Minneapolis: Ex-Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor formally has pleaded not guilty to murder and manslaughter charges in the July 2017 shooting death of Australian Justine Ruszczyk Damond.
Noor did not speak during the 30-minute evidentiary hearing, but his lawyer Thomas Plunkett entered the plea on his behalf.
Former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor, left, and his lawyer, Thomas Plunkett, after a pretrial motions hearing on Friday.Credit:Star Tribune
In July 2017, Noor was a passenger in a squad responding to Damond's 911 call about a possible rape behind her south Minneapolis home when he fired through the driver's side window, killing her. The case drew widespread attention.
Judge Kathryn Quaintance ruled that prosecutors could not use Noor's "prior acts" as a police officer as evidence against him, including an incident in which he pointed a gun at a motorist during a traffic stop.
Quaintance also ruled that Noor's refusal to speak with a state investigator about the shooting can only be used as evidence by prosecutors if he takes the stand at his trial, scheduled for next month.
"This seems to me that the right not to incriminate one's self is a pretty seminal constitutional right," she said.
Posters of Justine Ruszczyk Damond are displayed at a news conference last year.Credit:AP
In a similar ruling, Quaintance said that prosecutors may only use pre-employment psychological exams Noor took in becoming a police officer if they're relevant to his own testimony if he takes the stand. Quaintance said she would issue a ruling later on whether a defence use-of-force expert can testify at the April 1 trial.
Noor left the hearing flanked by his lawyers without commenting. His father and other supporters were in attendance, along with Damond's fiance, Don Damond.
Noor was charged last March in Hennepin County District Court with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter; a count of second-degree murder with intent was added late last year.
Don Damond gets a hug from a supporter at a memorial service for his fiance Justine Damond in 2017.Credit:AP
Attorneys filed several motions and memorandums in the last few weeks on numerous issues: Assistant Hennepin County attorneys Amy Sweasy and Patrick Lofton argued that Noor's pre-arrest silence should be admitted in court if he were to testify.
" … The defendant had a choice on whether to tell his side of the story during a voluntary interview in a non-coercive setting," prosecutors wrote. "His decision not to do is relevant."
The defence previously argued that Noor had invoked his Miranda rights to remain silent, and that admitting the evidence would be a violation of due process.
Prosecutors argued that a state investigator never read Noor his Miranda rights after the shooting because Noor was not in custody.
Pleaded not guilty: Mohamed Noor, left, after the hearing on Friday.Credit:AP
Noor, through Plunkett, declined to produce a voluntary statement to the investigator multiple times, prosecutors wrote, and only explicitly invoked his constitutional right to remain silent several months later in response to a grand jury convened by the Hennepin County Attorney's Office.
Noor's silence can only be barred from trial had he first been read his Miranda rights, said a prosecution memorandum. State law and US Supreme Court precedent allow using pre-arrest silence to impeach a defendant who testifies on the witness stand, they argued.
Noor's lawyers, Plunkett and Peter Wold, accused the prosecution of trying to improperly introduce parts of Noor's 2015 pre-employment psychological exam as character witness.
"The State attempts to bootstrap inadmissible evidence into this trial by calling it character evidence despite the fact that the [psychological exam] does not offer any insight into Officer Noor's character," defence lawyers wrote in one filing.
Plunkett and Wold object to admitting any evidence from the exam, which they describe as "outdated."
Attorneys are also debating the admissibility of testimony by defence use-of-force expert Emanuel Kapelsohn, who staged a dramatic courtroom demonstration at the unrelated 2017 trial of then-St Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez.
Yanez, who said he acted in self-defence when he fatally shot Philando Castile in 2016 during a traffic stop, was acquitted in Castile's death.
Prosecutors want to exclude or limit Kapelsohn's testimony at Noor's trial, arguing that he has never served as an officer and is "insufficiently qualified to opine" on use-of-force.
Noor has indicated he will claim self-defence. He remains free on bail.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
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