Crime

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) ― A special review panel said Thursday that it found "appalling and outrageous" misconduct within the defunct Minnesota Gang Task Force, including officers who took televisions and jewelry for their own use or interrogated people with no gang ties.

It also couldn't account for $11,000 in missing cash.

Former federal prosecutor Andy Luger, who co-chaired the panel along with retired FBI agent John Engelhof, said they never expected to find such "egregious" activity by Minnesota law enforcement officers. The team included more than 30 officers from 13 law enforcement agencies.

"Perhaps 10 or more lost their way and engaged in conduct that never would have been tolerated at their home agencies," Luger said. He said some officers considered themselves "money police," seizing cash and property they believed would help make up for funding cuts.

Officers also are accused of targeting people who weren't connected to gangs and often minorities, Luger said. In one case, $4,500 in cash was taken from a Hispanic man who legally had the money as a construction crew foreman.

The panel was assembled after the state Legislative Auditor's Office determined in May that about $18,000 and more than a dozen vehicles couldn't be accounted for at the time. The audit concluded that the agency lacked internal controls to safeguard seized and forfeited property or track its finances.

Public Safety Commissioner Michael Campion had asked Luger and Engelhof to come up with proposals to implement the auditor's call for tighter controls. They delivered their scathing report to Campion and the FBI on Wednesday before it was publicly released.

The report released Thursday said that hours after the audit's release, some task force officers shredded documents and several storage bins were filled with paper that would have been shredded by a professional disposal company had they not been discovered.

The strike force was permanently shut down last month after authorities said its problems -- including missing cash and evidence, and poor record keeping -- were too severe to fix.

Luger said he believes some task force members committed felonies, though he and Engelhof were unable to determine whether any of the nearly $11,000 in cash still missing was stolen by officers. An FBI investigation is ongoing.

No criminal charges have been filed, and the names of officers included in the report weren't released. Luger said several refused to cooperate. He also said he didn't believe the panel's findings would jeopardize any criminal cases because the task force had a dismal record of turning its work into prosecutions.

The report said some strike force employees -- including police officers -- repeatedly took seized property for their personal use such as expensive TVs, jewelry, computer and electronic equipment, personal watercraft and even an ice auger. Many of those items were stolen by criminal suspects and could have been returned to their rightful owners, the report said.

In one investigation, task force members seized 70 new watches. The case file said 20 were given to a jeweler to sell and return profits to the task force -- but the jeweler told investigators he had declined to take the watches.

The watches are still missing, and Luger said it's reasonable to conclude they were taken by officers or employees.

The report also said individuals not connected to gang activity were stopped, their property and money seized even though the officers had no intention of filing charges, Luger said.

In one case, officers found vague information in a file that a group of Hispanics was expected at a Minneapolis vehicle impound to recover a car that contained drugs. A Honduran family and a Mexican family happened to show up that night and were searched by officers.

Along with the $4,500 from the construction crew foreman, $100 was taken from another man. Neither man got his money back, according to the report. Both now face deportation.

Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek, who had been a critic of the strike force, called the report's findings "deeply disturbing." He said a "small group" of officers within the unit had done tremendous damage to the reputation of law enforcement.

Campion said he planned make sure improperly seized money and property was returned to their owners, and that his department would no longer support similar standalone strike forces. He also said his agency would report to the Legislature as soon as next week on how the state's seizure and forfeiture laws might need revisions.

He also said state and local authorities will come up with a new approach for fighting gangs.

"We know that the gang problem is not going to go away," Campion said.

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