Free Republic

A sobering new documentary aims to debunk the false narratives surrounding the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the trial of Officer Derek Chauvin.“The Fall of Minneapolis,” produced by Alpha News journalist Liz Collin, also examines the tragic impacts of the Black Lives Matter riots, including the collapse of law and order, that continues to this day.Before the George Floyd riots, Collin was a popular Emmy-award-winning news anchor for WCCO-TV in Minneapolis.In 2020, she faced withering criticism over her marriage to Bob Kroll, then the head of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis. Collin told talk show host Megyn...

A win for Geraldine Tyler, who is now 94 years old, would be a win for property rights.The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard arguments in a consequential case. The query before the justices: Was it unconstitutional when the government seized a woman's home over an unpaid tax bill, sold it for more than the amount of the debt, and then kept the profit? It may sound like a slam dunk case. Over the last several years, it has not been. But yesterday's arguments provided both a glimmer of optimism for the state of property rights in the U.S., as well...

Hennepin County, Minnesota homeowner Geraldine Tyler in an undated photo. (Courtesy of Pacific Legal Foundation) The Supreme Court decided late on Jan. 13 to hear the appeal of a 94-year-old homeowner who is challenging the constitutionality of laws that allow local governments to take the full value of a home as payment for much smaller property tax debts. The decision came after the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a public interest law firm that is representing the homeowner, released a report last month saying that 12 states and the District of Columbia allow local governments and private investors to seize dramatically...

Derek Chauvin could not afford an attorney to appeal his convictions in the case of George Floyd. Chauvin’s insurance did not extend to appeals and the Minnesota Supreme Court denied him a public defender. Although I thought Chauvin could not have received a fair trial in Hennepin County, it looked like he wouldn’t be able to raise the issue on appeal either. I put out the call on Power Line for some member of the Minnesota bar to represent Chauvin on appeal. In the best tradition of the American legal profession, my friend Bill Mohrman answered the call. Chauvin’s legal...

A Savage middle school principal has been charged, accused of prostitution of a minor following an undercover police operation in St. Louis Park on Tuesday. The St. Louis Park Police Department said Wednesday four men, including Eagle Ridge Middle School Principal Mohamed Selim, were arrested during the operation that involved undercover officers communicating with people who sought to buy sex from a minor. This operation was part of a coordinated statewide response aimed at ending human trafficking and exploitation, police said. Three of the four men arrested were booked into jail and released, but Selim, 38, of Lakeville, was being...

A Brooklyn Park man has been sentenced in a fatal shooting that left a 20-year-old Columbia Heights man dead in July in downtown Minneapolis. Court records indicate Troy Lierre Fowler, 31, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison at the St. Cloud Correctional Facility for the shooting death of Mohamed Hussein Hassan. According to the criminal complaint, on July 17, Minneapolis police responded to the area of a parking ramp east of Hennepin Avenue South in the 3300 block of Sixth Street South in downtown Minneapolis on a report of a gunshot fired. A responding officer located a man...

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Officials say there will be no charges filed against the deputies who fatally shot Winston Smith in June atop a Minneapolis parking ramp. On Monday, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office disseminated the review of the case by the Crow Wing County Attorney’s Office, which determined that the U.S. Marshal Task Force’s use of deadly force was lawful and “no criminal prosecution should be sought in this matter.” Last month, Crow Wing County Attorney Donald Ryan said he was reviewing the case because counties closer to the Twin Cities had conflicts. Ryan sent his findings to the Hennepin...

Derek Chauvin plans to appeal his conviction and sentence for the murder of George Floyd — arguing the judge abused his discretion in critical points in the case, according to documents filed Thursday. The former Minneapolis police officer said in the court filing that he intends to appeal on 14 grounds. One claim made by Chauvin in the notice to appeal is that Judge Peter Cahill abused his discretion by denying him a request to move the trial out of Hennepin County because of pretrial publicity.

After being convicted in the murder of George Floyd, Derek Chauvin was taken to the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Oak Park Heights — a maximum-security state prison. The ex-Minneapolis cop was transferred there through an agreement between the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and the state Department of Corrections, DOC spokeswoman Sarah Fitzgerald told CNN.

Minneapolis erupted in looting and riots late Sunday after an officer fatally shot a man during a traffic stop. The Minnesota National Guard was activated to quell what devolved into violent demonstrations over the fatal officer-involved shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright earlier Sunday in the city of Brooklyn Center, located in Hennepin County, on the border of Minneapolis. A citywide curfew was issued by Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott until 6 a.m. CT Monday. About 500 people had gathered overnight outside of a police precinct in the city and clashed with officers. Shocking images from Minneapolis where BLM rioters destroyed...

