How did the Metro Gang Strike Force lose its way? Lawmakers hope to find answers
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Were bad cops to blame? Or was its concept flawed? Lawmakers hope to find out
By David Hanners
dhanners@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 08/26/2009 01:21:14 AM CDT
When a state report said members of the Metro Gang Strike Force seized money and property from people never accused of a crime — and then took the property for personal use — it struck a familiar chord with law professor Joseph Daly.
It is a chord 233 years old.
"One of the reasons we fought a bloody war against Britain was we didn't like these soldiers stopping people on the street willy-nilly," said Daly, who teaches at Hamline University's School of Law. "We went to armed revolution against the strongest nation in the world in order to have these protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. They're not technicalities. They're real.
"It's the idea of not allowing the police to be cops and/or robbers," he said. "They have to be cops. They can't become robbers."
Indeed, the ability to seize a person's private property is among the most awesome powers a government can wield. The authors of the Constitution cemented that notion in the Bill of Rights, decreeing in the Fourth Amendment that our right against unreasonable search and seizure "shall not be violated."
This afternoon, a joint legislative panel will convene at the Capitol to review a pair of reports that say some officers of the now-defunct Metro Gang Strike Force committed behavior that was "shocking" and listed a litany of abuses.
It also listed some valuable property that it appeared task force officers took from people in cases that resulted in no criminal charges, and it said that some of the officers took the property home for personal use or sold it to friends and relatives.
"The panel was struck by the number of large-screen and flat-screen televisions, along with electronics and computer equipment, that officers seized in case after case," said the report, written by former federal prosecutor Andrew Luger and retired FBI agent John Egelhof.
SURVIVAL THROUGH SEIZURES
One issue legislators must wrestle with is fundamental: Was the gang task force a good idea badly executed by dishonest cops and supervisors who looked the other way, or was the whole concept — including the state's administrative forfeiture law — fatally flawed?
"One of the reasons we're having the hearing ... is to start that discussion," said Rep. Michael Paymar, DFL-St. Paul, chairman of the House's Public Safety Finance Division. "It's clear to me that this whole operation, for years, has lost its mission and was completely off course.
"If we're going to ever do this again, even if it is a different model, we're going to make sure our statutes are tight and whatever multi-jurisdictional model we create, we make sure it has the proper oversight."
Lawmakers will study the issues as the FBI investigates the task force's activities. When he spoke to reporters last week, Luger, a former assistant U.S. attorney, called the behavior of some officers "criminal."
"It's going to be for the FBI and the United States attorney's office to determine, but if you take something home that doesn't belong to you and you know it doesn't belong to you, that's a crime."
Ron Ryan, who commanded the Metro Gang Strike Force for much of its life until he retired late last year, declined to comment.
"When it's done, I promise you I will talk to you, but not now," he said without elaborating.
The Luger report said the review panel was struck by the contrast between "the hard and thorough work of some strike force officers on gang-related cases and the unfocused, and sometimes unethical and highly questionable conduct of others engaged in ... stops and searches unrelated to gang activity."
The report sticks part of the blame with the way the strike force was funded. The unit's predecessor, the Minnesota Gang Strike Force, operated for many years with state and local funding. But in a 2003 budget-cutting move, the Legislature slashed the unit's funding.
By the time lawmakers re-created the elite unit as the Metro Gang Strike Force in 2005, it had become largely self-funding, through seizures and forfeitures. The more money and property the cops from the unit's member agencies seized, the more fiscally sound the unit was.
Not only did it put the profit motive in police work, the cops came to look at seizures as the key to the unit's survival, the Luger report said.
HOW FORFEITURE WORKS AND IS ABUSED
It isn't unusual for police to seize property and seek forfeiture of items taken when they arrest people for crimes. But the strike force members were also using a state statute whose origins date to the late 1980s war on drugs, a civil statute that goes by the unwieldy title, "Administrative Forfeiture of Certain Property Seized in Connection with a Controlled Substances Seizure."
In simple terms, cops could seize all money, guns, cars, precious metals and precious stones found in proximity to drugs, drug manufacturing or distribution operations. And the property can be seized without drug- or gang-related charges filed against the owner.
