Fury as Minneapolis’ ‘woke’ DA Mary Moriarty allows accused rapists and killers to stay free — too much even for Soros-backed AG
Minneapolis’ progressive district attorney is under fire for her woke policies that allow accused rapists, pedophiles and killers to stay free — with even Minnesota’s George Soros-backed general attorney accusing her of taking it too far.
Hennepin County District Attorney Mary Moriarty, 59, took office in January promising to “deliver more safety and more justice†to the community.
Since then, however, she has horrified local families and officials by pushing for suspects in even the most serious crimes to get probation in an effort to keep them out of prison, according to the Star Tribune.
Veteran prosecutor Catherine Markey was only told moments before a plea hearing that the DA was only seeking probation for one of the teens involved in the 2019 carjacking that killed her son, Stephen Markey.
“It’s a trend definitely because of Mary Moriarty,” the former prosecutor told the paper of those accused of serious crimes getting slap-on-the-wrist deals.
“She’s still playing public defender — the only thing is, that’s not her role anymore,” Markey said of the city’s chief prosecutor.
Sherrice Barnett similarly recalled her horror at being told the teen charged with murdering her 27-year-old son, Derrell Freeman, would be spared a prison sentence.
“I couldn’t breathe,” she told the paper.
“I said, ‘I just got to get up out of here.’ I never would have imagined in a million years that it would have went that way.â€
Another mom, Nancy Caspersen, recalled her disgust at the repeat offender charged with the third-degree murder of her daughter, Kailey — for selling her the pain pills laced with fentanyl that killed her in 2021 — getting probation and up to 240 days in jail instead of the maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.
“It ain’t fair. It’s not right. She’s my only child,” Caspersen tearfully told the Star Tribune.
“It makes me feel like she didn’t matter to these people.”
Moriarty faced outrage from her very first week in office, when she dropped the charges against a 35-year-old man accused of raping a teen girl due to attorney misconduct, CBS News reported at the time.
Moriarty said then that she was “deeply remorseful and apologetic†to the alleged victim, who endured taxing testimony before the charges were dismissed, the outlet noted.
However, critics suggest it was the start of a trend that has only escalated since — with some high-profile cases even taken off her hands.
In April, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz reassigned the case against the alleged murderers of mother of one Zaria McKeever to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who is backed by left-wing billionaire George Soros, the Star Tribune explained.
McKeever, 23, was killed in 2022 by two teen brothers hired by her ex-boyfriend, the outlet said.
While prosecutors initially wanted to try both boys as adults, they were offered probationary deals in exchange for testimony against McKeever’s ex.
The controversial arrangement prompted Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Leah Erickson to remove herself from the case, then leave the office entirely, the Star Tribune reported at the time.
Ellison called Moriarty’s approach to the McKeever case “disproportionate to the seriousness of the crime†in a statement shortly after the case was reassigned.
“While I share the belief that too many juveniles are involved in the adult criminal justice system, accountability for the seriousness of this crime has been missing in this case,†he wrote.
McKeever’s sister, Tiffynie Epps, was more direct, telling the Star Tribune, “[Moriarty] is fumbling another case yet again and again and again.”
“Something needs to happen. … It’s not about it going our way. It’s about going the right way.”
Similarly, the case of a 15-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted by a relative for three years prompted prosecutor Raina Urton to remove herself from the case after the new administration pushed her to seek probation instead of prison for the defendant, the outlet said.
“She walked away because she knows what happened was wrong,” the teen’s mother said of Urton.
“She was fighting for us. She was fighting for our daughter.”
Stephen Markey’s parents — who were flabbergasted when Husayn Braveheart, one of the teens accused of gunning down the 39-year-old paralegal four years ago, was offered probation after the first got 22 years behind bars — asked Ellison to take over their son’s case.
Ellison, however, announced last week that he would not intervene.
Catherine Markey subsequently filed a complaint with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Crime Victim Justice Unit, the Star Tribune said.
Moriarty says she plans to stick with her plan to bring reform to the DA’s office — dismissing the anger as the expected cost of change.
“I think it takes a lot of courage actually to act upon what you say you’re going to do,” she told the Star Tribune.
“I knew we would get a lot of pushback.
“But if you’re truly going to make change, if you truly are about your values, and you want to have integrity, and you believe in research and look at the data, these are the right decisions and I stand by them.”
Moriarty campaigned on the premise of increasing rehabilitation as opposed to incarceration for young offenders, she explained.
In the case of Derrell Freeman’s killing, she continued, the two perpetrators are being treated differently based on their records: One, Joran McFarland, will likely see adult prison time, while Monte Wise could receive up to two years of treatment and be on probation until he is 21.
“All of us have been conditioned to believe that the value that we place on a loved one’s life is the length of the prison sentence that they get,†Moriarty noted of the families’ reactions to her sentencing requests.
The former chief public defender is illustrative of the new brand of progressive prosecutor intent on dismantling the various injustices within mass incarceration and criminal justice, City University of New York School of Law professor Steve Zeidman told the Star Tribune.
“You’re seen as being overly lenient as opposed to trying to correct past wrongs,” he said of Moriarty and her peers.
He noted that several of the cases that elicited complaints from families started under former County Attorney Mike Freeman, whose office reassured loved ones that they were seeking prison time.
While there perhaps should be better communication between the DA and families, Zeidman mused, Moriarty does not need to feel bound by the statements of a previous administration.
“That’s a sea change in the office,” Moriarty acknowledged.
“And I understand why families are upset. I understand why some in the community are upset because we have not done a good job of having this conversation.”
“We’re working towards building that out because families do deserve more. They deserve more even if a person goes to prison.”
