POLITICS: Appeals court revises lawsuit of prosecutor who objected to charging decisions in George Floyd case

The Minnesota Court of Appeals has partially reinstated a lawsuit filed by veteran prosecutor Amy Sweasy, who alleges that former Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman violated whistleblower protection laws after Sweasy’s refusal to charge additional officers in George Floyd’s death and add charges against former officer Derek Chauvin.

The ruling, issued Monday, allows Sweasy to move forward with claims that Freeman engaged in whistleblower retaliation against her for decisions she made during her tenure under his administration.

While not named as a defendant, Freeman’s successor, current Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, is mentioned in the ruling for her actions and comments after taking office.

Freeman’s alleged retaliation over George Floyd cases

In 2020, Sweasy drafted the initial criminal complaint against Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd.

According to Monday’s ruling, “In 2020, Sweasy drafted the initial criminal complaint against Officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd (the Chauvin complaint). Freeman also expected Sweasy to draft charges in a complaint against three other involved officers, but Sweasy avers that she ‘believed Hennepin County was proceeding with a prosecution of [those] three individuals in violation of Minnesota Rules of Professional Responsibility 3.8(a).’”

“She also disagreed with a decision to add additional charges against Chauvin,” the ruling states.

Sweasy then formally withdrew from the case, referred to in court documents as the “Floyd matters.”

According to the ruling, Freeman responded to Sweasy’s withdrawal by telling her, “I’m worried about your career now,” a statement that Sweasy perceived as a threat. Freeman denied making the comment.

Following this incident, Sweasy alleges Freeman engaged in retaliatory conduct, including passing her over for a promotion to head the Adult Prosecution Division and precluding her from handling use-of-deadly-force cases, which had been a significant focus of her work.

“Sweasy argues that she presented sufficient evidence to establish a causal connection between her 2020 withdrawal and the asserted adverse employment actions,” the ruling says.

Moriarty’s actions after succeeding Freeman

In January 2023, Mary Moriarty succeeded Freeman as the Hennepin County attorney.

Around the time she took office, Moriarty reviewed Sweasy’s previous Minnesota Department of Human Rights charge, which detailed her allegations of sex discrimination and retaliation under Freeman.

According to the ruling, “Moriarty did not think that Sweasy’s allegations of sex discrimination ‘r[a]ng true.’”

Moriarty, instead, believed Sweasy’s exclusion from the Adult Prosecution Division was “about insubordination,” specifically in relation to the Chauvin complaint, which Moriarty described as “very, very favorable to Chauvin.”

Moriarty subsequently removed Sweasy from her leadership role in the Complex Prosecutions Unit (CPU), stripping her of managerial and supervisory responsibilities.

Sweasy contends that these actions, though occurring after Freeman’s departure, stemmed from the original conflict over the Floyd case and her subsequent MDHR complaint.

“Moriarty told Sweasy that she was making the reassignment because of Sweasy’s ‘history and the people involved.’ Sweasy understood ‘history’ to reference her MDHR charge and ‘the people involved’ to refer to the people who had engaged in retaliatory conduct toward her, including Freeman,” the ruling says.

Moriarty, however, claims that she moved the CPU into the Adult Prosecution Division and could not have “Sweasy co-manage or report to the head of the Adult Prosecution Division because of the poor relationship between the two.”

After her reassignment, Sweasy says she was assigned to “low-level” cases and had no contact with Moriarty for roughly three months, even though Moriarty was her direct supervisor.

“Moriarty conceded that there was ‘probably not’ anyone else at the county attorney’s office that she supervised and did not communicate with about their performance for that length of time,” the ruling says.

Sweasy resigned on May 3, 2023.

Extreme pressure in Floyd prosecution decisions

Sweasy’s lawsuit has also highlighted the extreme pressure prosecutors faced in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

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Sworn testimony from multiple attorneys, made public in October 2023, highlights internal divisions over how to proceed with charges.

Senior Assistant County Attorney Patrick Lofton, who worked alongside Sweasy on police use-of-force cases, described the environment at the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office as “extreme premium pressure.”

“The Chauvin stuff is the catalyst of this,” Lofton said, according to a transcript from a deposition in June of 2023. “There was extreme premium pressure, yes. The city was burning down,” Lofton said.

He explained that while he “wanted the case charged” and believed there was “probable cause to charge Mr. Chauvin with third degree murder,” the pressure from outside the office was “insane” and he had reservations about charging “the other three cops.”

Lofton eventually withdrew from the case.

Alpha News reached out to Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty for comment but did not receive a response.

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