If sanity has returned to Minneapolis, it did not come back without resistance from the insanely corrupt. Hennepin County DA Mary Moriarty had charged Minnesota trooper Ryan Londregan with second-degree murder -- the same charge Derek Chauvin faced in the death of George Floyd -- for the death of a man at a traffic stop in July of last year. Yesterday, almost four years to the day after Floyd's death and the riots began, Moriarty announced she would withdraw the indictment.

She sounded bitter about it in her press release, though, oddly issued over a weekend:

“Ricky Cobb II should still be alive today,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said. “Today’s necessary decision does not change that fact, nor does it exonerate Mr. Londregan or the methods his supervisors used to train him in difficult situations. The question of whether we can prove a case at trial is different than clearing a person of any wrongdoing. There are so many points at which Mr. Londregan could have handled the situation differently, and if he had, Ricky Cobb might still be alive. But that is not the question before us as prosecutors; the only question is whether we can still prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime occurred given this new evidence. The answer to that question is no, and I would violate my ethical duties if I nonetheless continued with the case.”

To quote the great legal scholar Vincent Gambini: 

Much of what Moriarty claims in that quote is contradicted by her own press release, which raises serious questions about why this case got presented in the first place:

Specifically, in an open court hearing on April 29, 2024, the defense revealed the substance of Mr. Londregan’s prospective testimony, claiming he saw Ricky Cobb II reach for the trooper’s firearm shortly before Londregan fired the shots that killed Mr. Cobb. Additionally, an MSP trainer provided a declaration claiming he never instructed officers to refrain from shooting into a moving vehicle during an extraction, even though that is best practice. 

Following those disclosures, the prosecution team consulted with a use of force expert and re-evaluated whether the State could still prove beyond a reasonable doubt that deadly force was not justified.

Come on, man. Londregan has insisted since the incident that Cobb reached for his partner's service pistol. Cobb was a known felon and at the time had a hold order issued on him, which is why the troopers wanted him out of the car. Additionally, Cobb dragged Londregan and his partner while attempting to flee, which was the moment when Londregan fired. That fact was established at the time of the shooting by the body cameras of both officers, and Londregan's story hasn't changed at all

Video from trooper on passenger side: pic.twitter.com/o7S6NUVd3D

— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) August 1, 2023

Furthermore, shouldn't Moriarty have asked about state police training in these situations before making a decision to file charges? Did she not review the body-cam footage that supported Londregan's testimony all along? Isn't that the entire purpose of an investigation?

Moriarty didn't bother with the legal niceties of investigation. Ricky Cobb was black; Londregan is white. That was Moriarty's entire calculation. This was a political prosecution aimed at pandering to radical activists in Minneapolis, not an attempt at justice. 

Alpha News has covered this case extensively from the beginning. My friend Anthony Gockowski reports that Moriarty's case fell apart for other reasons than those she admits here:

In January, Moriarty brought three felony charges against Trooper Londregan, including second-degree unintentional murder. The charges were connected to a July 2023 incident where Londregan fatally shot Cobb after he began to flee in his vehicle during a traffic stop, briefly dragging another state trooper who was attempting to remove him.

Since then, an initial use-of-force expert left the prosecution, multiple State Patrol trainers issued sworn declarations that Londregan acted in accordance with his training, the lead prosecutor departed the case, and Moriarty hired an outside team of Washington, D.C. lawyers to manage the prosecution.

Moriarty’s prosecution has received criticism from politicians on both sides of the aisle and led to calls for Gov. Tim Walz to reassign the case to the attorney general’s office.

In other words, Moriarty is another out-of-control DA attempting to impose social justice rather than follow the law. She wanted to sacrifice a law-enforcement officer to nail down her Floyd bona fides with Minneapolis voters, pushing a case that was so obviously cooked that her own office wouldn't touch it. Apparently, even her hand-picked out-of-town prosecutors concluded the case was an absolute loser, even in front of a Hennepin County jury. As a result, Moriarty had no choice but to drop the charges, but made sure to keep smearing Londregan out of bitterness over not being able to use him as a political stepping stone to higher office. 

John Hinderaker has also closely followed the case at Power Line, and he declares this "a win for the people." Like me, however, John's a little skeptical about a return of sanity:

As I said, an awful person. “Our decision to not go ahead with charges does not exonerate Trooper Londregan.” So she continues to smear him on her way out the door. At least, I hope she is on her way out the door. That will be up to the voters when she stands for re-election.

I reached out to Londregan’s lawyer, Chris Madel, for comment. His response:

When the case began, I said Moriarty is out of control. We proved it. I said that open season on law enforcement must end, and it going to end with this case. I pray that is true.

So do I. The outpouring of support for Ryan Londregan that we have seen across the state of Minnesota suggests that the corner may have been turned. We will know for sure, I guess, when Mary Moriarty is drummed out of office.

I'd love to think that a corner has been turned in my old home state, but color me skeptical. As anyone who lives or has ever lived in Minnesota can attest, "across the state" and "Hennepin County" are nearly mutually exclusive, politically speaking. I'm not betting that Moriarty gets drummed out office, not unless and until Minneapolis residents get sick and tired of progressive DAs and their championing of violent criminals at the expense of law enforcement and law-abiding citizens, and Defund the Police.