Lawyer Expects Request For Change-Of-Venue In Noor Case
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- On Wednesday, former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor will make his first appearance before a judge in Hennepin County.
A first court appearance is essentially the first formal reading of the charges to the defendant, who in this case, is Noor.
The judge may raise or lower the bail amount, which was set at $500,000 on Tuesday. Noor will also have the opportunity to enter a plea if he wants to, but it is not required.
Judge Kathryn L. Quaintance has been assigned to preside over Noor's first appearance. Appointed in 2000, she has experience presiding over numerous felony cases in the county.
Local criminal defense attorney Mike Bryant, who is not affiliated with this case, thinks Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman chose to charge Noor with both manslaughter and murder because he wants to give potential jurors more options.
"One of the things he did with a number of the people who testified on the grand jury was accumulate the evidence, so he could look at it, charge the case out and charge it as strong as he could and based upon the evidence. He … included a couple of charges so the jury gets a chance to look at different options in terms of what they want to do," said Bryant.
Bryant also shed light on what happened behind closed doors during grand jury proceedings.
"He brought in a lot of officers, including the officers who trained Officer Noor. One of the things you saw in the St. Anthony case was the police officers testified in ways ... I think it hurt the prosecution at times. One of the things I think Mike Freeman was getting from the officers was getting them nailed down on testimony so he knew exactly what they were going to say and that they didn't have the chance to have outs to say something he wouldn't expect."
Bryant believes the question of whether or not Noor will potentially take the stand in this case depends upon the defense.
"If the defense is that he everything he did and he did everything right, then he will probably have to take the stand to explain that," said Bryant.
Bryant believes the testimony of Noor's partner, Matthew Harrity, will also be a crucial component of the defense case.
"It's real important. Again, there is a different standard if I shoot you or you shoot me, an ordinary person shooting somebody is not supposed to do it. Police officers are given protections for public policy reasons we want police officers to make decisions spilt-second and to protect us. And because of that, what the other officer does is going to be really important as to what was going on during that time because he's not facing charges. So if he says 'I was fearing for my life and I was doing these things, that's one of the things the jury is going to be hearing about."
Bryant also expects that the defense will ask to move this case out of Hennepin County, but thinks that is unlikely to happen since there have been no major protests regarding the case and no public statements from the Governor regarding it, like we saw with Philando Castile.
His guess is that a trial will start anytime between 5 and 8 months from now.