The county attorney announced Friday morning that he has retained a single outside prosecutor to join the investigatory team.
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Choi says Lewis – a former federal prosecutor and Hamline Law dean – will help enhance his team, and determine whether or not charges should be filed or if it needs to be turned over to a grand jury to decide.
Lewis, a longtime civil rights lawyer, former dean of the Hamline University’s School of Law and a former assistant U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, has a wealth of knowledge and experience, which Choi said fits all the qualifications he was looking for in this role. He grew up in St. Paul.
“I have a lot invested in this community”, Lewis said.
Lewis will be “an integral member of our team” and “substantially involved” in decisions tied to the case, Choi told reporters.
Lewis’s role will be meaningful, substantial and visible, Choi said.
An attorney for Yanez, who is Hispanic, has said the officer reacting to the presence of a gun and not Castile’s race.
Choi says turning the entire case over to a special prosecutor “would fail to provide the legitimacy this case requires and deserves”, so he compromised by hiring a special prosecutor. By bringing in an outside prosecutor, he would be “abdicating” responsbility to an “unaccountable special prosecutor without an election certificate”, who might “not be beholden to any of these values or obligations” that Choi feels. She streamed the aftermath of the shooting live on Facebook, which went viral.
Castile, 32, was killed earlier this month after being pulled over in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights.
“If we choose to present this BCA investigation to the grand jury, Don will be part of the team that does that”, Choi said. The story inspired worldwide media coverage and weeks of protests directed at both police and Gov. Mark Dayton, with hundreds arrested in St. Paul.
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He said he felt compelled to take this case on in a time when many view the criminal justice system with “anxiety and mistrust”.
