Legal Rights Center News

June 2010

Ms. Robles (not her real name) visited the LRC during public intake hours to request help. She had heard that a sheriff had recently come to her former residence in Texas with the intent to execute a warrant. Ms. Robles believed that the warrant was about outstanding traffic fines, but was not sure of the details.

The LRC’s Community Advocate looked up the sheriff’s office in the Texas county and called. The sheriff would only say that Ms. Robles should turn herself in at the Hennepin County jail.

Our advocate knew that Texas was not likely to retrieve her for a traffic warrant, and that sitting in jail here for the up to 30 days in which Texas theoretically could send a sheriff to take custody of her was an undue burden not only for Ms. Robles and her family but for the taxpayers of Hennepin County who cover the costs of the jail. Additional calls led to the Texas county’s warrant division where an employee told our advocate that normally information would not be given out over the phone but, given that we were a legal office, she would try to be helpful.

Indeed she was. Instructions were given for making initial payment, sufficient to release the warrant -- on no license and no proof of insurance charges -- with a payment plan provided to handle the balance of fines and fees. Our attorney reviewed the arrangement and approved.

Due to the diligence of our advocate, Ms. Robles was able to resolve past problems from another state and did not have to go to jail.

No other legal organization in our service area would have been able to handle this kind of situation. Public Defenders begin assistance only when there is a court appearance on a charge originating in Minnesota. Legal Aid organizations and pro bono programs do not handle matters that are rooted in criminal law. This scenario also well demonstrates that -- beyond providing full representation for criminal and juvenile cases -- LRC is more than an information conduit, we are a problem solver.

April 2010

During 2009, we randomly surveyed approximately 5% of our full representation criminal defense clients, and here are the results:

Statement	% Agreeing	% Strongly Agreeing
I would recommend the LRC to others	98	86
LRC helped me obtain a successful outcome.	95	73
My attorney provided a reasonable amount of time and attention to my case.	95	79
The consequences of my case were clearly explained to me.	95	69
My life circumstances were considered while my case was handled.	91	70
I was empowered to make the key decisions in my case.	93	63
My opinions and desires were valued and respected during the legal process.	93	69
I trusted my attorney to seek a fair and just outcome in my case.	93	79
The Community Advocate had good suggestions about issues surrounding my case.	97	71
The LRC provided me with quality representation	95	82

March 2010

The Legal Rights Center announces the hiring of Andrew Gordon as our Director of Legal Education and Juvenile Court attorney. Mr. Gordon, an immigrant from Jamaica and a graduate of Macalester College and the University of Minnesota Law School, most recently operated a solo criminal defense practice in St. Paul. Before that, he served as a staff attorney with the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Boston, MA. While in law school, Mr. Gordon practiced with the university’s Criminal Appeals Clinic and spent a summer with the Sixth Judicial District Public Defender’s office.

This position is entirely supported by a Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi Fellowship.

February 2010

An article in the Minnesota Daily featured a former client of the Legal Rights Center, who recently began employment as a barber. The story covers how he – along with co-workers – donated one day’s earnings to earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. In 2009, this client was charged with a serious crime and was facing a 20 year prison sentence. Through the effective efforts of the LRC, the client received a probationary sentence which allowed him to continue his work and schooling. The client hopes to own his own barber business in the future and is currently benefiting from a neighborhood association program that is teaching him how to set up a business plan.

January 2010

Thank you volunteers!

The Legal Rights Center relies on a staff model so as to ensure consistent quality of services, but in recent years has incorporated volunteers to handle select cases or, more frequently, team with our well experienced attorneys in the representation of our clients. The unfortunate circumstance of a difficult job market for attorneys has helped us to have a record year for volunteer assistance – 5,366 hours in 2009. This total comprises 2,360 hours from licensed attorneys, 2,492 hours from law student attorneys (thank you Minnesota Justice Foundation), and 514 other donated hours. (For purposes of comparison, a full-time attorney works approximately 1,900 hours per year.) For a complete list of LRC volunteers, please see here (go to bottom of page).