Because it is a civil statute, it turns the concept of presumption of innocence on end. Instead of prosecutors having to prove that you came by the property through some illegal activity — for example, you bought it with proceeds from a drug business — you must prove that you acquired the property through legal means.
The law also has provisions dealing with the seized property. First, the property owner must be notified that he has a right to try to get the property back through "judicial determination." If the owner doesn't file a claim within 60 days of the seizure, the property is considered unclaimed and is forfeited.
Seventy percent of the proceeds from the sale of the forfeited property are to go to the agency that seized it, 20 percent goes to the county attorney who handled the forfeiture and the rest goes to the state's general fund.
"In many cases involving unclaimed evidence, it does not appear that Strike Force officers provided the owner with notification of their right to contest the seizure and forfeiture," the Luger report noted. "It is therefore not surprising that much property went unclaimed. ..."
The abuses come as no surprise to Brenda Grantland, a Mill Valley, Calif., attorney who heads the Forfeiture Endangers American Rights (FEAR) Foundation.
"That's asking for trouble when you have that semi-autonomous, self-funding task force," she said. "This happens so often. The self-funding task force is kind of a scary thing, because who do they answer to? If they don't answer to anybody and they're allowed to fund themselves, they don't have to justify their existence by having the Legislature see if they're doing a good job."
'TOP TO BOTTOM' REVIEW PROMISED
Grantland's group has lobbied successfully for some changes to the federal civil forfeiture laws, but she said it has been harder to get states to change their laws to guard against abuse. And she claimed the abuse is built into the system.
"The way the procedures are set up, it's very hard to fight the government," she said. "If the seizure renders you indigent or the amount seized is too small to justify the cost of litigation, you lose. You can't hire an attorney to get back a $5,000 car that's depreciating in value all the time it is sitting in an impound lot. It's just not cost-effective. They get them by default because people can't afford to effectively fight them."
"I really think we will take a look at the whole forfeiture law from top to bottom," said Rep. Debra Hilstrom, DFL-Brooklyn Center, who chairs the House's Public Safety and Oversight Committee and will chair the joint legislative hearing. "This is the beginning of the discussion."
Others believe the law is an effective tool in the war against drugs, and gangs are often involved in drugs. Their concern: a law enforcement agency that seizes property needs strict supervision, strong inventorying procedures and faultless accounting of all the property that is taken.
The Luger report faulted the Metro Gang Strike Force in all those areas, saying "there is no excuse for the cavalier attitude displayed by some in the Strike Force with respect to the execution of search warrants and the treatment of seized evidence."
The amount of training officers get is in question. For example, the Minneapolis Police Department — which contributed the largest contingent of officers to the metro strike force — doesn't include formal training on seizure and forfeiture law for its officers, said department spokesman Sgt. Jesse Garcia III.
"We don't go over any of that," he said. "It would be like teaching how to fly a jet when nobody gets a chance to fly a jet. It's something that's pretty specific that even a lot of the investigators don't do offhand."
He said that if some officers are trained on those issues, it is "more of on-the-job training."
KEEPING COPS HONEST
Close supervision is key, said Christian Dobratz, an assistant professor who teaches in the law enforcement program at Minnesota State University-Mankato. Before going into academia, Dobratz was a cop for 18 years, seven of those as a supervisor, and he also served on a multi-jurisdictional drug task force.
"We had a policy and procedure manual in the task force, but each officer had one from their home agency as well," he said. "That is something that has to be set up when these task forces are put together."
Mark Erickson, a captain with the Olmsted County sheriff's office who heads the Southeast Minnesota Narcotic Gang Task Force, said his unit follows such things as seizures and requests for drug-buy money through a sophisticated computer program. The system ensures that the officer's actions are monitored by his direct supervisor at his "home" agency, as well as at the task force.
Daly, who has taught criminal law at Hamline, has worked both as an assistant Hennepin County attorney and as a defense lawyer. He said that in combating gangs, police sometimes take an attitude that anything goes.
"I can understand in some ways that attitude because of the kinds of things that these gangs do," he said. "They are violent. They get in gunfights and bullets go through buildings and kill little girls sitting at a table studying. They bring fear and destruction to a community. I can understand that the police are looking at themselves as first-line warriors against these gangs.
