Alleged gang members agree to stay away from Minnesota State Fair
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Seven individuals have signed agreements to not attend the 2026 Minnesota State Fair as part of a civil case seeking to ban alleged members of gangs.
State and Ramsey County prosecutors sought a court order earlier this month to bar 10 alleged gang members to prevent violence at the fair. They said the people are part of two active criminal gangs in the Twin Cities metro area: Muddy and The Ville.
The agreement said the alleged gang members cannot attend the 2026 Minnesota State Fair or enter a designated “Safety Zone” around the fairgrounds during the duration of the fair. Although they agreed not to attend the fair, they denied any claims they were a part of a gang.
The three remaining alleged gang members named in the case either did not appear in court or contested the allegations against them, Ellison said.
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Ramsey County District Court on Thursday found they are part of the Muddy gang and granted the state’s request to prohibit them from associating with other known gang members, confronting or intimidating anyone at the fair, and using gang signs at the fair, Ellison said. The court also declared Muddy a criminal gang.
Attorney Joshua Preston is representing some of the individuals who signed the agreement and said the state is testing the limits of the gang statute, which he said has only been used twice in the last 15 years.
“I believe what the state is trying to do is that they're testing the boundaries of a gang statute that is on the books here in Minnesota, which empowers the attorney general's office and the state to sue affiliations, associations of people that they have identified as gangs,” he said.
Preston said being identified as a gang member can have “immense repercussions” on them. He said prosecutors are testing how much evidence is needed to prove someone is a part of a gang.
“That would mean suddenly all of his friends around him are now associates of a known gang member, and for the purpose of law enforcement, that itself is one of the criteria for identifying gang membership, ‘do you associate with a known gang member?’” he said. “Once you get tagged with that label, we all know that's an incredibly hard thing to shake off.”
Preston added once someone is labeled as a gang member, then everyone around them meets one of the criteria for being identified as a gang member.
These are people who grew up together, these are folks who went to grade school, these are people who are probably even just family members, So there isn't hierarchy to these organizations,” he said. “At least by that standard, we should ask ourselves: Well, if there's not a hierarchy, and if these are just folks from a community, are we just going to label eventually the whole community a gang.”
If all the individuals hold up their end of the agreement, Attorney General Keith Ellison said his office will drop the civil case.
