2022 News Archives

Minor offenses often funnel Minnesota youth from extended probation into adult lockup. Each year, Minnesota sends scores of young people like Morgan to prison for conduct that normally would not warrant such punishment. Many committed offenses when they were as young as 14 and 15 years old. (Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN, December 18, 2022).

Judge convicts man of murder for running over Mounds View woman, 82, as she did yard work. A judge convicted a 63-year-old man of murder for speeding through a no-passing zone on a Mounds View street while high on fentanyl and running over a woman doing yard work in front of her home.  (Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN, August 30, 2022).

Consistency key for kids, and diversion programs. A recent Star Tribune investigation tells the story of two then-16-year-old cousins — Arriell and Debra — who stole a car in April 2021. Arriell was given the chance to participate in diversion programs and counseling and turned her life around. (Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN, August 28, 2022).

Ramsey County Attorney’s Office rolls out online data system. The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office is launching a public data website aimed at increasing public awareness and engagement, it announced Thursday. (Minnesota Lawyer, Minneapolis, MN, July 26, 2022).

New Ramsey County dashboard details who gets prosecuted for what crimes.  Ramsey County Attorney John Choi unveiled an online database Thursday that’s designed to help residents better understand who is prosecuted for alleged crimes. (Pioneer Press, Saint Paul, MN, July 22, 2022).

Ramsey County reminds community about free gun lock program. With kids spending more time at home while on summer break and continued concerns about community gun violence, Ramsey County officials announced Wednesday that they’re re-energizing a free gun lock program. Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said he wants to see tragedies averted before they reach the point of being cases charged by his office. The Ramsey County attorney’s office has been funding gun locks that are available to community members since 2016. (Pioneer Press, St. Paul, MN, June 15, 2022)

Ramsey Co. highlights gun safety measures, provides new supply of gun locks. Ramsey County County attorney John Choi, board chair Trista MatasCastillo and public health director Sara Hollie highlighted violence prevention efforts, including a 2016 initiative to provide free gun locks with no questions asked. Immediately after the press conference, county officials began to deliver a new supply of 1,000 locks to 12 distribution sites. (KARE 11, Minneapolis, MN, June 15, 2022)

Former Ramsey County attorney says setting bail isn’t always as simple as it seems. A decision by a Ramsey County judge to vastly reduce the bail for a man charged with shooting at police sparked outrage among law enforcement leaders. Susan Gaertner, who served as Ramsey County Attorney for 16 years, said setting bail amounts is an involved process in which judges are not supposed to use the bail amount as a punitive measure. (KSTP-TV, St. Paul, MN, June 13, 2022)

AG Ellison, county attorneys urge lawmakers to approve funds for enhanced criminal prosecution. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi, and Anoka County Attorney Tony Palumbo are behind the request for more funding for additional prosecutors and staff to provide county attorneys with increased prosecution. They say the Minnesota County Attorneys Association and county attorneys around Minnesota have endorsed their request. (KSTP-TV, St. Paul, MN, May 5, 2022)

Cities Try to Turn the Tide on Police Traffic Stops. Los Angeles is overhauling its traffic policing, aiming to stop pulling over cars — frequently with Black drivers — for trivial infractions like broken taillights or expired tags as a pretext to search for drugs or guns. John Choi, the prosecutor in nearby Ramsey County, Minn.…recalled thinking, “Do I want to look myself in the mirror and say I am incentivizing these police practices?” He announced last fall that he would no longer prosecute criminal charges on evidence collected at stops for minor infractions. (The New York Times, New York City, New York, April 15, 2022)

DNA leads police to suspect in 2016 sexual assault of St. Paul girl waiting for school bus. Nearly six years after a 5-year-old girl waiting for her school bus was sexually assaulted, St. Paul police said Friday they’ve made an arrest in the case. In December, investigators received information from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension that there had been a match and there was suspect information. (Pioneer Press, St. Paul, MN, April 8, 2022)

