Ground E

For decades the movies have given us an image of what we believe our justice system aspires to be. To Kill A Mockingbird is a great example of a righteous lawyer who, in the racist deep south, stands up for a black man, wrongly accused. We feel great sorrow as he loses to an all white jury and the man is later killed. Gregory Peck, our hero, tries to stand up to a system that has went amok, where one of its citizens can not get a fair trial. We are still in that same era.

By now you can read a long list of reasons why Ken Andersen deserves a new trial. Yet, the State Supreme Court of Minnesota has chosen to ignore ALL of this in order to have to keep from admitting a local county court made a train wreck out of a trial. Below is GROUND E, where Ken protests the violation of his attorney-client privilege by recording his phone calls between him and his attorney and his investigator.

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I did considerable research into this common practice jails have been doing for a very long time. Violating attorney-client privilege is not really a big deal in today’s American justice system. Almost every jail likes to do it, and will admit to the practice. Becker County Jail also had no problem admitting their love of recording all calls, and even were forced to lose a lawsuit worth over $100,000 for doing so. Their defense? “I do not believe a private investigator’s conversation is considered privileged.”- Captain Joe MacArthur. There you have it. In all most all the states, the police have a right to arrest anybody, put them in jail, listen to everything they say, and even lie to keep them in prison. 

My conclusion after my research is that if police must be unethical in order to get a win, then so be it. The judges don’t mind if their own break the law. But, if you are not one of them, then God help you. In Minnesota, you are out of luck.