By Rich Larson, News Director
As legislative conference committees negotiate the details for the next state budget, Representative Todd Lippert made it clear that the DFL will still
be looking for new police reform measures when Governor Walz calls a special session next month.
Lippert said the shooting of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center last month gave the Democrats a renewed sense of urgency to continue the process of statewide legislative reform for law enforcement.
Specifically, he said one of the first measures democrats would like to see is the limiting of low-level traffic stops. Police would no longer be able to pull a car over for a broken taillight, expired license tabs, or having an air freshener hanging from a rearview mirror, which was the reason Daunte Wright was pulled over. These would still be violations that could be enforced in other ways, he said, but they would no longer be cause for stopping someone.
Other measures the democrats are proposing include allowing for community police oversight committees, having mental health calls go to mental health crisis teams rather than directly to the police, and providing for the dismissal of any member of law enforcement found to also be affiliated with a white supremacist group.
Republicans in in the legislature have opposed more law enforcement measures this year. State Senator Rich Draheim has said that the measures passed last summer have not yet had enough time to take effect.
Lippert’s response is that there is still plenty to do.
“We’re getting close to the anniversary of the murder of George Floyd. After that, we passed bi-partisan police reform legislation. Senator Draheim is correct. But we were clear that this is a first step; that there is a lot of work to do in this area. We know there is more to be done.”
The measures the DFL wants are agreeable and not extreme, he said. These things are simply common-sense ideas.
A special session of the legislature is expected to be called on June 14.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Representative Todd Lippert can be heard here
County Attorney’s office beginning to work through backlog
For the first time since early last year, an in-person trial is underway in Rice County, although the county has yet to see an actual jury trial.
When the governor ordered the state shutdown in March of last year, it brought jury trials throughout the state to a halt. This was then bolstered by an order last fall from Minnesota State Supreme Court Chief Justice Lori Gildea suspending jury trials until March 15 of this year, and that order was extended by the three Rice County district judges until May 1.
County attorney John Fossum said, as a result, the county now has a backlog of more than 250 potential jury trial cases to be scheduled and started. During the pandemic, the county built a new courtroom in the County Government Services building that would allow for all necessary members of a trial, including a full jury, to be present and socially distanced at the same time. However, that court room has yet to be used.
Fossum said the county could run about one jury trial a week. However, just having the ability to run a jury trial allows for the backlog to run down relatively quickly.
“The courtroom is ready. The lawyers are ready. The courts are ready. Everybody wants to get back to work to processing these cases. But the vast majority cases resolve without a jury trial. Setting the case for trial is incentive for resolution. It gives everybody a chance to think about their case and what they need to do with it.”
Last week a trial did go ahead without a jury, after the defendant waived their rights to a jury trial. Witness testimony was heard throughout last week. Fossum said the judge has directed that closing arguments be made in writing. A verdict in that trial is not expected until later in the summer.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with County Attorney John Fossum can be heard here
Alison Byerly named 12th president of Carleton College
And Carleton College has announced that Alison Byerly will become the next president of the school on August 1.
Byerly has served as the president of Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania for the past eight years. Before that Byerly, who has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania, was at Middlebury College in Vermont where she served first as a member of the faculty, then as provost and finally as executive vice-president.
Byerly is described by the school as “a renowned scholar of English and a fierce advocate for interdisciplinary education and the liberal arts.” In the introductory video posted to the Carleton website, Byerly said that, coming out of the pandemic, there is an opportunity to re-evaluate how liberal arts schools approach things.
“I think this is a natural opportunity to renew our sense of community. To think about where Carleton is going to head in the future. And to think about what we’ve learned about students, about the ways they learn, and about the ways in which we can support them best. I think this is a moment in time in which all of us are thinking about what liberal arts education offers, and how we can continue to establish the value of a liberal arts education.”
Byerly steps in for President Steve Poskanzer, who has served as Carleton President since 2010. Poskanzer will take a one-year sabbatical before returning to the school in 2022 to become a member of the political science faculty.