Ramsey County gets $2.9M from fed for first-responder radios, carjacking prevention. In Ramsey County, two public safety initiatives — a hand-held radio replacement project for St. Paul’s first responders and a county violence prevention effort around shots fired and carjackings — recently received a $2.9 million boost in federal funding. U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum joined Ramsey County Attorney John Choi, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell at the county attorney’s office on Tuesday in announcing the details. (Pioneer Press, St. Paul, MN, March 22, 2022)

What’s Behind the Wave of Convictions for Police and Vigilantes? It’s More Than Woke Jurors.  [In] recent years, more voters have decided to elect prosecutors who campaign against the status quo. Among those prosecutors is John J. Choi, county attorney for Ramsey County, Minnesota. (Capital B, Atlanta, Georgia, March 10, 2022)

Youth Criminal Justice Gets ‘Community Review’ in Minnesota. Well before John Choi became Minnesota’s Ramsey County Attorney in 2011, he’d been thinking critically about the criminal justice system in America. Since July, Ramsey County has been experimenting with using a three-person “collaborative review team” to help determine the outcomes for youth who run afoul of the law. The work is part of Choi’s larger, big-picture effort to extract the inequities and injustices that are baked into the youth criminal justice system. (Next City, March 4, 2022)

De novo review: Prosecutor John Choi on fighting racial disparities in criminal justice. In an interview with Westlaw, the chief prosecutor of Minnesota's second-most populous county discusses how prosecutors can better serve their communities and explains the initiatives his office has pursued to reduce racial disparities in the legal system. The interview also touched on the relationship that Ramsey County Attorney John Choi has maintained with communities of color during his 11 years in office. (Westlaw Today, Eagan, MN, February 25, 2022)

Ramsey County hopeful early intervention is key to reducing carjackings. Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said they've modeled [the] Youth Auto Theft Intervention Project after a successful violence prevention model of focused deterrence. "This initiative is really centered around the community being that moral voice to these young people that this behavior needs to stop and we're not going to tolerate it," Choi said. (KARE 11, Minneapolis, MN, February 24, 2022)

With shootings up, carjackings down, St. Paul officials talk safety approaches. The St. Paul City Council received a periodic crime update on Wednesday, as they and other officials discussed an array of approaches to safety that include trying to prevent violence in the first place. Ramsey County Attorney John Choi started a Violence Reduction Leadership Group in April, gathering elected officials with leaders of law enforcement and other agencies. A main focus has been carjackings, and prevention and enforcement efforts. (Pioneer Press, St. Paul, MN, February 23, 2022)

Can young auto thieves get help before becoming carjackers? As carjackings have spiked in the Twin Cities, prosecutors, law enforcement and community leaders in St. Paul and Ramsey County are trying to interrupt young people from advancing from auto theft to carjacking. Ramsey County Attorney John Choi’s office applied for and received auto theft grants from the Minnesota Department of Commerce to coordinate prevention and enforcement efforts. They include funding for investigators at the Ramsey County sheriff’s office Carjacking and Auto Theft unit, which was formed in September, and a prosecutor who works on auto theft cases. (Pioneer Press, St. Paul, MN, February 5, 2022)

Minnesota’s ‘courthouse dogs’ help soothe vulnerable victims. Unleashing the tension can make the legal process more humane for the vulnerable, said Ramsey County Attorney John Choi. "Preparing witnesses for trial can re-traumatize them," he said. "A better experience helps alleviate that." While facility dogs are new in Minnesota, they have become common in many criminal justice settings. (Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN, January 21, 2022) 

Twin Cities mayors, police chiefs, prosecutors join forces on rising crime. Mayors, police chiefs and prosecutors across the Twin Cities are vowing to band together to slow a surge in violent crime that is roiling the region, but exactly how to do that remains unclear. Speakers included Freeman, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi, Minnesota Commissioner of Corrections Paul Schnell, Hennepin County Sheriff David Hutchinson and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. Choi and Frey both spoke of expanding programs that use a carrot-and-stick approach to support teens and young adults. (Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN, January 10, 2022)