MINNEAPOLIS — The omnibus hearing for former Minneapolis police officer Justin Stetson was over quickly Thursday, lasting about 10 minutes.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's office charged Stetson in December with one count of third-degree assault for his alleged use of force against Jaleel Stallings in the social unrest of 2020. Stetson faces a maximum of five years in prison if convicted.
In Thursday's hearing, District Court Judge Shereen Askalani laid out a new timeline, giving attorneys from both sides about a month to get documents together, and ordering the former officer to remain law-abiding before the next omnibus hearing in May.
But the ex-officer's lawyer, Fred Bruno, is asking the case be dismissed on a technicality, claiming a grand jury needs to bring charges in cases involving officer corruption — even though police have been charged without a grand jury in many other cases.
Judge Askalani will use most of April to consider motions filed before calling everyone back to court on May 10.
Following Thursday's hearing, community groups held a press conference and said they're watching to see what happens next.
"We want to see some measure of justice happen," said Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality.
According to court documents, Stallings walked toward police officers, including Stetson, who were out enforcing curfew in an unmarked van on May 30, 2020. Officers began firing non-lethal rounds at Stallings, prompting him to pull a registered weapon — that he was permitted to carry — and return fire.
Surveillance video shows Stallings falling to the pavement, dropping his firearm and lying face down immediately after he realizes the men in the van are police officers, documents say.
Still, an officer is seen running at Stallings before kicking him in the head.
"Mr. Stetson does need to have consequences for his conduct, but we also believe that all of the other officers involved must have a consequence for their conduct," Gross said.
A jury acquitted Stallings of attempted murder in 2021, agreeing that he "acted in self-defense" that night in 2020.
Stallings went on to win a $1.5 million settlement from the city in a civil lawsuit, which named multiple officers who participated in beating Stallings or targeting civilians with rubber bullets on Lake Street. But nearly three years after the beating, none of the officers have been disciplined by the Minneapolis Police Department.
That includes Justin Stetson, who the city confirms remained employed by MPD until August of 2022 — more than two years after the Stallings beating.
It also includes Sgt. Andrew Bittell, the unit leader whose body camera video shows him telling his officers to drive down Lake Street and shoot the first people they saw with 40-millimeter rubber bullets.
Bittell later told superiors that Stallings had resisted arrest, but that claim was debunked with the officer's body camera footage. He left MPD in August of 2022.
Others caught on camera talking about hunting protesters left the force before any discipline was handed out.
After this beating came to light during Stallings' trial — and media coverage — Mayor Jacob Frey called the officers' conduct "galling." And when asked about the officers' lack of discipline years later, Frey's office released this statement:
“The Minnesota Government Data Practices Act only allows local governments to release certain personnel data. Increasing transparency into that process would require a change to state law. At the City level, the mayor and city council have already begun overhauling a new community police oversight body.”
Stetson is now on conditional, supervised release until his next hearing in May. He's also ordered not to contact Stallings, not to seek employment as a police officer, and not to possess a gun.
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