A Hennepin County judge has denied motions by attorneys for the City of Minneapolis and Chief Brian O’Hara to dismiss the defamation lawsuit filed against them in December by former Minneapolis police officer Tyler Timberlake, allowing the lawsuit to move forward.
Timberlake sued the city and the chief after he was fired last year, detailing in the lawsuit accusations of defamation by Chief O’Hara following his firing, violation of the Whistleblower Act, and violation of the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (MGDPA).
Background
Timberlake was hired in January 2023 and was fired in July the same year while he was still in training with MPD and two months after activists began calling for him to be fired. The uproar began following an April 2023 Minnesota Reformer piece that dredged up details from a court case involving three misdemeanor charges against Timberlake for assault and battery stemming from a use-of-force incident involving a black man while he was a police officer in Fairfax County, Va. (FCPD).
Timberlake’s incident in Virginia had taken place in 2020, just days after the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody, which sparked protests and violent uprisings not only in the Twin Cities, but across the country and the world.
Timberlake was eventually acquitted by a jury nearly two years later on all counts, and was subsequently reinstated to his former position as a police officer with FCPD.
Timberlake’s lawsuit against the City of Minneapolis and Chief O’Hara states that he subsequently applied to be an officer with the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) and fully disclosed the critical incident and all related administrative actions, along with the jury trial outcome of acquittal. The incident was fully investigated by MPD officer Craig Johnson, who initially handled Timberlake’s application, letters of recommendation, and other documentation. Johnson filed a summary report of the Virginia critical incident and placed it in Timberlake’s background report, which was presented to MPD hiring personnel.
On Nov. 8, 2022, Timberlake came to Minneapolis for a final in-person interview that included Chief O’Hara and several others. Timberlake maintains that the chief told him in substance during the interview that he didn’t care about the critical incident as long as Timberlake was meeting community expectations on the job. Timberlake was offered the position shortly after the interview.
O’Hara would later lament that it was only his second day on the job when the Timberlake interview occurred.
When the Reformer article came to light a few months later, Chief O’Hara provided a statement to Deena Winter who wrote the article for the publication indicating that he didn’t know about Timberlake’s past incident and was “extremely concerned” and vowed a full investigation into MPD’s hiring process.
Timberlake’s lawsuit alleges that O’Hara told a series of lies in “panicked efforts to evade responsibility” for Timberlake’s hiring. The lawsuit alleges that O’Hara’s lies implied that he didn’t know about the prior critical incident, that Timberlake concealed the critical incident, that Winter’s portrayed version of the incident was correct (the lawsuit says it wasn’t), and that Timberlake didn’t meet MPD’s hiring standards (the lawsuit says he did).
The lawsuit alleges that Chief O’Hara began to change his story after his statements about what he knew or didn’t know were scrutinized. O’Hara eventually crafted a statement saying that he merely didn’t know about the existence of video of the Virginia use-of-force incident. The lawsuit also claims that O’Hara made a series of public statements disclosing personnel information about Timberlake that is deemed private under MGDPA.
In July last year, Crime Watch Minneapolis obtained and posted copies of emails that showed that Timberlake had disclosed the critical incident in email communications with city personnel and that Chief O’Hara had been part of the interview panel. Also posted was a copy of an email dated May 15, 2023 (whistleblower email), from Timberlake to Mayor Jacob Frey, Chief O’Hara, and Chief of Human Resources Nikki Odom notifying them that Chief O’Hara had defamed him and had made statements which disclosed private personnel information in violation of Minnesota statute.
Motions to dismiss
Attorneys for both the city and the chief made motions to the court in April of this year to have the lawsuit dismissed, claiming that the lawsuit was meritless, and O’Hara’s lawyer additionally argued that he has “absolute privilege,” a form of immunity, protecting his public comments from repercussions.
Timberlake’s attorney Joe Tamburino reiterated during the motion hearing several claims in the lawsuit that O’Hara exposed protected data about Timberlake, information he claimed the chief had based on a multi-layer internal (personnel) hiring process that Timberlake went through. Tamburino also argued that the city was trying to hide behind false or inapplicable arguments for dismissal.
Judge Karen Janisch returned her ruling on Monday denying dismissal of the bulk of the lawsuit, including the claims of violation of the Whistleblower Act and violation of the MGDPA. Judge Janisch also specifically denied the chief’s claim of “absolute privilege.” Judge Janisch did dismiss two portions or elements of the lawsuit: one excluding from the lawsuit’s defamation claim a specific statement made by O’Hara to one media outlet on May 5, 2023; and one count in the lawsuit involving promissory estoppel or wrongful termination.
The judge defined in her 41-page ruling that the remaining claims of defamation could move forward, along with the Whistleblower and MGDPA violation claims. The judge noted that Timberlake will still need to prove at trial through evidence the claims for which he is seeking monetary damages.
Future court dates are not yet scheduled.
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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
Crime Watch MN
Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
