Minnesota judge’s ‘very unusual’ decision tossing $7.2 million fraud verdict draws mounting scrutiny
Lawmakers and the legal community are raising serious questions after a Minnesota judge took the uncommon step of overturning a unanimous jury verdict in a massive $7.2 million Medicaid fraud...
By Fox News · Fox News
Lawmakers and the legal community are raising serious questions after a Minnesota judge took the uncommon step of overturning a unanimous jury verdict in a massive $7.2 million Medicaid fraud case — a move experts say is rarely seen in white-collar prosecutions. The ruling, handed down late last month by Hennepin County Judge Sarah West, comes as Minnesota is engulfed in a series of major welfare and human-services fraud scandals that have drawn national attention and shaken confidence in the state’s oversight systems. West’s decision has triggered broader doubts about Minnesota’s resolve to prosecute white-collar and welfare fraud at a time when billions in public funds could be vulnerable. JaneAnne Murray, a University of Minnesota law professor who studies criminal procedure, said she was surprised by the decision. COMER TARGETS WALZ IN NEW HOUSE INVESTIGATION, CITING NEARLY $1B IN ALLEGED MINNESOTA FRAUD "It is highly unusual for a judge to reject a jury’s verdict in any case, much less a white-collar one, where issues of intent will almost always be circumstantial," Murray told Fox News Digital. Minnesota’s circumstantial-evidence standard, she noted, is among the strictest in the country and requires prosecutors to "exclude any reasonable hypothesis of innocence." Legal experts say Minnesota’s unusually stringent rule gives judges broader authority to vacate convictions if prosecutors cannot rule out every reasonable alternative explanation for the defendant’s conduct. The Minnesota Supreme Court is currently reviewing the decades-old standard, but Murray said West was applying the law as it stands today. Until now, West had maintained a low profile on the bench, with no prior rulings that attracted substantial controversy. But last month’s decision was derided by Republican Minnesota Sen. Michael Holmstrom, who labeled her a "true extremist." West, a former public defender appointed to the bench in 2018 by then–Gov. Mark Dayton, previously handled juvenile a…