Kim Potter, who has twice been charged with assaulting suspects but not convicted, could testify on why she shot teenager Jamar Clark, says lawyer
The lawyer for a former Minnesota police officer who has twice been charged with assaulting suspects but not convicted said on Friday that her client would testify in the upcoming trial of the man who shot and killed the teenager Jamar Clark.
Antonio Herbert told reporters that he planned to move ahead with plans to call Potter, who was chief of the north Minneapolis police department until she resigned in March, as a witness in the case of Mark Ringgenberg, who prosecutors say shot Clark in 2015.
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The former officer was acquitted in 2016 of second-degree manslaughter in Clark’s death, and had a retrial ordered after an appeals court overturned her first acquittal.
Herbert said Friday it was possible that a video that has emerged that shows Ringgenberg claiming he shot Clark in self-defense as other officers surrounded him would be allowed into evidence.
“My client is in the best of position to know what happened,” he said. “I would hope that it would not be denied [by the judge].”
If Ringgenberg is convicted on all charges, the first-degree manslaughter verdict is automatically vacated and prosecutors could proceed with retrying him. It would be possible to try both Ringgenberg and Potter in the same trial on similar charges.
The judge in the case has yet to schedule a jury selection date.
Herbert said he had previously tried to call Clark as a witness against Ringgenberg, but he was barred from doing so. At the time, he said he did not know why.