"But the police are not military," he said. "It's what separates a society based on the rule of law instead of just simple power based on might and strength and guns."
David Hanners can be reached at 612-338-6516.
St. Paul police chief asks FBI
whether officers implicated
St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington asked the FBI on Tuesday whether any St. Paul officers are part of the criminal inquiry into the Metro Gang Strike Force.
The inquiry came in a letter to the special agent in charge of the agency's Minneapolis office.
Sgt. Paul Schnell, St. Paul police spokesman, said Harrington is concerned about maintaining the department's integrity.
The six officers who had been assigned to the now-defunct task force have returned to work in St. Paul, and the chief thinks it's "important to know who is the focus and what the allegations include so he can make decisions about personnel," Schnell said.
— Mara H. Gottfried
Metro Gang Strike Force hearing: Plenty of blame, but no answers
Lawmakers grope for facts, investigators say full story of downfall yet to be told
By Mara H. Gottfried
mgottfried@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 08/27/2009 09:14:23 AM CDT
Fingers were pointed and blame widely assigned for the demise of the Metro Gang Strike Force at a lengthy legislative hearing Wednesday.
The hearing in a packed room with nearly 30 legislators left many unanswered questions, including why apparent misconduct occurred at the task force and what should happen next.
"The story of the Metro Gang Strike Force, or at least the story of its decline and fall, is going to come to you in several chapters," said Legislative Auditor James Nobles.
The audit from his office, released in May and criticizing the now-defunct strike force for being unable to account for more than $18,000 in seized cash and 14 seized cars, was the first chapter.
The second chapter was last week's release of an independent review that found perhaps 10 to 12 strike force employees engaged in misconduct and some in criminal acts by taking seized goods home for their own use and seizing cash from people never linked to criminal activity.
The FBI, which is conducting its own investigation, and the U.S. attorney's office could write the third chapter, Nobles said. The Legislature will write the final chapter, he said.
Legislators tried to make sense Wednesday of the strike force's forfeiture practices.
Sen. Julianne Ortman, R-Chanhassen, said she didn't buy the notion that when the Legislature cut a large chunk of state funding in 2003, some strike force members felt they had to become the "money police" to fund the task force's operations.
At the joint meeting of four legislative committees, Rep. Michael Paymar, DFL-St. Paul, asked whether the strike force's forfeitures declined when its state funding was restored in 2006.
Actually, forfeitures went up when state funding increased, said former federal prosecutor Andy Luger, who conducted the independent review with retired FBI agent John Egelhof.
"I think you're trying to make sense of a situation that doesn't make sense," Nobles told lawmakers of their efforts to understand the strike force's inner workings.
Luger elaborated on the "Depression-era mentality" referred to in his report: It seemed no matter how much money was in the bank, some worried about what would happen tomorrow. The "money police" mentality took hold and wasn't influenced by reality, Luger said.
The Luger-Egelhof report found that if some gang unit officers stopped someone with a lot of money, they "typically" seized it, and "these encounters almost always involved a person of color."
Sen. Mee Moua, DFL-St. Paul, said some people would like to say those instances were an anomaly, but she said she and others in minority communities know it's not isolated "but represents perhaps more of the norm."
When the Minnesota Gang Strike Force started in 1997, there were regular meetings with communities of color, said Public Safety Commissioner Michael Campion. He said he doesn't know why they stopped. He said he agreed with Moua that more discussion was needed when she raised concerns about racial profiling.
In 202 of 545 seizures of cash, there was no documentation that the strike force served required notices of seizure to the owners, the legislative auditor's report found. Rep. Larry Haws, DFL-St. Cloud, asked why there wasn't a pile of complaints from the people affected.
Luger said there were only a handful of complaints because the people who had money taken from them, including illegal immigrants, "most likely have a concern about challenging law enforcement."
Haws said if something similar happened in his district, there would be a lot of complaints.
"Can you imagine this happening in Edina?" he asked.
"This didn't happen in Edina," Luger answered.
A federal lawsuit against the strike force said a "targeted, deliberate place (for officers) to conduct their thefts was the Minneapolis impound lot. ... MGSF officers would often call the impound lot and ask if there were any 'Mexicans' there attempting to pick up vehicles."
