Two police associations representing thousands of law enforcement officers across the state have asked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to remove Trooper Ryan Londregan’s case from Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty’s Office.
“It is our sincere belief that if fair prosecutors review the case, they will determine that it should be dismissed with prejudice,” said the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association and the Minnesota State Patrol Trooper Association in a Friday letter.
The two groups want the governor to use his statutory authority to transfer the case to the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office. Walz did this once before in April 2023 amid backlash over Moriarty’s lenient prosecution of two juveniles accused of murder. It was considered an unprecedented move.
Moriarty has charged Londregan with three felonies, including second-degree unintentional murder, in connection to a July 2023 incident in which he shot and killed Ricky Cobb.
Cobb, a convicted felon, attempted to flee law enforcement in a vehicle while a state trooper was half-inside, half-outside the vehicle. In response, Londregan shot Cobb as his fellow state trooper was dragged for a short distance by Cobb’s vehicle.
The law enforcement letter comes after Londregan’s attorneys wrote in a court filing this week that Moriarty’s handpicked use-of-force expert, whom she described as “critical” to her case, said Londregan’s actions were reasonable. This expert, identified as Jeffrey Noble, was told “to stop working” two days after Londregan was charged, according to the filing.
“Worse, public filings show that the Hennepin County Attorney did more than ignore Mr. Noble, but actively sought to bury Mr. Noble’s opinion and excluded Mr. Noble from the process entirely. After hearing Mr. Noble’s supposedly ‘preliminary’ analysis, the HCAO did not supply Mr. Noble with grand jury transcripts despite committing to do so, charged Trooper Londregan with murder apparently without further consultation with their own ‘critical’ expert, and only then directed Mr. Noble to cease working (i.e., to not create a final report),” the police groups said in their letter.
“The HCAO then unsuccessfully sought to block public access to all filings and institute a gag order on the defense before providing any discovery. And once Mr. Noble’s opinion became public, the HCAO responded to justified criticism by claiming to the press that Mr. Noble’s opinion was merely preliminary and based on an incomplete record because Mr. Noble did not have the very grand jury transcripts that the HCAO withheld from him. The only rational explanation for this conduct is that the HCAO understood that Mr. Noble’s opinion had not and would not change based on the supposed evidence gathered following the October 2023 meeting.”
Read the full letter below:
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