Trooper Ryan Londregan’s attorney Chris Madel is taking Minnesota public officials and some in the media to task for their handling and coverage of his client’s case.
Madel joined Alpha News reporter Liz Collin on the latest episode of Liz Collin Reports to discuss the intricacies of Londregan’s case in the wake of Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty dropping charges against the trooper over the fatal shooting of Ricky Cobb during a traffic stop.
Madel began by describing Londregan’s feelings after Moriarty dropped the charges, observing that his client was “doing better” after being metaphorically “hit by a freight train here over and over and over again.” Madel noted that a reporter was the first to contact him concerning the dropped charges, rather than the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. Madel sarcastically observed that this “shows you the class associated with her office” in reference to Moriarty.
“I’ve always thought that if a prosecutor charges somebody without probable cause, they should be financially responsible for that. But we also believe though that Ms. Moriarty is ethically responsible for what she’s done. And I joined in the Star Tribune and their editorial saying that she ought to be investigated,” Madel said
Aside from Moriarty, whom he described as someone who “just wanted to get a cop,” Madel minced no words concerning Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. Madel accused Walz of engaging in a “kind of reinventing of history” to claim that he supported Londregan, as opposed to having “jumped in the foxhole right next to me right after I won the battle.” Madel added that, “the governor had multiple opportunities here to do the right thing. And he didn’t. He chose not to. He expressed his concerns over and over again as an innocent trooper was being prosecuted. Concerns doesn’t do jack crap for Ryan Londregan.”
As for Ellison, Madel declared, “I asked him directly, why aren’t you asking the governor to reassign this case? He told me, ‘well, he can’t.’ That’s not what the statute says. And I reminded him, what about the McKeever case? You did it in the McKeever case, but you’re not doing it here. And what I received in response then is a bunch of political mumbo jumbo.”
To make matters worse, as Londregan faces the prospect of a civil suit from Ricky Cobb’s family, Ellison’s office “provided Ryan with an engagement agreement that said, ‘we will indemnify you, but you have to give us, relinquish all litigation decisions in the case.’ It literally says this in writing. It says a number of other objectionable things about waiving conflicts of interest, including that they had the right to take any statements from Ryan and give them to anybody that they wanted of their choosing.”
Madel said he plans to represent Londregan in the civil case, regardless of whether he gets paid or not.
“I don’t care if I end up making zero off of this, but I’m going to be shoulder to shoulder with Ryan Londregan until this is done because he’s not a vindictive guy. He’s not spiteful. I am,” Madel said.
Regarding the media, Madel wryly recalled, “after I was complaining over and over to the Star Tribune, one of their stories came out and said that Madel has repeatedly, I think it said, ‘excoriated the media.’ I emailed that reporter and said, ‘it ain’t the media, it’s you, the Star Tribune.’ And they did change that in the story from the media to the Star Tribune.”
Beyond the immediate case, Madel expressed his anxiety about the future of public safety and policing in the state of Minnesota.
“These are good men and women that are trying to do the right thing,” Madel told Collin. “And by God, damn it, if we don’t stop, there’s not going to be anybody left in Hennepin County with people like Mary Moriarty. Because, you know, I can tell you one thing, if my daughters wanted to become a cop in Minneapolis, I would do literally everything in my power in order to stop that. Why would you ever want to do something like that when you get no support whatsoever from the county attorney? It makes no sense.”
Evan Poellinger
Evan Poellinger, the Alpha News Summer 2024 Journalism Fellow, is a native Minnesotan with a lifelong passion for history and politics. He previously worked as a journalism intern with the American Spectator and an investigative journalism fellow with the Media Research Center. He is a graduate of College of the Holy Cross with degrees in political science and history.