Ortman asked whether one of the legislative auditor's findings — that the strike force wasn't reporting forfeitures to the state auditor as required by law — should have been a signal of something amiss. Nobles said it should have been a warning, though other things should have been also, he said.
The legislative auditor's report also said the gang unit lacked oversight.
Paymar asked whether the strike force's advisory board asked questions of the longtime commander, Ron Ryan, and other supervisors and whether red flags were ever raised for them.
"There was a reluctance on the part of board members to confront Commander Ryan," Nobles said and described the problems as long-standing and persistent. Luger added that a couple of board members believed they were misled.
Nobles said he didn't want to start pointing fingers at individuals, but "Commander Ryan reacted very negatively to any sort of oversight or criticism from anyone, and he did receive some support from some advisory board members."
Ryan was a Ramsey County sheriff's deputy when he retired in October. The sheriff's office was the strike force's fiscal agent for nearly all of its existence.
Paymar asked whether the sheriff's office should have had accountability for the funds, adding, "This is problematic."
The sheriff's office didn't provide much oversight, Nobles said. It provided a bank account and if Ryan came in with money to deposit, they put it in the account, Nobles said. If he didn't, they didn't question it, Nobles said.
Holli Drinkwine, sheriff's office spokeswoman, responded: "It was never the role of the fiscal agent to monitor funds and property in the custody of the gang strike force. That was the job of statewide coordinator Bob Bushman."
Bushman, statewide coordinator of gang and drug task forces, said at the hearing that he was responsible for reviewing operations but was not charged with financial audits. Andy Skoogman, Department of Public Safety spokesman, said state law makes clear that Bushman had no fiscal responsibility for the strike force.
Campion said it was a Ramsey County sheriff's office employee who made a call to DPS in October that started the events that led to inquiries. She was concerned about a large sum — more than $300,000 — brought to her from the strike force to deposit and did the right thing by calling, he said.
The Luger-Egelhof report recommends legislators review the state's forfeiture laws. Rep. John Lesch, DFLSt. Paul, said it would take a substantial amount of time between now and the start of the legislative session in February to work through the forfeiture law and said it would be important that a working group be convened.
Rep. Paul Kohls, R-Victoria, asked how Luger recommended the state move forward to fight criminal enterprise that extends beyond a city's boundaries. Luger said the models include having a central body, such as the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, coordinating information on gang-related crime and prosecutions, and forming a multi-jurisdictional task force, similar to the strike force, but housing it at a police agency.
Mara H. Gottfried can be reached at 651-228-5262.
When that Thin Blue Line wears through, we are all in big trouble
By Rubén Rosario
Updated: 08/27/2009
Dagoberto Rodriguez-Cardona has some freaking nerve, asking for his money back.
He's a 29-year-old illegal immigrant from Progresso de Oro, Honduras, who faces deportation.
Yet, he sued and still wants back the $4,500 he says members of the now-defunct Metro Gang Strike Force took from him at the Minneapolis impound lot more than a year ago.
Really? Is this guy bonkers? Who does he think he is? He has no rights. He and his ilk are responsible for virtually every ill that has befallen our great nation, doncha know — from spiraling health care costs to unemployment to crime to swine flu to the "browning" of America. Too bad they didn't work with Bernie Madoff on Wall Street, or we would have pinned the financial scandal on them, too.
"You are like cucarachas invading our country," a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent allegedly told Rodriguez-Cardona during the July 31, 2008, incident.
I'm sure there are folks right now vigorously nodding their heads in agreement.
Yet, what happened to him and six others that midsummer night is shaping up to be the biggest police corruption scandal in the Twin Cities in recent memory.
The litany of woes surrounding the gang unit — ranging from lax supervision and sloppy paperwork to allegations of police misconduct and criminal activity — has dominated the news in recent weeks.
A hearing was held Wednesday at the state Capitol on a state-commissioned report outlining alleged crimes that are now the focus of an FBI probe.
The Rodriguez-Cardona case epitomizes the multitude of miscues that led to the demise of a once highly regarded law enforcement strategy.
"The facts of this case are deeply troubling," wrote the report's investigators, former federal prosecutor Andrew Luger and retired 28-year FBI veteran John Egelhof.
Rodriguez-Cardona showed up at the impound lot to get his girlfriend's car after a routine parking infraction.
