Photo Credit: City of Minneapolis / Aisha Chugtai
*This article has been edited for clarity without changing the original context.
(MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.) – After honorary resolutions filled with community comments and good energy, the regular Council meeting on September 17 focused on business. The Minneapolis City Council adopted committee reports and approved licenses, grants, contracts, and ordinances efficiently and unanimously.
A warm atmosphere turned serious, however, when a legal settlement for former Minneapolis Police Department Officer Jason Andersen reached the floor. The settlement, raised during the Enterprise and Labor Relations Committee report, concerned a prior worker's compensation claim Andersen filed.
While the report was accepted, Council Members Aisha Chugtai and Soren Stevenson both felt item five on the report, which referred to the legal settlement involving Andersen, should be pulled for separate discussion and vote.
The council unanimously agreed after a vote.
“Jason Anderson was fired by Tim Dolan twice. Once for being untruthful about a 2008 incident in which he allegedly kicked a teen in the head,” Council Member Aisha Chugtai stated, “Dolan fired Andersen over a different matter, but an arbitrator overruled him.”
Photo Credit: Minneapolis Police Department / Jason Andersen
Stevenson is referring to Andersen’s history of misconduct. The former MPD officer was charged with a felony civil rights crime for allegedly kicking a teen, Jevontay K.D. Johnson, during an arrest on July 25, 2008.
During the trial, Andersen said that Johnson was lying on his hands, so he used a common technique of kicking the shoulder to get the individual to move their arms and allow the officer to cuff them. Johnson alleged he was kicked in the head, not the shoulder. His mother brought him to the hospital later that night, where he was treated for minor facial and scalp injuries.
Andersen was also determined not to have used excessive force after shooting suspect Fong Lee (19) eight times during his arrest pursuit, four times in the back, claiming the teen pulled a gun on him. Questions arose about possible evidence tampering (planting the gun on Lee), but there wasn’t sufficient evidence to support the allegation.
Judge Paul Magnuson, who presided over the excessive force trial, said at the time, “Even assuming that Minneapolis Police officers did in fact alter the video from the squad car and plant the gun at the scene of the shooting, (the) Plaintiff has still failed to produce any evidence that the city has a history of tampering with evidence to cover up police misconduct."
Magnuson later noted that the court did not discount the seriousness of the cover-up charges. It eventually took a dropped misdemeanor domestic assault charge stemming from an interaction with his former girlfriend in 2009 for the MPD to let him go.
Dolan cited a violation of the regulation that bars officers from doing anything that may tarnish the MPD’s reputation. A State Arbitrator ruled Andersen hadn’t violated the ethics policy and ordered Dolan to put Andersen back to active duty within five days and pay him for the 8 months he wasn’t working.
He was fired a second time for ‘misconduct’ for untruthful behavior in the Johnson incident.
Photo Credit: City of Minneapolis / Soren Stevenson
Stevenson spoke up, “I‘m really struggling with this one. This particular officer has done heinous things in our community. I’d like to have a further discussion on what’s going on with these legal settlements (…) and what we should do about these legal claims. Particularly, when they come from officers who really should be in jail rather than employed here.”
He ended the statement by suggesting that the compensation claim be referred back to the committee. The vote was placed before the council and passed unanimously.
After a brief discussion concerning updates to community events and public safety concerns, the meeting concluded.
To add to or correct any information in this report, please contact me at kristin.h@lead4earth.org.
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