Hennepin County Attorney Picks Fight With MN Freedom Fund

HENNEPIN COUNTY, MN — The Hennepin County Attorney's Office Thursday namechecked the Minnesota Freedom Fund group in announcing new felony charges against a man who has been bailed out by the group twice.

The Minnesota Freedom Fund received more than $30 million in donations in the wake of George Floyd's death. Donors included Hollywood celebrities Seth Rogen, Steve Carrell, and Jameela Jamil, reports The Minnesota Reformer.

The attorney's office published a news release Thursday titled "Man bailed out twice, charged with three new felonies."

According to the attorney's office, after facing property damage and the gun possession charges tied to incidents in August and October, Moseley — 29, of Minneapolis — secured an unconditional release after the Minnesota Freedom Fund posted the $5,000 bail.

Moseley and others were later charged with second-degree riot for a "New Year’s Eve melee" in downtown Minneapolis, the attorney's office said. That time, bail was set at $60,000 and the Minnesota Freedom Fund paid that in full, according to authorities.

On Thursday, the attorney's office announced that Mosley has been charged with three new felonies and is under investigation for a possible separate gun crime.

The three new charges are riot with a dangerous weapon, fifth-degree drug possession, and possessing a dangerous weapon in a courthouse.

The Minnesota Freedom Fund told Patch it does not discriminate when it decides who to bail out of jail.

"Minnesota Freedom Fund believes that every individual who has been arrested by the police is innocent until proven guilty, and should not have to wait in jail simply because they do not have the same income or resources as others with more financial privilege," the group told Patch in an email Thursday night.

"We do not make determinations of bail support based on the crimes that individuals are alleged to have committed."

The group also spoke out against wealth-based pre-trial detention:

"Additionally, we do not subscribe to the county attorney’s agenda to keep in place a racist and classist system that uses bail as a means to hold individuals before their trial, regardless of community support and ability to make their court dates. As Thomas Moseley’s attorney has stated, 'this is a persecution of a political activist with prosecutors using an organization that helps pay people’s bail as an excuse to raise their bail.'

Rather than moving toward the progressive pre-trial detention reform that is truly needed and seen in Cook County/Illinois this month - the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office is moving in the complete opposite direction. Minnesota Freedom Fund whole-heartedly agrees with Washington County Attorney Peter Orput quoted in Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman’s announcement last month about a weak gesture posing as bail reform in Hennepin County: that 'Cash bail and public safety have nothing to do with each other.' We will eagerly be watching to see how the conversation of cash bail reform started by the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office in December continues into the new year and is reflected in how the system treats this individual.

Read about the charges against Moseley here.