December 2009

The Legal Rights Center has been awarded a "Recovery Act: Byrne Justice Assistance Grant" from the Minnesota Office of Justice Programs. Only 41 out of 315 applicants received funding. The grant allows the LRC to maintain staff necessary to continue our Restorative Services project in collaboration with the Minneapolis Public Schools during 2010 and 2011. It includes full support for a research study to measure outcomes, to be performed by the University of Minnesota's Healthy Youth Development - Prevention Research Center. (See news items from March 2009 and April 2008 for more information.)

November 2009

Todd J. Guerrero -- an officer of the Minneapolis law firm of Fredrikson & Byron (where his practice includes a wide range of business, regulatory and project development matters related to energy) -- has been elected President of the Legal Rights Center's Board of Directors. Mr. Guerrero joined the LRC Board in 2003, and has taken on active roles, which include serving as Treasurer and overseeing the revision of the LRC's Bylaws.

Mr. Guerrero follows Steven A. Schumeister -- the managing partner of the Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi law firm -- who had presided over the Board since 2001. Mr. Schumeister's LRC accomplishments include important initiatives related to the financial and program development of the organization, in addition to overseeing a change in the LRC's executive leadership.

Angela Hall Slaughter, an Associate General Counsel at United health Group and an active member of the Minnesota American Indian Bar Association, was elected Treasurer. LRC co-founder Clyde Bellecourt was re-elected as Vice-President, and longtime community leader and Board member Charlnitta Ellis was re-elected as Secretary.

September 2009

The Legal Rights Center has elected two new community representatives to our Board of Directors.

Norma Renville was elected to represent the American Indian community. Most recently, Ms. Renville has been best known for her leadership work with the Metropolitan Urban Indian Directors, but she also has extensive experience in nonprofits and in education.

Susana De Leon was elected to represent the Latino community. Ms. De Leon is well known as a community leader and an advocate for immigrant rights. Her successful law firm, De Leon & Nestor, is located in the heart of the South Minneapolis Latino Community.

Since our founding in 1970, the Legal Rights Center has defined itself as a collaboration of communities of color, reflected by our Bylaw requirement that our governing board include a majority who are selected for their leadership roles within their communities. We are pleased to add Ms. De Leon and Ms. Renville, who so well exemplify such leadership qualities.

August 2009

The Legal Rights Center defended a man who was accused of assaulting a co-worker. Our client maintained his innocence, based on the fact that the punch thrown by him was in self-defense against a physical attack. This case demonstrates a problem that many low-income criminal defendants face: the risk of testifying at trial when prior convictions will be used against them. Rather than accept the prosecutor's plea bargain offer, our client chose to go to trial and fight the accusation. Thanks to the team efforts of the Legal Rights Center (which included volunteer and student attorneys), our client was able to suppress a prior conviction through a pre-trial motion. Over the course of the two-day trial, evidence was presented to an unusually racially-balanced jury. After a few hours of deliberation, our client received a "not guilty" verdict.

June 2009

The Community Conflict Resolution Program is now working in partnership with the Minneapolis Police Department on a new juvenile diversion project, in which the Legal Rights Center is one of five community agencies providing restorative services to youth who would otherwise be referred to the county attorney for juvenile justice charges. Our restorative conferencing and circles for youth and their families help them identify youths’ strengths and design a plan that helps them take responsibility for their behavior, restores the community, and keeps youth off the path to prison. This new program adds to the CCRP’s services for youth and families, already including partnerships with the Minneapolis School District and Hennepin County Child Protection.

May 2009

Centro Legal, the nonprofit community law office that provided services to Spanish speaking clients for twenty-eight years, has closed its doors. Rachel Bengtson, an immigration attorney formerly with Centro Legal, is continuing several cases with the use of an office provided by the Legal Rights Center. While Ms. Bengtson is not on the LRC’s payroll, she is sharing her expertise with LRC staff; she is also available for phone advice to public defense and nonprofit attorneys throughout the state.