He earlier had cashed a check for $4,500 in connection with a residential painting/remodeling project. Three co-workers, all in paint-stained clothes, went with him.
At the lot, a family of strangers, also Latino, approached them about joining a local church.
"We did not want to be rude," Rodriguez-Cardona said this week. "They were talking to us about the Lord for about five minutes when they showed up." He was referring to five plainclothes members of the gang strike force.
Luger's report notes that impound-lot employees were instructed to tip off strike force members when "Mexicans" showed up to reclaim cars.
Members of both families, without any probable cause, it seems, were searched and questioned. One officer went through Rodriguez-Cardona's pockets and pulled out more than $4,000 in cash.
"Oh, money," the cop said.
Rodriguez-Cardona protested that the cash was payment for legitimate work and that he could prove it with receipts.
The police laughed.
A Minneapolis police K-9 squad car showed up minutes later. Cops and dog searched not only the girlfriend's car but also the car Rodriguez-Cardona borrowed to get to the lot. No drugs were found.
None of those bagged that night had gang ties. Rodriguez-Cardona had no arrests, not even a parking ticket. Other than an acknowledgment that a little more than $4,000 was seized, Luger's report found minimal information on the encounter in strike force records. No crime was alleged or prosecuted against those arrested and held in custody that night.
Yet, police contacted federal immigration officials in violation of a Minneapolis ordinance that prohibits officers from doing so unless a crime has been committed.
In their report, Luger and Egelhof suggest this was an improper search and seizure in violation of the Constitution.
If true, this is the stuff our Founding Fathers went to war against.
Rodriguez-Cardona's common-law wife posted the $8,000 bail — much of it collected from family and friends — to allow the father of the couple's now 9-month-old child, Derrick Alberto, to get out of jail pending deportation.
But he would not stay quiet.
"My client has shown incredible, raw courage in coming forward about this," said attorney Phil Fishman, who said his office has received a flood of calls from other alleged victims of gang unit rip-offs.
Rodriguez-Cardona fears he will be harmed or even killed.
The FBI has yet to show him pictures of strike force members, particularly ones he might be able to identify.
That may be strange, unless ex-strike force members have rolled on colleagues.
Fishman said he hopes his client's cooperation will lead to a waiver of his deportation on grounds he is a potential government witness as well as an alleged crime victim. That remains to be seen.
But the one thing lacking in Wednesday's legislative hearing was testimony of someone like Rodriguez-Cardona. He would have driven home the human experience of someone placed in handcuffs in front of a sobbing relative and stripped of money earned by the sweat of his brow. Throw in the fact that his alleged muggers were officers of the law.
Rodriguez-Cardona's situation touched indirectly on the spirit of the emotionally charged Mass on Wednesday morning at Sacred Heart Catholic Church on St. Paul's East Side, just six hours before the Capitol hearing.
The service was to commemorate the fatal shootings of St. Paul police officers Ron Ryan Jr. and Tim Jones — hours apart on Aug. 26, 1994 — by a deranged drifter, who is serving a life sentence. Ryan was killed in the church's parking lot.
The church's pastor, Eugene Michel, said the Mass drew more than 100 people, many of them uniformed St. Paul cops.
"We must always remember the sacrifices of the majority of officers who put their lives on the line each day for us," Michel told me. He noted his parishioners are mostly South American immigrants not unlike Rodriguez-Cardona or those corralled that night last year.
"There is never a good reason for a police officer to cross that line, because it's really hard to go back," said Michel, who provided a brief account of how the church welcomed mostly German-speaking immigrants more than a century ago, regardless of status.
He noted that the Mass has been held each year since the 1994 killing at the request of Ryan's father, Ron Ryan, the longtime strike force commander until he retired in October.
Despite his experience with officers under Ryan's command, Rodriguez-Cardona retains great respect for American law enforcement.
"Most of them I know are good," he told me. "Back home in Honduras, they shake you down sometimes for no reason.
"They're corrupt. But I never thought that this would happen here. But I earned that money. I don't do drugs. I'm not in a gang. It's not right."
Rubén Rosario can be reached at 651-228-5454.
The article stated: "He earlier had cashed a check for $4,500 in connection with a residential painting/remodeling project. Three co-workers, all in paint-stained clothes, went with him."
