Some Muslim leaders see double standard in case of St. Paul cop

Leaders in the American Muslim community say they're troubled by the case of a St. Paul police officer after a court opinion said she lied to a federal grand jury in Tennessee.

They see a double standard because St. Paul police put the officer on leave while they investigate, while federal prosecutors have indicted and even jailed a number of Somali-Americans for lying to authorities during terror investigations.

This week, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld a federal district judge's earlier decision acquitting three men convicted by a jury of sex trafficking. They were among more than a dozen Minnesota men charged in a Nashville case, most of Somali heritage. The appeals court's opinion has some harsh words for the St. Paul police officer who investigated the case, saying Sgt. Heather Weyker lied to a federal grand jury and later lied during a detention hearing in the case. Weyker served on an FBI Task Force on sex trafficking.

Compare that, critics say, to the case of Abdow Abdow.

In October 2009, the FBI was looking for three young men who were thought to be heading to fight for the Somalia-based terrorist group al-Shabab. Authorities believed them to be among five men headed for San Diego. Some of the men later disappeared, thought to have made their way to fight overseas. But when federal agents in Minnesota later asked Abdow who was in the car, he said he didn't know. Later, Abdow admitted he lied.

Abdow got indicted for making false statements and was later sentenced to prison for it.

"I think the Somali community, the African-American community, I think a lot of the minority communities that have been asking really tough questions of law enforcement would see that, 'Aha, yeah, this is what we've been talking about,'" said Jaylani Hussein, director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "There is a clear double standard."

Ibrahim Hooper is a spokesman for the national Council on American Islamic Relations in Washington.

"From a national perspective we see this all the time, that lying to federal officers or lying in any circumstance brings a tremendous penalty, and it's used as a weapon to make informants, its used to put people in jail, when they otherwise couldn't be put in jail for any other crime," Hooper said.

Police have taken some action. Weyker was put on paid administrative leave by the St. Paul Police Department on Thursday, after the appeals court decision came to light. The department also is investigating.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's office in Nashville says it is reviewing the appeals court opinion, but can't say if the office is investigating Weyker herself. Weyker has not responded to requests for comment about the case.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Minneapolis says the sex trafficking case and the appeals court findings are Tennessee matters, and that decisions in that case have not been and are not now up to federal authorites in Minnesota.

In a statement today, U.S. Attorney spokesman Ben Petok also said the Building Community Resilience program is working in Minnesota. "The U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota has hosted and attended over the past two years meetings with more than 1,000 members of the Twin Cities Somali community. We have worked very hard to increase trust and strengthen relationships with our Somali community partners."