April 2009

It’s the work of the Legal Rights Center that I am most proud of. We broke the barrier between the system and the community, and enabled the community to believe that if they did use the system correctly, they could have an influence on the system. We raised feelings of pride in the Indian and other communities that you could make people listen to you. We had a real impact.
—Doug Hall, quoted in Heroes Among Us

Peter Heegaard, an honorary board member who has been involved in the Legal Rights Center for decades, recently published a book entitled Heroes Among Us: Social Entrepreneurs Strengthening Families and Building Communities. His book features interviews with area leaders who have sought to make change and solve social problems. One chapter is dedicated to Legal Rights Center co-founder Doug Hall. Mr. Heegaard kindly volunteered to read his chapter on Doug at a fundraiser for the Legal Rights Center hosted by Lindquist & Vennum. On April 23rd (Doug’s birthday), former staff, board members, Hennepin County judges, members of Doug’s family, and other supporters of the Legal Rights Center gathered to hear about the LRC’s origins and the life events that inspired Doug Hall’s participation in the foundation of this unique and invaluable law firm. Many thanks to Mr. Heegaard, Lindquist & Vennum, and event attendees for their support and for bringing together such a special night.

March 2009

Barbara McMorris, Senior Research Associate at the University of Minnesota’s Healthy Youth Development – Prevention Research Center, has begun providing assistance with outcomes measurements in the LRC’s Community Conflict Resolution Program, specifically in regard to our restorative interventions project with Minneapolis Public Schools. We are grateful for the assistance of a researcher who has expertise in juvenile delinquency as well as health, as our project is consistent with the growing movement (and city of Minneapolis policy) to treat youth violence as a public health issue—and preventable.

January 2009

Thanks to the efforts of board member Abdirizak Bihi, and in cooperation with the Somali Education and Social Advocacy Center, the Legal Rights Center has begun weekly intake hours at the Brian Coyle Community Center in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. These intake hours are aimed specifically towards Hennepin County’s East African immigrant communities, and provide access to criminal and juvenile defense representation and legal information for new immigrants; most of these clients come from a country that has not been under the rule of law for nearly two decades. Legal assistant Leah Entenmann is available on site from 1:00-3:00 every Tuesday for criminal defense intake and referrals for other legal services. Somali language interpreters are available every week; other East African language interpreters are available with advance notice.

December 2008

We are pleased to welcome to our Board of Directors María Zavala and Abdirizak Bihi, two active members of Minneapolis immigrant communities, both of whom bring new insight and connections to the Legal Rights Center. We welcome Ms. Zavala and Mr. Bihi to the board, and thank them for helping us maintain the Legal Rights Center as a law firm of and for the people.

November 2008

The Legal Rights Center is wonderful and very beneficial to those in need. I just hope that the program will continue to excel and be outstanding for others. Thank you very much!!!

My lawyer seemed like he cared about me. He was very wonderful to work with and had a great attitude. I still tell everyone how great he was.

This fall, the Legal Rights Center conducted a survey of our clients who had received legal defense services in 2008. Many respondents gave glowing feedback.

29% agreed and 65% strongly agreed with the statement, “The LRC provided me with quality legal representation.”
37% agreed and 54% strongly agreed with the statement, “I was empowered to make the key decisions in my case.”
31% agreed and 63% strongly agreed with the statement, “I trusted my attorney to seek a fair and just outcome in my case.”
Most telling of all, 20% agreed and 75% strongly agreed with the statement, “I would recommend the LRC to others.”

Our clients’ response reflects our commitment to justice, and demonstrates how our attorneys are appreciated for the quality of their work.