The Minnesota chief medical examiner who conducted the autopsy on George Floyd’s body and deemed his death a homicide testified Friday in former officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial. Dr. Andrew Baker, chief medical examiner for Hennepin County, said the way police held Floyd down and compressed his neck "was just more than Mr. Floyd could take," given the condition of his heart. Baker took the stand on Friday morning as the second week of testimony at the trial of Chauvin, 45, came to an end.... Baker testified that Floyd’s "use of fentanyl did not cause the subdural or neck restraint....

George Floyd’s Friend and ‘Key Witness’ in Chauvin Trial Invokes 5th Amendment, Declines to TestifyA self-described key witness to the death of George Floyd—a longtime friend who was in the car with Floyd when police approached him—said through a lawyer that, if forced to testify about the incident, he’ll invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and remain silent. Morries Lester Hall, who in a June 2020 interview with The New York Times called himself “a key witness to the cops murdering George Floyd” and said he was “going to be his voice” going forward, has asked the court to...

Fifteen jurors, four of whom are Black and two of whom are multiracial, were chosen during a weeks-long jury selection process earlier this month. The trial is expected to span two to four weeks at the heavily secured Hennepin County Government Center in downtown Minneapolis, after which the jury will launch into deliberations. Judge Peter Cahill is limiting attendees in the courtroom due to COVID-19 concerns and is allowing for the proceedings to be televised, a rarity in the state.

A clearly frustrated Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill has excused two of the jurors already selected to serve in Derek Chauvin's murder trial before news of $27million settlement in the George Floyd’s family’s civil suit was reported. Cahill interviewed seven jurors Wednesday morning and was satisfied that only five could still serve as fair and impartial in the trial of the former Minneapolis police officer charged following the death of the 46-year-old black man last spring. The judge was critical of the announced settlement, which he described as ‘unfortunate’ in its timing.

A University of Minnesota Law School professor, Francesco Parisi, has won a nearly $1.2 million defamation case against a woman who had falsely accused him of rape. In his blistering ruling on Tuesday, Hennepin County Judge Daniel Moreno wrote that Parisi’s former lover, Morgan Wright, had pursued an “untruthful narrative crusade,” and her “accusations were false, and made with malice.” It is believed to be the largest defamation judgement in Minnesota. The vast majority of the judgement, $814,514 is for economic losses, as well as reputational and emotional damages. Only $100,000 was for punitive damages. Parisi walked out of jail...

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Fox 9 reports that the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s report released Monday ruled the death of George Floyd a homicide. The updated report states that on May 25, George Floyd experienced a cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by a law enforcement officer(s). Ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is now charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in connection to Floyd’s death.Earlier Monday, the attorneys for the family of George Floyd shared the findings of their separate autopsy, which determined that Floyd died of “asphyxia from sustained pressure” on his neck and back.The new Medical Examiner’s report also notes other significant conditions...

Minnesota's governor appointed state Attorney General Keith Ellison on Sunday to lead the prosecution of any cases arising from the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin is charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd's death on May 25 as Chauvin pinned his neck to the ground with his knee. Gov. Tim Walz announced Ellison's appointment as lead prosecutor shortly after the Hennepin County prosecutor said he had asked Ellison to "assist" in the investigation, two days after 10 members representing Minneapolis in the state House asked Walz in a letter...

In the wake of the brutal death of George Floyd, the Minneapolis man killed by a white police officer while in custody, people all over the country have united to protest police violence and call for charges to be brought against the police officers responsible for his death. Others have backed up social action with dollars, flocking to grassroots organizations in the state of Minnesota to support protesters on the ground. One of these organizations is the Minnesota Freedom Fund, an abolitionist-focused group working toward ending cash bail in Minnesota and nationally. Over the past few days, a Twitter trend...

Minnesota: Police threaten to charge grandmother for filming traffic problems at mosque NOV 27, 2019 3:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER The police there know who is in charge and who they must not allow to become offended or enraged. And it isn’t Sally Ness. “Civil Rights Lawsuit Filed by Grandmother Threatened with Prosecution for Filming Mosque Violations,” American Freedom Law Center, November 12, 2019 (thanks to the Geller Report): (Minneapolis, Minnesota)—On November 12, 2019, the American Freedom Law Center filed a civil rights lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota on behalf of Sally Ness. The...

Within the last decade or so, drag queens went from being a niche and esoteric art form intended for adult audiences, to a growing worldwide phenomenon with millions upon millions of fans. With drag’s massive boost in popularity came the intersecting of drag and children. Across the United States and Canada, drag queens have been asked to participate in Drag Queen Story Hour, and events of a similar nature. According to Hennepin County Libraries, the events promote “self-expression, dress-up, and gender fluidity through stories, rhymes, music and movement with drag performers” from around local communities. Hennepin County Library has become...