Convicted former Minneapolis police officer Kim Potter should not only win right to bail on appeal, but she would “very likely” get her conviction on manslaughter of Daunte Wright, 20, overturned on appeal, according to legal expert Alan Dershowitz on Newsmax.
“Let’s start with the obvious truth: There was no crime committed here at all,” Dershowitz told “Saturday Report.” “This is like getting in your car and you see a kid running out in front of you, and you immediately slam your foot on the brakes, but by accident, you put your foot on the gas and you killed the child.
“Horrible tragedy, not a crime. It’s not a crime to make a mistake, and she was falsely convicted of anything.”
Judge Regina Chu “acted lawlessly” in denying bail for Potter, and Democrat state Attorney General Keith Ellison engaged in “a complete abuse of justice,” Dershowitz told co-hosts Carl Higbie and Amanda Brilhante.
“This judge acted lawlessly,” Dershowitz said. “The law in Minnesota is you are entitled to bail pending appeal, if your appeal isn’t frivolous – and it isn’t frivolous – and not likely to flee – she’s not going anywhere – and if you’re not a danger people,” Dershowitz said, noting the judge has failed to strictly apply those criteria to a repentant 26-year police veteran.
“She engaged in completely lawless behavior, and I think if Potter’s lawyers appealed the denial of bail immediately to the appellate courts, she may very well be released, pending appeal.”
Dershowitz noted manslaughter is “recklessly killing” someone, but he rejected the notion that evidence was proved beyond a reasonable doubt Potter recklessly pulled her gun, thinking it was a Taser, in shooting a fleeing, wanted, felon Wright.
“And very likely certainly – not certainly, certainly – but very likely she might get her conviction reversed,” Dershowitz continued. “There’s simply not enough evidence that she committed any crime whatsoever.”
“This is a complete abuse of justice done by an Attorney General Keith Ellison, who has no concern for justice,” Dershowitz added. “He just follows the mob. He puts the finger up to the wind, he decides what will help him get elected, and he decides to follow the crowd. This is Cuban justice. Not American justice.”
Dershowitz suggested Ellison and an anti-policing push in Minnesota is treating a remorseful police officer more harshly than the law permits.
“There’s a good chance that the appellate courts would release her, and there’s nothing in the statute that permits her to be detained: She’s not a flight risk, she’s not a danger,” Dershowitz said. “The appeal is a substantial one. She’s entitled to bail under the law. This judge ridiculously said, ‘I’m not going to give her special treatment.’ Well, she is giving her special treatment.”
Dershowitz noted it is “routine” to get bail pending appeal, but liberal politics are getting in the way of justice.
“So she, yes, she has treated Potter specially by denying her what everybody else has the right to get, and that is bail pending appeal,” he concluded.
“The civil liberties union should be involved in this, and civil libertarians and people on the left, and Democrats should be as concerned about this as conservatives, but they’re not because we live in a divided country where people just pick sides.”
