A prosecutor accused a Minneapolis cop of a cover-up. He was still allowed to testify in another case.

The prosecutor’s case hinged on discrediting a key witness, a Minneapolis police officer.

“It’s a cover-up,” Dan Allard stated. “I hate it. I hate it. It’s horrible, however there’s no different conclusion right here.”

Allard, a longtime prosecutor with the Hennepin County Lawyer’s Workplace, was about to persuade a jury in 2017 that former officer Christopher Reiter was not justified when he kicked a suspect within the face and knocked him unconscious whereas he was already on the bottom.

However in his closing arguments, Allard wanted to punch holes in a important piece of testimony.

One other officer on the scene, Luke Eckert, had testified that the suspect had a knife, although Eckert had by no means talked about the weapon till the case went to trial.

“There was no knife,” Allard advised the jury. “There was by no means a knife.”

Reiter was convicted of third-degree assault.

A day later, prosecutors reported Eckert to inside affairs on the Minneapolis Police Division.

Even if the county’s personal prosecutor referred to as Eckert’s testimony a “fabrication,” the Hennepin County Lawyer’s Workplace later allowed him to testify in one other case, 5 INVESTIGATES discovered.

A spokesperson defended that call in an announcement, saying Eckert performed a restricted position in that case, and the conviction was “not depending on his testimony.”

The county additionally confirmed that, on the time, Eckert had not been flagged within the county’s Brady system, which is meant to trace which officers could also be discredited in courtroom.

As 5 INVESTIGATES beforehand reported, that system is now being referred to as a “failure.”

Invoice Ward, Chief Public Defender for the State of Minnesota, says Eckert’s case reveals that description doesn’t go far sufficient.

“It’s past dishonest. It’s hiding the ball and getting a conviction at any prices,” Ward stated.

“Doing the Proper Factor”

They referred to as it “doing the correct factor.”

At a press convention within the fall of 2018, the Hennepin County Lawyer’s Workplace described the system in place to flag officer misconduct. 

“We skilled each single lawyer – felony and civil – in our obligations to do the correct factor, to inform the reality, and to make these what are referred to as Brady disclosures,” David Brown, a Chief Deputy County Lawyer, stated on the time.

It gave the impression to be an effort to reassure the general public after prosecutors decided an officer in Eden Prairie lied on a search warrant, forcing essentially the most distinguished county legal professional’s workplace within the state to throw out dozens of circumstances.

However Chris Lane says he not believes that promise.

Lane’s daughter, Maggie, died of a deadly drug overdose. The person convicted of giving her the heroin was certainly one of a number of convicted felons set free of jail early because of the scandal in Eden Prairie.

“I believe each my ex-wife and I have been fairly shattered,” Lane stated.

He felt assured prosecutors have been doing all the pieces to trace officers whose credibility might jeopardize felony circumstances. Till he discovered about Luke Eckert.

“That’s very discouraging,” he stated. “They haven’t made any actual motion in that course. It’s kind of a PR factor.”

Suspended three years later

As 5 INVESTIGATES beforehand reported, officers are solely flagged as soon as they’ve been formally disciplined by their departments, in keeping with a memo of understanding between the county and MPD.

In a current interview, the pinnacle of the Brady committee on the Hennepin County Lawyer’s Workplace stated he doesn’t know what number of officers have been flagged as a result of they don’t preserve an precise checklist.

“We solely get a flag if a specific officer and a specific case comes up within the pc,” stated Dan Mabley, who can be a retired decide.

Eckert didn’t present up of their pc till he was disciplined by MPD in 2020—greater than three years after he was accused of mendacity in the course of the Christopher Reiter trial.

“Finally, you’re permitting the police division to display or, frankly, to cover info primarily based upon whether or not or not it’s self-discipline,” stated Invoice Ward, the general public defender.

Ultimately, information present Eckert was not really disciplined for being untruthful.

He was suspended for mishandling proof — the knife that prosecutors stated by no means existed.