My response: This should be easy to prove as banks keep an electronic copy of the checks that pass through banks. I just had to get a copy yesterday myself.
The article said: "At the lot, a family of strangers, also Latino, approached them about joining a local church."
My response: Sure they wanted this guy to join their church. I have heard many excuses in my day and this one takes the cake.
The article stated: "Yet, police contacted federal immigration officials in violation of a Minneapolis ordinance that prohibits officers from doing so unless a crime has been committed."
I just had a briefing with ICE and I asked this question. The cops in Minneapolis and St. Paul call ICE all the time. As a law enforcement officer it is his or her DUTY to turn in anyone who is not supposed to be in this country legally. In fact it is un-American not to do so. These illegals cost the hardworking Americans lots of money each year and take away jobs from Americans who need them to feed their family. If they want to come to this country there are legal means. I have several family members who went through the process and are here legally.
I listened to the MGSTF hearings yesterday and laughed to myself the whole time.
What did they expect? You cannot ever let cops operate without very close scruitiny or you're going to have just what we got.
When will people realize that 70% of cops are half a Crip the day they enter the academy.....don't believe me?
Check this. Not every strike force gangster actively participated in the strongarm robberies that were described yesterday, but every single stinking one of them knew it was hapening, and not one of them did anything, or said anything.
How can you watch a fellow cop enter someones house, handcuff everyone on the couch and proceed to load up his car with their property and not say a fricking thing?
Further, they have all continued with, and built upon their culpability; since the plug was pulled not one gangster has stepped up to tell the truth.
And it's gone beyond simply not voluntering to snitch, they've all refused to talk when asked to do so directly.
They're frickin' cowardly thugs, liars and crooks, one and all.
The only good thing about this case, is that the fed's are involved.
And it came to light yesterday that some of those scumbags were digging around in the federal crime database....the fed's don't like it when some local flat foot screws around with their data.
Two weeks ago, if you'd have asked me I'd have suggested that none of those criminals would be prosecuted, much less ever see the inside of a jail cell.
Today, I'm seriously wondering if RICO statues won't be invoked...in fact, yesterday Senator Limmer brought that possibility up during the hearing.
I am also convinced that Bob Fletcher's head is going to roll; all roads lead to the Ramsey County Sheriff's office.
If there's anything I love more than watching liberals fail as completely as the current crop is, it is watching coppers do the perp walk!
I should say watch crooked coppers doing the perp walk.
Not every cop is a crook, just most. The honest ones need to be respected, and I give them mine.
I'm sorry hiding behind the computer guy, but your message was so poorly spelled I couldn't understand it.
Why not stop wanking your brother until you finish tapping out your little thoughts?
5:41 PM
I've been called a lot of things, but I've never been so insulted. I didn't insult your mother, why you got to go and get down and dirty?
I'm an engineer, my work makes a positive contribution to the country.
I'm afriad Swiftee hit the nail on the head. The good ones cover for the bad ones and that's a huge problem because people don't know who they can trust.
Minneapolis officer quits amid federal probe of Metro Gang Strike Force
He is suspected of stalking ex-lover; second officer's name emerges
By Rubén Rosario and Mara H. Gottfried
Pioneer Press
Updated: 08/28/2009 11:54:57 PM CDT
A former Metro Gang Strike Force supervisor has resigned from the Minneapolis Police Department amid reports he is a key target of an FBI investigation.
Randall Levi Olson reportedly is being investigated for allegedly using strike force equipment to stalk a former girlfriend.
Olson, 43, previously was the subject of a Minneapolis police internal affairs investigation involving the woman, who said he fathered her child.
Olson's name emerged during the FBI probe into allegations of misconduct and possible criminal acts by members of the now-defunct metro gang unit, according to law enforcement sources.
According to law enforcement sources, Minneapolis police Lt. Jim Heimerl, the strike force's former assistant commander, also is under federal and internal police investigation.
Heimerl, who served as the unit's interim commander for several months after its lead-er retired in October, allegedly improperly sold furniture seized by the unit to his daughter, the sources said.
Olson was one of two Minneapolis police sergeant supervisors assigned to the task force. Their roles were to coordinate, supervise and, on occasion, help lead gang suppression and interdiction probes.
