Feds stopped sharing evidence in Good, Pretti killings after July announcement, Minnesota suit claims

The federal government stopped sharing evidence in the Renee Good and Alex Pretti killings shortly after Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced in July that the sharing had begun, Minnesota officials say in a court filing.

The claim is part of a lawsuit Minnesota filed in March in federal court in Washington, D.C., against the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security over evidence in three shootings by federal agents. In an Oct. 13 filing, the state asked the judge to rule in its favor without a trial and order the agencies to hand over the evidence.

Moriarty announced July 13 that state investigators had received hard drives holding officer statements and body camera footage, along with the SUV Good was driving when she was shot.

"Now we have all the evidence," Moriarty said then.

But Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said in a declaration that the U.S. Attorney's Office for Minnesota stopped sharing evidence after that news conference, despite a written agreement reached in June. The state's brief says the U.S. attorney told Moriarty on Sept. 10 that sharing would be on pause indefinitely "in light of challenges with D.C." He could not say when it might resume, the filing says.

Evans said federal authorities still have the cellphone of the agent who killed Good, her clothing and recordings of interviews about the shooting. In the Pretti case, he said, the state has not received the firearms used by the officers who shot him, a firearm that was taken from Pretti before he was shot, the officers' cellphones, projectiles and casings, or a recording of a statement from one of those officers.

State investigators also have not received grand jury material from the Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis shooting, Evans said. He wrote that examining the evidence is critical to a complete and thorough investigation.

Evans briefly addressed the lawsuit. He said the cases are under review and the bureau will continue the conversations it has been having about sharing information on them.

Moriarty declined to take questions about the lawsuit after an unrelated news conference Thursday. In a statement, she said the federal government is "intent on obstructing our investigations for however long they can."

In a reply filed Tuesday, Justice Department attorneys asked the judge to dismiss the case or transfer it to Minnesota. They accuse the state of forum shopping and point to an earlier lawsuit the bureau filed in federal court there. The government argues that its rules for responding to outside requests for information, known as Touhy regulations, apply only when a court case or similar proceeding is underway, and that none was when Minnesota made its requests. It also says the decision to withhold information is within its discretion and is therefore not subject to court review under the Administrative Procedure Act.

The government also says Minnesota has not been blocked from bringing charges. It points to the case Hennepin County filed in May against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Christian Castro in the Sosa-Celis shooting. It argues the state already has "all the evidence," citing news coverage of Moriarty's July announcement. In its brief, the state says evidence in Castro's case, including the gun he used and grand jury material, remains in federal hands.

Good, 37, was shot and killed by an ICE agent in her car in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan national, was shot in the leg by a federal immigration agent Jan. 14. Federal prosecutors charged him with assaulting the agent, then dropped the case in February. Pretti was shot and killed by federal immigration agents Jan. 24.

All three shootings happened during Operation Metro Surge, a large federal immigration enforcement operation in the Twin Cities.