Jury: Ex-Minneapolis officer confiscated drugs for himself

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A federal jury this week convicted a former Minneapolis police officer for confiscating drugs during three separate investigations, which he then kept for his own use.

Ty Jindra, 29, was found guilty of stealing Tramadol, methamphetamine and oxycodone. In two cases he filed false reports and in one case he failed to mention that he had discovered pills, prosecutors said.

Jindra was also found guilty of two civil rights violations, once for stopping a driver at a service station for a tag violation and once for pulling over three juveniles in a vehicle that slowly rolled through a stop sign. Both times he was accused of conducting illegal searches.

Jindra, and his attorney, Aaron Morrison, bowed their heads as U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank read the verdict. Morrison also shook his head, the Star Tribune reported. Neither would comment afterward, nor did federal prosecutors who referred questions to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

In his closing arguments Friday, defense attorney Peter Wold argued that Jindra had thrown away the drugs that he seized, which he said was not an uncommon practice of Minneapolis police. Prosecutors said the defense provided no evidence of that.

Jindra was found not guilty on six other counts.