A screengrab from a video obtained by Reuters exhibits a regulation enforcement officer spraying irritants at a person recognized as Alex Pretti, earlier than he was fatally shot when federal brokers have been attempting to detain him in Minneapolis, January 24, 2026.
Obtained by Reuters
Rising from the ashes in Minneapolis is a smoldering query: who, if anybody, will examine U.S. Homeland Safety personnel allegedly answerable for the taking pictures deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, together with different reported misconduct by federal immigration brokers working within the state?
Many critics argue that the U.S. Division of Justice has successfully disqualified itself. DOJ declined to pursue a civil rights investigation into Good’s loss of life, and Deputy Lawyer Normal Todd Blanche lately set conspicuously low expectations when he introduced a federal inquiry into Pretti’s killing, warning the general public to not anticipate “some massive civil rights investigation.”
Will state or native prosecutors step in? The Hennepin County Lawyer’s Workplace is comparatively small. The county lawyer, Mary Moriarty, has been in open battle with DOJ since final Could, when DOJ introduced it was investigating her coverage of lowering racial disparities in plea bargaining. A former profession public defender, Moriarty introduced final August that she is not going to search reelection. Freed from political issues now, she gave the impression to be the proper candidate to guide the investigation.
But so far, Moriarty’s response seems restricted. In response to press reviews, Moriarty has requested the general public to submit movies via a web based portal, however little else has adopted. Certainly, she was quoted in The New York Instances final week saying, “We can’t stop what the federal government is doing.”
That’s not fully true.
If immigration brokers dedicated crimes on Minnesota soil, they could be prosecuted beneath Minnesota regulation. The USA Supreme Court docket’s twin sovereignty doctrine permits state prosecutors to pursue their very own investigations and costs — even the place federal authorities decline to behave. And past peculiar murder statutes, Minnesota prosecutors possess a strong and largely unmentioned software: the Minnesota Racketeering and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Like its federal counterpart, Minnesota’s RICO statute was enacted to fight organized crime. However each state and federal RICO legal guidelines have outlived the mob wars of the Nineteen Seventies. RICO has been used to take down avenue gangs, corrupt public officers, and, most lately, by Georgia prosecutors in 2023, when Fulton County charged Donald Trump and 18 others beneath that state’s RICO statute in reference to efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Minnesota’s RICO statute permits prosecutors to deal with a collection of associated crimes, dedicated by people related to a standard enterprise, as a single coordinated felony operation. The regulation requires proof {that a} defendant: (1) was employed by or related to an enterprise; (2) deliberately carried out or participated within the enterprise’s affairs; and (3) did so via a sample of felony exercise.
If Homeland Safety brokers are employed by — or perform as — an enterprise, and in the event that they carried out their duties via a sample of felony acts, RICO can each punish each brokers on the road and people in command positions.
There’s a notable twist. Minnesota requires at the least three qualifying felony acts to determine a RICO sample — greater than federal regulation and most states, which require solely two. Prosecutors can’t merely pile on offenses. Not each crime qualifies. The statute narrowly defines “predicate acts,” together with homicide, housebreaking, and threats of illegal confinement.
Right here, the deaths of Good and Pretti may provide two such predicates. A 3rd is probably not far-fetched. On January 20, the Related Press reported that federal immigration brokers compelled their manner into the house of a U.S. citizen in Minnesota at gunpoint, detained him with out a warrant, and eliminated him from the premises. Might such warrantless residence entries represent housebreaking beneath Minnesota regulation — and thus a 3rd RICO predicate?
In that case, ICE brokers could possibly be handled as an “association in fact,” satisfying the enterprise requirement and opening the door to a sweeping state prosecution.
Historical past suggests why this issues. The Pizza Connection case and the prosecution of John Gotti marked the start of the top of the Mafia’s grip on New York. Within the Eighties, Queens Borough President Donald Manes and others have been prosecuted beneath RICO for utilizing a public entity — the New York Metropolis Parking Violations Bureau— to repair tickets and enrich insiders, bringing a corrupt political period to an in depth. RICO’s energy lies in its attain.
Minnesota’s statute carries a possible 20-year sentence. Correctly deployed, it’s an efficient software that may halt brutality and corruption and have a deterrent impact that can undoubtedly cross state strains.
None of this might be simple. Federal authorities, a few of whom could possibly be targets, management a lot of the proof. ICE brokers will resist subpoenas. Claims of immunity will likely be fiercely litigated. Any state indictment would virtually definitely set off elimination efforts to federal court docket, doubtlessly inserting the case earlier than judges appointed by the very administration whose insurance policies are beneath scrutiny.
Robust homicide instances are ugly. Individuals lie and witnesses may be intimidated, recant and even disappear. Prosecutors want to collect the out there proof and RICO could also be an possibility, and a cautious one. Critical consideration should be given to claims of justification that can undoubtedly be asserted by the “shooters” and different potential targets who must be given the chance to seem earlier than a grand jury beneath waivers of immunity.
RICO might show to be a “stretch” — and the kiss of loss of life for a prosecutor is over-indicting a case or bringing a cost that passes authorized muster however fails the jury’s “sniff” check. However the reality is RICO is a strong possibility that shouldn’t be discounted or ignored. It’s not usually employed in Minnesota however prosecutors shouldn’t go into battle with one arm tied behind their backs.
Douglas M. Nadjari, previously a prosecutor in the Brooklyn District Lawyer’s Murder and Main Fraud’s Bureaus, is a accomplice at Ruskin Moscou Faltischek P.C. the place he’s a member of the agency’s well being regulation, white collar crime and disaster administration departments. He serves as co-chair of the Skilled Self-discipline Committee of the New York State Bar Affiliation’s Well being Care Part and is an teacher on the Prison Legislation Bootcamp at Tulane Legislation College.