Some Minneapolis officers whom Olson supervised also are under FBI investigation, according to law enforcement sources.
Olson's resignation Thursday could be a strategic move as the FBI steps up its investigation. Minneapolis police can no longer force him to testify in an internal probe about anything related to the department or his actions.
But that doesn't protect him from a federal investigation.
The gang strike force was disbanded after the Minnesota legislative auditor's office reviewed the multi-jurisdictional unit and criticized it in May for failing to account for more than $18,000 in seized cash and 14 confiscated cars.
Officers reportedly shredded documents in the strike force's New Brighton office hours after the report was released. The FBI soon began its investigation.
An independent review of the unit by a former federal prosecutor and a retired FBI agent was released Aug. 20. It found that perhaps 10 to 12 strike force employees engaged in misconduct and some in criminal acts by taking seized goods home for their own use and seizing cash from people never linked to criminal activity.
The review noted potential abuse of the highly regulated National Criminal Information Center database. "The panel heard from a number of witnesses who alleged that the NCIC system was accessed by strike force employees for non-governmental purposes," the report said. "If true, this is a direct violation of the terms of use of the NCIC database."
Olson is under investigation for improperly using the database in connection with the harassment case, law enforcement sources say.
Olson did not return a call seeking comment, and his attorney couldn't be reached.
Heimerl also could not be located for comment.
Article continued:
On Jan. 20, 10 days before Sarah Jean Mann's baby was born, she applied for a harassment restraining order against Olson.
Mann, 34, is a part-time Minneapolis Park Police agent. In the petition and affidavit for the restraining order, she wrote that Olson "is the father of my unborn child."
Olson "followed, pursued or stalked" Mann through "means of GPS tracking system by cell phone signal (thru work), for months of Nov., Dec. 2008," Mann wrote in the affidavit. She also suspected him of placing bugs or tracking devices in her home and car.
Olson was assigned to the gang strike force in February 2008 and worked there until Minneapolis police transferred him out of the task force last April, according to his personnel file.
Mann wrote that Olson subpoenaed her "phone records gaining my personal phone numbers" around Jan. 14.
On Jan. 18, Mann wrote in the affidavit that Olson, who is married, sent her a text message: "Not a threat at all. Just a promise that if you come w/in 10 miles of my family, I will get a restraining order." Also that day, Olson threatened to "bring the rath (sic) of God upon me," she wrote in the affidavit.
Olson told Mann on Jan. 18 that he knew several judges and attorneys "and that he can not be touched," she wrote in the affidavit. She wrote he claimed "entrapment and extortion because I did not have abortion."
Olson and Mann signed a mutual restraining order Feb. 10, court records show. "Both parties agree to no findings but ... there will be no contact between either," the harassment court mediated settlement agreement said. The order is in effect for one year.
Mann declined to comment Friday. Olson's wife, 46, filed for divorce March 23, according to court records.
Minneapolis police spokes-man Sgt. Jesse Garcia ack-nowledged police had opened an internal affairs investigation into Olson, but said he couldn't discuss details.
On Aug. 17, Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan put Olson on paid leave "pending a decision on your employment status." Olson's resignation ended the internal affairs investigation, Garcia said. Olson's discipline record with the department wasn't available Friday. He has several commendations in his file.
Heimerl, whose name also has surfaced in the federal probe, joined the Minneapolis department in 1970, according to his personnel record. He was assigned to the gang unit in December 2006 and stayed there until it was shut.
He has a number of commendations in his file, including a July 2008 letter from St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington, commending him for helping St. Paul in 2006 with "an increase in shootings, aggravated assaults and the recovery of guns and bulletproof vests from gang members," the letter said.
Heimerl donated "hundreds of hours on his own time" for the Special Olympics Law Enforcement Torch Run, according to a recommendation for a department award.
The independent review released Aug. 20 didn't identify strike force employees suspected of wrongdoing.
Harrington said he will meet next week with former federal prosecutor Andy Luger, who co-chaired the review panel, and expects Luger will provide the names of the officers implicated.
The Minneapolis Police Department's head of internal affairs also will meet with Luger next week to learn the names, according to Minneapolis police.
Staff writer Maricella Miranda contributed to this report.
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