Somalis are upset that the county attorney backed out of a meeting with them Friday about alleged anti-Somali Internet postings. Mike Freeman says they will meet next week.

Bartamaha (Minnesota):- Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman and Somali elders were at odds Friday over a postponed meeting to discuss reports of a prosecutor’s misconduct.
Freeman said he postponed the meeting Friday because he needed more information about an allegation that a prosecutor in his office made comments derogatory to Somalis on Facebook.
“The matter is still under review and I don’t have the information I need to talk to them,” Freeman said. He said he was angry the matter landed in the media because no evidence has been presented to back up the “bald-faced allegation.”
But Adirizak Bihi, an organizer, said the elders “feel betrayed and very angry about this.” Bihi said Freeman’s office contacted him early in the day to push the meeting to next Thursday.
The Somali elders want to discuss with Freeman a Somali defendant’s request for a new trial based on his contention that the prosecutor in his case posted a negative comment about Somalis on her Facebook page. Defense lawyer Robert Lengeling filed a motion with Hennepin County Judge Patricia Karasov this week seeking a hearing on prosecutorial and judicial misconduct. He represents Ahmed Ali, who was convicted of first-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault in an Aug. 14, 2008, shooting that left three people wounded at the Cedar Riverside Plaza in Minneapolis.
Lengeling’s motion said that assistant county attorney Gretchen Gray-Larson posted objectionable comments on Facebook during the trial.
“The posts concerned derogatory statements about people from Somalia, and that she felt comfortable with her case because of a juror who attended St. John’s University,” the motion said.
Lengeling has declined to be more specific about the comments, but he said he will provide evidence in court to back up the claims. “There will be more information to follow,” Lengeling said Friday. A hearing is scheduled March 11 on the motion for a new trial.
Freeman said Gray-Larson acknowledged posting about “having a Johnnie on the jury” and has since deleted the information on her page. “She doesn’t recall saying anything derogatory about Somalis,” he said.
Bihi said he understands that Gray-Larson talked about how she “took another Somali off the streets.” Bihi said Freeman has neither confirmed nor denied that posting.
Asked whether he specifically asked Gray-Larson whether she spoke of taking “another Somali off the streets,” Freeman said, “she doesn’t recall.”
He said, however, that it is “not the position of this office to be derogatory to any racial group.” If something was said, “we’re going to be full of apologies,” he said.
The meeting with Somali leaders will take place “in due course,” Freeman said. “I can’t respond to allegations without hard facts.”
Bihi said Freeman missed an opportunity to defuse a tense situation. “We have been educating our community to have faith in the system,” Bihi said, adding that Freeman has damaged a “fragile trust.”

Source: startribune.com

Comments

comments