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In a rare move, the city of Minneapolis says it will not cover the legal expenses of an former police officer who’s being sued for using excessive force. The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled this week that the city is on solid ground in not indemnifying the former policeman, but it’s unclear if the city’s decision signals a major change in how it handles police misconduct settlements. 

In the summer of 2020, Minneapolis was on edge after George Floyd’s murder. On Aug. 26, a rumor spread that police had killed a man along Nicollet Mall. In reality, the man, who was suspected in a homicide earlier that day, shot himself as police closed in. 

Hundreds of people swarmed into downtown and began 

 inside Target’s headquarters. Asante Simmons was part of a group looting a Foot Locker. 

On video, Simmons is seen running with a shoebox under his arm as Officer Alexander Vladimir Brown chases him through a hallway. Brown hits Simmons in the head with a nightstick, knocks him to the ground, and punches him repeatedly. He then puts Simmons in a chokehold, pins him to the floor, and handcuffs him.

Prosecutors charged Simmons with burglary and assaulting an officer based on Brown’s report. But they later dropped the case when Simmons’ attorney got hold of the video, which contradicted the officer’s claim of being assaulted.

In 2024, Simmons filed a civil rights suit naming both the city and Brown. The city 

 its portion for $275,000, but it has refused to indemnify Brown, which means taxpayers are not on the hook for paying his attorney’s fees or his part of any judgment. 

Brown is challenging the city’s move at the Minnesota Court of Appeals. His attorney, Joseph Kelly, argued that state law requires municipalities to indemnify officers, and he said Brown was denied due process. 

“The city held all of the evidence in its possession at the time that it made its initial decision, or refusal to accept defense indemnification,” Kelly said during oral arguments before a three-judge panel in July. 

Representing the city, attorney Haynes Hansen countered that because Brown’s actions, particularly the chokehold, were unlawful, the city is exempt from covering his legal expenses.

“Brown used deadly force on a person who otherwise showed no sign of threat to anyone,” Hansen said. 

 published Monday, the appellate judges note that Brown put Simmons in a chokehold just a month after Minnesota lawmakers banned chokeholds. Brown left the department in 2021 with a $175,000 workers compensation settlement and was never charged with a crime.

Brown’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment from MPR News. City officials declined to comment. The city covered defense expenses in a civil suit against former officer 

, who fatally shot Justine Ruszczyk in 2017. The Ruszczyk family reached a $20 million settlement with the city. 

 attorneys in the civil rights suit that Floyd’s family filed, taxpayers covered all of the record $27 million payout. 

University of St. Thomas Professor Rachel Moran, who studies police accountability, said that not indemnifying police officers is rare.

“There’s perhaps more of an awakening to the fact that the city doesn’t want to be responsible for and doesn’t want even the look of paying for officers who are doing really problematic things,” Moran said. 

Moran said that the city’s decision may have more to do with the specific facts of Simmons’ claim and doesn’t necessarily signal a major policy shift against indemnifying police officers. 

Attorney Bob Bennett has sued the Minneapolis Police Department many times, though he’s not involved in the Simmons case. Bennett won a $20 million payout for the family of Justine Ruszczyk after former officer Noor fatally shot her in 2017. 

Because officers typically have limited personal assets, Bennett said that without indemnification, victims of excessive force won’t get the settlements they deserve.

“Why should the victims be put through that?” Bennett said. “You gave them the uniform, you gave them the gun, you gave them the training, you gave them the psych review. I don’t think that’s the way the world is supposed to work.” 

Joanna Schwartz, a law professor who researches indemnification policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that victims of excessive force may still sue cities when pursuing litigation against individual officers personally is impractical. But she said that in these instances, plaintiffs have a steeper hill to climb.

“On a claim against a local government, you essentially have to show that that government had a policy or custom that led to the unconstitutional conduct at issue in the case, and that can be quite difficult to prove,” Schwartz said. 

Even though the city of Minneapolis has declined to indemnify Brown, Jordan Kushner, the attorney who’s representing Asante Simmons, said that he plans to continue with the lawsuit.

Editor’s Note (Oct. 17, 2025): This story was updated to clarify the city’s position on the indemnification of Derek Chauvin in the Floyd family’s civil lawsuit.

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Minneapolis won’t cover legal costs for a former police officer accused of excessive force after the state Court of Appeals upheld the city’s decision not to indemnify him.

Court backs Minneapolis in denying legal expenses to ex-cop in chokehold suit

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