Cadillac Pawn Calvin L. Horton shooting
Courtesy Cadillac Pawn
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Hennepin County prosecutors said Monday that they would not bring criminal charges against a south Minneapolis pawnshop owner who fatally shot a man during the unrest that followed George Floyd’s death earlier this year, saying they lacked the evidence to rebut the owner’s self-defense claim.

County Attorney Mike Freeman said in a statement that the destruction of potential video evidence by looters and the refusal of key witnesses to testify precluded prosecutors from charging the owner, John Rieple, in the death of 43-year-old Calvin Horton.

“Based upon the facts and available evidence, the state could not prove it was not self-defense and prosecutors are ethically prohibited from filing charges against someone knowing it would not be possible to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt,” the statement read. Prosecutors said they reached their decision following an “exhaustive” six-month police investigation.

— Libor Jany in Prosecutors: No charges in pawnshop killing during George Floyd unrest

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50 COMMENTS

    • “…..prosecutors are ethically prohibited from filing charges against someone knowing it would not be possible to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.”

      I was more than a little surprised to read that as well.

      • The fact it’s an Ethics violation potentially punishable by disbarment doesn’t stop 90% of Prosecutors doing it regularly.

        Now look at your local courts.
        Are 2/3 of your Black Robed Copsuckers former prosecutors?

    • Yeah, that line is BS. Prosecutors seem to frequently charge anything they can think of as part of trying for a plea bargain.

      In this case I’m thinking they are saying that to try to head off criticism from the mob. And of course they are leaving the door open for charges to be filed later on when new evidence is genera…found.

    • This DA should teach a class for the DA in Wisconsin and the one in Atlanta who are pursuing charges with political motivation behind them.

      • The DA in atlanta has plenty of time he lost the last election. In fact it is unlikely those cops will be prosecuted , the new DA has said he was reexamining the case

    • Because Republicans and Democrats do not allow people to use deadly force to protect private property. If you protect your property with deadly force you are considered a murderer.

      • “Because Republicans and Democrats do not allow people to use deadly force to protect private property.”

        Really? Are you sure about that? Tell you what – Go stealing in rural Texas after dark and see what happens to your ass… 🙂

      • I highly recommend you not rustle cattle in Texas. Ranchers can, will, and have legally strung up rustlers from trees.

      • Generally that is true. How ever their are exceptions usually for “highly defensible property” such as an occupied building or vehicle. robbery is also usually a justification for the use of deadly force.

        However the use of NON deadly force is generally allowed to defend property. If the offender responds to the lawful use of non deadly force with a deadly force threat , say 3 unarmed adults threatening a beating , then it is generally lawful to respond with deadly force absent a duty to retreat.

      • Hey Chief! If you make statements like that in Texas, you’ll be considered a moron. Like, forever. May fly in your leftard state, if you’d like to count on it, better stay there!

  1. They let the rioters go free of prosecution but then spent 6 months trying to find a way to imprison a man for defending his own business. This is NOT the America that I grew up in.

  2. In other words, WE TRIED TO SCREW THE PAWN SHOP OWNER USING HIS OWN SECURITY AND SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM IN ORDER TO PROTECT OUR PREFFERED CRIMINAL CLASS WHO ATTEMPTED TO MURDER HIM AND ROB HIS STORE, BUT OUR PREFERRED CRIMINAL CLASS WERE CARELESS IN PROTECTING ANY EVIDENCE WITH WHICH TO SCREW THE PAWN SHOP OWNER, ACCORDING TO THE POLICE, WHICH WE’RE TRYING TO DEFUND AND REIMAGINE, WE LAMENT THAT WE CANNOT CRIMINALLY CHARGE THE PAWN SHOP OWNER, FOR NOW.

    • Pro tip, all caps makes it look like you dont know how a keyboard works. You do not have to yell for us to understand your point. Anyone not smart enough will just be paralyzed in fear, clicking their heels together while crying thier eyes out in a snot fueled fury, “There’s no place like a safe space!”

