Moriarty outlines goals: ‘Thinking beyond traditional prosecution’

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty explained strategic goals for the office’s future criminal cases and other initiatives at a webcast CLE Tuesday, Aug. 6.

“Thinking beyond traditional prosecution” is Moriarty’s term for new strategies to realize the new vision and mission of the office.

She listed five goals:

• A safer, more equitable and healthier county.



• Partnerships with Hennepin County communities in a way that is accessible, transparent, and accountable.



• Excellence, effectiveness and integrity in the county attorney office’s work.



• Collaborate with system partners to meet goals and advance system accountability.



• Become a trauma-informed, mission-driven, anti-racist organization.

Moriarty explained at the CLE that her approach relies on data and research to determine what is most effective. Throughout the talk she repeatedly also referred to the importance of relationships throughout the county and cities. She unveiled a new organizational chart that she said will support that approach. She also said her office has four meetings a month with police chiefs, but her individual relationship with law enforcement officers is “a little bit more complicated.”

The office is doing the best it can to reach out to law enforcement, she said. Some relationships were affected by the prosecution of state trooper for a shooting during a traffic stop. Moriarty dismissed the case, stating that the office could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that deadly force was not justified.

In looking beyond traditional prosecution, Moriarty said, that the office will address youth initiatives, including early intervention, addressing truancy and expanded use of diversion for youth. In 2023 the office diverted 1,283 juvenile cases, an increase of 37% from 2022 diversions. Initial analysis predicts a lower recidivism rate.

Additionally, Moriarty continued, the office wanted to make itself more accountable and increase its clearance rates in auto theft cases from less than 4% with a youth auto theft initiative which was started in 2023. Those cases resulted in quicker charges and expedited legal system intervention, including pretrial services. She explained that a lack of evidence has made it difficult to charge some cases, The youth auto theft early intervention may link some young people exhibiting risky auto-theft behavior and their families with voluntary services and support.

“The number of youth auto theft cases where a charging decision was made within 10 days increased by 24% for the period July 1, 2023, to May 31, 2024, compared to the same period a year earlier,” she said.

The County Attorney’s Office has started a Be@School division that would also provide early intervention in situations of truancy. In 2023, 8,343 students were referred.

In addition, the office has expanded its Youth Group Violence intervention, partnering with police in Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center and Minneapolis.

Adult diversions increased in certain cases by 81% from 2022 to 2023, also with lower recidivism rates.

Other programs in the office include the first Division of Professional Standards to build trust and legitimacy in the system. Another is the Prosecutor Initiated Sentencing Adjustment, subsequent to 2023 legislation allowing a judge to adjust guidelines sentences for substantial and compelling circumstances.

“Some juveniles receive really, really long sentences,” she noted. “There may not be a public safety reason to keep people in prison.”

Another tool is expungement relief that may be available online or at a HCAO Community Expungement Clinic. And, law enforcement and attorneys are working to revise Brady/Giglio procedures to ensure that the state discloses evidence as is required.

The HCAO also provides services in cases of domestic violence and in immigrant communities where trafficking is sometimes not reported for fear of deportation. That policy also prioritizes increasing access, swift response and trauma-informed support.

The HCAO is also in the process of developing a conviction integrity unit to review prior cases. Moriarity here referred to the case of Marvin Haynes, whose conviction for murder was overturned in 2023 after he spent nearly 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. “If we make a mistake, we want to put it right,” she said.

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