly failed to timely communicate with Mr. VanGelder, failed to “correctly advocate Mr. VanGelder’s claims on the merits,” and made misstatements in a court motion and failed to correct them.
“Defendants Trautmann PLLC made broad, generalized allegations against the defendants in the Litigation without presenting any credible evidence or relevant records to support those allegations, and by doing so compromised and prejudiced Mr. VanGelder’s interests,” the lawsuit says.
“Contrary to the applicable standard of care, Defendants Trautmann PLLC failed to demonstrate Defendants Trautmann PLLC understood the law applicable to prosecuting Mr. VanGelder’s claims and Defendants Trautmann PLLC failed to understand or advocate how such law applied to the material facts concerning Mr. VanGelder’s claims against the defendants in the Litigation,” it adds.
In response to VanGelder’s malpractice lawsuit filed in court, Trautmann Martin Law went through the allegations paragraph by paragraph and made repeated denials of the claims brought by VanGelder. The law firm subsequently asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit.
“We are always honored when people hire our firm. While we disagree with his allegations and conclusions, it was an honor to represent Mr. VanGelder. We look forward to reaching the merits of the case,” the firm told Alpha News in a statement.
Court records show that Mr. VanGelder’s malpractice lawsuit against Trautmann Martin Law is ongoing and appears to be in the discovery phase. The lawsuit was filed in April and a jury trial is scheduled for June of next year, according to court records.
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.
