Judge concerned about lack of investigation, discipline for officers accused of excessive force on journalists

A federal judge is concerned that police officers who were accused of using excessive force on journalists during last year’s protests are not being held accountable.

In a ruling on Thursday, Judge Wilhelmina Wright indefinitely banned police from using force on journalists and also raised questions about why officers have not faced internal investigations.

On Thursday night, 5 INVESTIGATES reported how allegations of wrongdoing by police are regularly ignored by internal affairs.

In her 35-page ruling, Wright said officers have faced “little if any investigation or discipline” after they were accused of targeting, threatening, assaulting and wrongfully arresting journalists during the protests and riots last year.

The judge specifically cited the incident when state troopers arrested a CNN crew on national television while reporting on the riots.

As 5 INVESTIGATES reported Thursday night, that arrest led to a public apology from the governor but no internal affairs investigation.

The head of the Minnesota State Patrol testified in court earlier this year that he didn’t “pursue the matter further” because a formal complaint was never filed.

“It’s just a great example, because, of course, they knew about the conduct, of course, they had the opportunity to look into it… and they chose not to do it,” said Rachel Moran, a professor at the University of St. Thomas.

Moran has done extensive research on policing and the role of internal affairs, even authoring a report called Ending the Internal Affairs Farce.

She described Thursday’s ruling as significant.

“What this ruling says is… there’s still reason to be concerned it will happen again because those people haven’t been held accountable,” Moran said.

As 5 INVESTIGATES found, allegations of misconduct at police departments across the state have been ignored by internal affairs for years. A review of court and police records revealed that dozens of officers accused of misconduct were never investigated, even when the allegations led to six-figure settlements.

“I think it’s important to know that the cost of these lawsuits and the longer they go, that at some point they have to make a decision about settling the case to stop those costs from increasing,” said Jeff Potts, executive director of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association. “That shouldn’t always indicate that there was wrongdoing by the office.”

But in one case in the Minnesota town of Worthington, the police department chose not to investigate the officers involved in an incident that sent Kelvin Rodriguez to the ICU and led to a nearly $600,000 lawsuit and even changes to the police department’s policies.

The chief told 5 INVESTIGATES it’s because no formal complaint was ever filed.

“They’re certainly not prohibited by any law from investigating their officers,” Moran said. “I mean, just think about this in the context of any other business or company, you should care about your employees’ conduct.