MINNEAPOLIS — The Hennepin County Board approved a request from the Hennepin County Attorney to hire outside help for a controversial case.
A firm from Washington D.C. will take over the Ryan Londregan murder case with Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty maintaining oversight and final decision-making power.
All this comes after the lead prosecutor in the case, Josh Larson, asked to be removed from it, according to KARE 11 sources. The county board did not broach that topic but had some questions before granting Moriarty the authority to sign a contract with outside prosecutors.
Standing before the Hennepin County Board, Moriarty was asked why the prosecution of State Trooper Ryan Londregan for the shooting death of Ricky Cobb cannot be handled within her office.
"Although we are quite successful in recruiting staff to our office, there is one place where we are really struggling and that is with lawyers in our adult prosecution division," she said.
Moriarty says her office staffing is down 10 attorneys in her adult prosecution division and that this case would require pulling three of them from their regular duties.
"So we just don't have the resources right now to pull the experienced lawyers to handle what is a resource-intensive case," Moriarty said.
Moriarty will retain the services of four attorneys, former federal prosecutors, from the Washington D.C.-based firm Steptoe to prosecute the case, but she will retain final decision-making power.
The other reason Moriarty gave the county board is that the Londregan case is unique in the way it's being litigated -- something she didn't explain further.
"I am not sorry for defending an innocent man and I’m going to do everything within the bounds of ethics and the law to defend an innocent man," said Londregan's attorney Chris Madel, who attended the board meeting. "They can hire a hundred DC lawyers. They can hire a thousand DC lawyers. The result is going to be the same."
With only one nay vote, the county board granted Moriarty the authority to enter a contract with the out-of-state prosecutors.
Moriarty promised them financial responsibility and that it won't negatively affect the office.
"We have not made decisions for political reasons. Ever. There are certainly people who disagree with our decisions but we have never made a decision in the office for political reasons," Moriarty said.
The Hennepin County Attorney's Office has not revealed the amount of money they are paying the outside attorneys, but that amount must come from within Moriarty's annual budget.
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