Why state trooper's trial in fatal shooting won't be like the others

The case against state trooper Ryan Londregan may look on paper like a redux of high-profile trials that dominated headlines in Minnesota in recent years: A white law enforcement officer is accused of using excessive force during a routine traffic stop, killing Ricky Cobb II, a Black man.

But this one is different.

Londregan, 27, will be tried under a new state statute, revised after George Floyd's killing, that sets a higher bar for when law enforcement is legally permitted to use lethal force.

The trial also will take place in a new legal environment. Londregan is the first officer charged by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, a former chief public defender who campaigned in the wake of Floyd's murder on a promise to hold law enforcement liable if they break the law.

In the early days of what's likely to be a lengthy pretrial process, the trooper's defense team is targeting Moriarty's politics. At Londegran's first court appearance last month, dozens of troopers gathered outside to protest against the charges. Assembling in the shadow of the courthouse, they waved signs reading: "Shame On You Moriarty."

The scene resembled other protests at the courthouse over the past eight years, when activists carried signs demanding a recall of then Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman. Except, in the past, protesters accused Freeman of being too reluctant to hold police to the same standard as normal citizens. Now the protesters were law enforcement agents, and their objection to Moriarty was the opposite.

"Together we understand the difficulties of the profession," said Mike LeDoux, president of the Minnesota State Patrol Troopers Association, who was among Londregan's supporters. "Now more than ever, officers are wondering if they will be supported in a use-of-force case. And I think that's what you're seeing here."

Training, new law

The case against Londregan focuses largely on a 10-second window during an early-morning traffic stop last July. Londregan arrived 20 minutes after two troopers had pulled Cobb over for driving without lights. Cobb was wanted for an alleged violation of a domestic order for protection, and the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office issued a 72-hour request to pick him up. The request, which is not a warrant but grants law enforcement probable cause to detain a person, was set to expire later that morning.

The troopers ordered Cobb out of the vehicle. Cobb shifted into drive, took his foot off the brake and let it roll forward. Londregan pulled his gun. "Get out of the car now," he shouted, as the other trooper grabbed at Cobb, whose foot again came off the brake. Cobb's car lurched forward and crashed a short distance down the road. He died on the scene.

From the passenger's side, Londregan fired two shots into Cobb's torso within "several tenths of a second" after shouting the word "now," according to charges.

Prosecutors say Londregan's actions did not follow the law, which stipulates a threat must meet a three-prong threshold to warrant deadly force: it can be articulated with "specificity;" it's "reasonably likely to occur" if the officer doesn't act; and it must be addressed through "deadly force without unreasonable delay." Trooper policy says that agents should not shoot at a moving car "except when deadly force is authorized," and troopers should avoid situations in which a vehicle can be used as a deadly weapon, according to the charging affidavit.

"Trooper Londregan did not follow his training," Moriarty said after announcing the murder, manslaughter and assault charges. "Ricky Cobb II should be alive today."

Training likely will be a critical factor as the case moves forward, said Josh Esmay, lawyer for Minneapolis-based Legal Rights Center. Officers generally are trained not to fire at moving cars, but these situations aren't always clear cut.

"How does that play out when you and your partner are half in and half out of a vehicle that just got put into drive and you have seconds to make a decision on whether to use force?" Esmay said. "I think that question is going to be at the heart of the case."

Rachel Moran, who teaches the new use-of-deadly-force statute to her law students at University of St. Thomas, said it might be difficult for Londregan to argue in court that shooting into the car would reasonably prevent death or bodily harm.

The other trooper acknowledged to prosecutors that shooting Cobb didn't prevent the car from dragging him, according to charges.

"It could have placed the other trooper in greater danger," Moran said.

Yet a conviction is far from guaranteed, said Paul Applebaum, a civil rights and criminal defense lawyer. Londregan's attorneys will present to the jury the "sliding calculus" that troopers face when assessing threats from strangers on the side of a dark road.

He predicted Londregan will testify at trial, and the case will come down to whether jurors empathize with his perspective of the stop.

"I'm telling you, this case is going to be won or lost on the composition of the jury," Applebaum said.

Officer charges more common

While still relatively rare, prosecutions against law enforcement agents for on-duty killings are becoming more common in Minnesota.

The first in the state's modern history occurred in 2016, when Ramsey County prosecutors charged St. Anthony Officer Jeronimo Yanez for shooting Philando Castile during a traffic stop. The charges said Castile had been "respectful and compliant" during the brief exchange, and that Yanez had no reason to fire into the car. A jury found Yanez not guilty in a trial in which the defense focused on the officer's perception of a threat during the stop.

Six officers have since been charged and found guilty for cases of deadly force, not including Londregan. Only one, Brooklyn Center officer Kim Potter, was tried under the new state statute. But the law wasn't a major factor in Potter's case, said Moran, as her defense claimed she accidentally fired her gun instead of a TASER. Many of those cases drew crowds of protesters to the streets — and occasionally outside prosecutors' homes — to demand they hold officers accountable.

Tapping into a larger debate over policing in America, Londregan attorney Chris Madel has called his client's prosecution emblematic of open season on law enforcement. Madel said his client is a hero for his actions during the stop — repeatedly emphasizing Cobb's criminal record in court filings and public statements — and "100% innocent."

"Given this environment, please consider: Why does Minneapolis have such a difficult time attracting and retaining police officers? More directly, who is going to be a police officer?" he said in an email response to a request for an interview, in which he decried at length what he called unfair Star Tribune coverage of the case. "Not me. I thank God every day that there are heroes like trooper Ryan protecting all of us from gun-toting, women-beating felons like Ricky Cobb."

LeDoux, a veteran trooper, called Cobb's death "tragic." He said no law enforcement agent wants to use deadly force, but they are asked to make quick decisions in difficult situations, and they expect the public to "protect the protectors" when a stop ends badly.

"If you get ejected from a motor vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed, you're probably guaranteed to suffer great bodily harm or death," he said.

Moriarty's office declined to be interviewed for this story. "We have not and will not try this case through the media and will continue doing the work necessary to prepare the case for trial," county attorney spokesman Nicholas Kimball said. "We are deeply committed to ensuring a fair process for everyone involved. At the scheduling conference Friday we will engage the court and defense in a discussion of our expectation that all parties do everything in their power to ensure a fair trial."

Rick Petry, a professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, rejected the claim that Moriarty's office is treating Londregan more harshly. Londregan was booked two weeks after charges and spent less than an hour in jail.

"Most people would just have to sit [in jail] until their day in court came," Petry said. "[Londregan] is getting special treatment, way different than the average person facing the same type of crime."