By H. Jiahong Pan
Attorney General Keith Ellison revealed third-degree assault charges against a former Minneapolis police officer on Wednesday for his actions during the social turmoil following the murder of George Floyd.
According to the lawsuit, former Minneapolis Police Officer Justin Stetson, 34, of the Anoka County town of Nowthen, struck Jaleel Stallings twice for nearly 30 seconds. This occurred after Stallings discharged a gun at a white van, thinking the passengers to be the White nationalists cautioned about by Gov. Walz. Stallings surrendered and lay down when he learned they were Minneapolis police agents.
Body camera video footage obtained by the Minnesota Reformer shows an officer, named in the lawsuit as Stetson, saying “F*** piece of s” before striking, stomping, and bodily slamming Stallings after the killing, even while handcuffed. Stallings, an Army soldier, suffered a fractured orbital, the bone that surrounds the eye, as a result of the attack. Stallings was accused but cleared, and in May he was awarded $1.5 million in damages from the city of Minneapolis. He no longer resides in Minnesota because, according to the Minnesota Reformer, he is afraid of reprisal.
According to the Star Tribune, Stenson joined the Minneapolis Police Department in 2008, and a city of Minnetonka bulletin stated he was a community service officer at the time. He joined the Minnetonka Police Department in 2012 and previously worked for the Minneapolis Parks Police and the Three Rivers Park District in non-sworn capacities. He continued in his father‘s path, who retired as a Minneapolis police officer in 2012.
According to the Communities United Against Police Brutality complaints database, Stenson filed 12 reports during his tenure in Minneapolis. Three of his suits are still pending. In 2016, he got a letter of reprimand for failing to notify a superior about the use of force to apprehend someone in front of an eatery on West Broadway in December 2014. According to the Minnesota Reformer, he also misled in his evidence against Stallings in court.
Stenson departed the MPD earlier this year, and his POST license is also no longer valid; the most recent training he received to keep it current was in December 2021. The notice does not specify a date for Stetson’s appearance in court. He could be sentenced to up to five years in jail and fined $10,000.
The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension looked into the matter. Because of a conflict of interest, outgoing Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman forwarded the matter to AG Ellison in April.