      • ALL CAPS IS A FORM OF SARCASM. I DO KNOW HOW A KEYBOARD WORKS. THANKS FOR YOUR CONCERN. DID YOU HAVE ANY/ANY FEEDBACK REGARDING THE ISSUE? IF SO, PLEASE STATE YOUR CASE.

        • HEGEMON:
          Do what you like, but you’ll get more respect if you use lower case. For one thing, lower case (with possible restrained use of upper case for emphasis) is easier to read and is a COURTESY to the reader.

  3. Better relish this half azzed victory, I have a feeling they’re gonna be few and far between if evil dems actually DO get in.

  4. Wow that’s effed up…I have a good relationship with a local pawnship. Bought an AR from him too. His shop wasn’t robbed but some drunk/high jagoff plowed into his store at night. I have no doubt he’d shoot the sob if he’d been there. Persecute a lawful shoot but let BlackLootersMurder sack yer city…

  5. Empress KAMALA will just retroactively charge him with federal hate crimes.

    There is no escape from social restorative justice.

    The HELL is just beginning.

  6. “prosecutors are ethically prohibited from filing charges against someone knowing it would not be possible to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt,”

    There should be a drummer present to do rim-shots whenever a statement like that is made.

  7. I know a prosecutor in Oregon who refrained from charging a marijuana bootlegger who had fired two rounds from a 12 gauge shotgun at his landlord’s children with agrevated assault and attempted. She charges him merely with menacing and reckless endangerment. She was to stupid to understand that Elmer Fudd’s shotgun can be lethal even at relatively long range. While a 450 grain slug might have lost about half of its muzzle energy at one hundred yards, it still retains a velocity of about a thousand feet per second. This is about the same retained velocity of the bullets fired by James Paddock from the Mandalay Bay Hotel at his victims at the concert venue. A 12 gauge shotgun slug has about eight times the mass and ten times the wounding potential. Don’t get me started on the external and terminal ballistics of fletchets.

  8. Still the message being sent is don’t defend yourself against the thugs who enjoy the support of the elected.

    That’s going to be the norm for a while until it swings the other way. Once the thugs turn on their protectors it’s a different game.

      • The DA is spinning by pretending the evidence would have supported a case against the pawn shop owner. Considering the other evidence they do have it is unlikely. One of the witnesses they interviewed said one of the three men who robbed the pawn shop had a gun. The “victim” was shot while doing an armed robbery.

  9. After an “exhaustive effort” by progressive liberal prosecutors to appease the anti rule of law BLM & ANTIFA social justice mob, the political operatives embedded in the County Attorneys Office were forced to confront the reality that they would not be able to turn a clear cut and substantial use of self defense based on fear of imminent death or serious bodily injury into a murder charge. Despite the success of Soros funded take overs and power grabs of prosecutor offices nationwide, the radicals have not yet worked out (“ethically prohibited”) how to suspend the right of the accused to a trial by a jury of their peers.

  10. I’m impressed. In many areas they would charge him knowing full well it couldn’t be won but still going ahead because most likely it will bury the person financially, which is still a “win” If it’s an area where the state has to pay all costs if it loses a self-defense case, then what the state does is move to dismiss the case the moment before trial starts. A dismissal isn’t the same as not guilty and the state wouldn’t have to pay all defense costs. It might seem like a shitty thing to do but that’s how it’s played. The prosecutor in this case is correct though, they are ethically prohibited but that doesn’t stop it from happening all the time.

  11. Dan-
    Your title for this post makes it sound like the owner would have been guilty of a crime if the video hadn’t been destroyed. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. This isn’t even the title of the story you copied. Learn to write better headlines.

  12. Local stink hole 1 county away from me, awash in gun violence and lots of property crime, won’t prosecute a gun felony unless the DA’s office thinks its a “slam dunk” conviction. That’s just great.

  13. In other words… we don’t have a case, we never had a case, and we should have said he committed no crime from the beginning.

    Oh well, better than some of the alternatives.

  14. Snitches get stiches. So of coarse no one talked to the cops. A dead criminal partner is just the cost of doing “business”. For once the property owner didn’t get screwed by the system.

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