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Pioneer Press
17 September 2009

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Minneapolis Police Department,

Minneapolis fires police offic

The Minneapolis police officer cleared of wrongdoing in the 2006 shooting death of Fong Lee was fired Wednesday, two weeks after a prosecutor dismissed a domestic abuse case against him because of lack of evidence.

Officer Jason Andersen had been on paid leave since his June 14 arrest on a charge that he struck his girlfriend during an argument.

The incident sparked an investigation by the Minneapolis Police Department's Internal Affairs Unit. Even though a prosecutor dismissed the charge earlier this month, Andersen was told Wednesday that he was being fired.

"Internal Affairs came out to my house and they gave me some papers. They said it was for a policy violation for the code of ethics, but they couldn't even tell me what the violation was," Andersen said in a telephone interview Wednesday night.

Lt. Bob Kroll, vice president of the Minneapolis Police Federation, said Andersen was being treated differently from other officers in the past because of the publicity of the Fong Lee trial.

"We've got people who have had domestic assaults and they haven't been fired," Kroll said. Asked how the police union intended to respond, he replied, "I've already discussed it with our attorney."

Andersen had been on paid administrative leave since being arrested June 14 following an incident at his Big Lake home. His ex-wife had called a Big Lake policeman and complained that Andersen, 32, had struck his girlfriend, Angela Lynn Nicholas, 29, of Howard Lake.

The officer was charged with misdemeanor domestic abuse. But Nicholas later gave a statement saying police "blew it out of proportion" and "exaggerated things that never even happened," and told attorneys that she wouldn't testify at Andersen's trial.
It never came to that, though. On Sept. 2, a prosecutor asked a Sherburne County judge to dismiss the domestic abuse case, saying there wasn't enough admissible evidence that Andersen had broken the law.

After the case was dismissed, Andersen's attorney, Fred Bruno, called for the department to reinstate the officer, a second-generation cop who had become a Minneapolis policeman in August 2005.

"Normally, when a criminal charge gets dismissed ... that's the end of the story," Bruno said.

Minneapolis police spokesman Sgt. Jesse Garcia III confirmed Wednesday night that Police Chief Timothy Dolan had fired Andersen "after an internal investigation." He said he didn't have any other details.

Kroll maintained that the police department's administration didn't like Andersen because "he's a good, hard-nosed street cop."

"In the current administration, that is not tolerated," Kroll said. "They don't want big, tough street cops. They feel he got them negative press over Fong Lee, so they're going to make him pay."

Last Friday, Kroll represented Andersen at a discipline panel hearing in front of three deputy chiefs. After presenting the officer's version of the June 14 incident, the deputy chiefs said they would consider the "new" evidence and adjourned without acting, Kroll said.

But it appears the panel recommended to Dolan that Andersen be fired, and he agreed.

Dolan had long defended Andersen in the Fong Lee case. The officer was placed on administrative leave after the shooting, but the chief returned him to duty within two days, before the department's own investigators had a chance to take a statement from Andersen.

Andersen and a state trooper were on patrol July 22, 2006, when they encountered several young men on bicycles. Andersen claimed one of the bicyclists handed a gun to another of the men, Fong Lee. The 19-year-old fled, and the officers gave chase.

Andersen claimed Fong Lee had a gun and that as he was running, the teen started to raise his hand as if to shoot. Later saying that he feared for his life, Andersen fired.

His first shot missed, but the officer fired three more shots, which struck Fong Lee. He shot him five more times as he was falling to the ground or after he was on the ground.

An internal affairs investigation said the shooting was justified, and a Hennepin County grand jury cleared him of wrongdoing.

Andersen was given the Medal of Valor, the Minneapolis Police Department's second-highest award, for his actions. In a note attached to the sergeant's form nominating Andersen for the award, Dolan wrote, "Nice work, Jason. Congrats."

Fong Lee's family disputed the police version of the incident, saying the young man was unarmed and presented no threat to the officer. They filed a wrongful-death suit against Andersen and the city.

The case went to trial in U.S. District Court in St. Paul in May. Attorneys for the family presented evidence indicating the teen had no gun in his hand. They also argued that the gun later found a few feet from Fong Lee's body had no fingerprints on it, and that police had planted it there after the shooting.

On May 28, jurors ruled Andersen did not use excessive force.

Andersen's return to duty after the verdict was short-lived. On June 14, he was arrested by Big Lake police and charged with assaulting his girlfriend. Nicholas was also charged in the incident, but a prosecutor dismissed the charge on July 16.

The dismissal came a week after she gave a statement saying she'd never told police Andersen had assaulted her.

"I am frustrated as I feel the justice system took something, blew it out of proportion, exaggerated things that never even happened, pressured me to do and say things I didn't want to do or say and is now leaving both Jason and I in very bad places," she said in the statement, a copy of which was obtained by the Pioneer Press.

Sgt. Scott Zierden of the Minneapolis Police Department's Internal Affairs Unit had been called to the scene, and Kroll said the report filed by Zierden contained misstatements, including the claim that Nicholas "managed to get away from (the) suspect and call 911." In reality, there was no 911 call.

He also disputed the claim in Zierden's incident report that Nicholas' alleged injuries were consistent with Andersen having struck her "several times about the face and head with an open hand," as Zierden wrote in the report.

"My opinion is our internal affairs meddled on the scene with the Big Lake police," Kroll said. "I think if it was just up to Big Lake, they would've treated it like any other situation and he wouldn't even have been arrested."

Coon Rapids City Attorney Stoney Hiljus, who was called in to prosecute the case for Sherburne County, filed a notice of dismissal with the court Sept. 2. "Sufficient admissible evidence does not exist at this time to proceed to trial," he wrote in the notice.

Kroll said the police department's code of ethics contains vague language administrators can use as a catchall to discipline officers they don't like.

"The terminology is funny," he said. "It says you shall not do anything to bring discredit to the department, you'll keep your private life unsullied, not do anything to embarrass the department."

Kroll said he believes Andersen has been treated differently because of his notoriety.

"It all depends on who you are in this police administration," he said. "They don't take the facts of the case and mete out discipline evenly. It's all about who you are, and Jason is just the bogeyman to them."

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Pioneer Press17 September 2009

Minneapolis fires police offic

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Pioneer Press
17 September 2009