October 2008

We are pleased to welcome a new member of the Legal Rights Center staff. Sylvia Gutierrez comes to us from an extensive background in Restorative Justice services, having worked with Meditation Services, the Resource Center for Fathers Families, and BIHA Women in Action among other organizations. She has trained and worked in such areas as dispute resolution and mediation, domestic violence issues, parenting and family conflict, restorative circles, and women's and children's issues. Her work at the LRC will focus on our program partnering with Minneapolis Public Schools, described in our April news below. Both the program's expansion and Sylvia's position are made possible in part by a grant from the Otto Bremer Foundation.

September 2008

School is back in session, and the Legal Education for Youth program is up and running, offering presentations for youth in Minneapolis Public Schools. These presentations are geared particularly towards low-income youth and youth of color, who often perceive or experience “the law” as an arbitrary, oppressive, or unnavigable system. Our program covers the crucial points of constitutional rights, safe police interactions, the consequences of having a juvenile record, and any questions or concerns students raise. One teacher's thank-you note summarizes the impact of our program:

Your presentation to my students… was amazing. I was surprised at how much information you shared with my students that was actually useful and relevant to their everyday lives… My students really learned a lot and I would like to think that it helped prevent future legal problems.

Please contact us at 612-337-0030 to arrange a presentation for your class.

July 2008

The Charities Review Council has accredited the Legal Rights Center as meeting all standards. This designation comes after a lengthy application process, which included a review of the Legal Rights Center’s transparency along with our financial, governance, and fundraising policies. We have always valued our ethical responsibilities to our donors, the communities we serve, and the general public, and we are pleased to receive the Charities Review Council Seal. For more information, please see www.smartgivers.org.

June 2008

The founding of the Legal Rights Center (in 1970) and the lessons learned from the coalitional practices underlying our creation were the subject of a doctoral thesis successfully defended by Nalo Johnson of the University Of Minnesota’s American Studies Program. Once catalogued, it will be available through the University’s library system under the title: The History of the Founding of the Legal Rights Center: a Study in Coalition Building Between the Black and American Indian Communities of Minneapolis.

To complete her research, Johnson interviewed many present and past Legal Rights Center staff, as well as key board members dating back to our founding. Johnson concluded that the Legal Rights Center significantly influenced the development and practices of Minnesota’s statewide public defender system, and that the Legal Rights Center continues to serve the same crucial role as a place where communities of color join forces to exercise their constitutional and human rights.

May 2008

The Legal Rights Center, which owns its building at 1611 Park Ave. S., has completed the repair projects that had been set in motion by an order from the City of Minneapolis Environmental Services Department. Exterior drainage to the Minneapolis sanitary sewer system has been disconnected, new (and re-graded) pavement has been installed in our driveway, rock gardens have been installed to limit runoff, and lighting and security updates have been completed to ensure the safety of our employees.

In appreciation, the Mayor of Minneapolis sent a letter to the Legal Rights Center, stating that our corrective action, along with efforts by other similarly situated property owners, had resulted in improved water quality in the Mississippi River. Thank you to our Capital Campaign funders who helped us make such a positive impact: the Otto Bremer Foundation, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, and the Beverly Foundation.

April 2008

The Legal Rights Center has become a community partner with Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) at the school district level, giving Minneapolis youth greater access to our Community Conflict Resolution and Legal Education programs.

One of the partnership’s primary goals is to reduce suspensions and administrative transfers by providing restorative justice as an alternative. A recent city-sponsored publication, Blueprint for Action: Preventing Youth Violence in Minneapolis, called upon MPS to seek restorative solutions for school incidents in order to reduce risk factors for youth violence both inside and outside of schools.

For this project, the Legal Rights Center has chosen to emphasize the restorative method of Family Group Conferencing, creating channels of communication and accountability that extend beyond students and schools to the students’ families—however their families may be defined. As the families of students subject to formal discipline processes can perceive schools as being adversarial and racially biased, we use restorative justice not only to restore students to good standing within their schools, but also to restore the trust between families and schools.Our method also provides support to parents and guardians of struggling teenagers, both within the process and through referrals that become a part of the agreed upon accountability plan.