Defamation lawsuit against 'The Fall of Minneapolis' documentary faces high legal hurdles

When the state of Minnesota was presenting its case against Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, prosecutors called on Katie Blackwell to serve as an expert witness.

Blackwell had been with the Minneapolis Police Department for nearly 20 years and served in a variety of roles as she climbed through the ranks. Most importantly for the prosecution, she served as the commander for the Training Division and had extensive knowledge of department policies.

She was on the witness stand for 38 minutes. About 30 seconds of that testimony was used in the popular and controversial documentary, "The Fall of Minneapolis."

How her testimony was presented and edited in that scene, and how it was depicted in a book the film is based on, led Blackwell to file a defamation lawsuit against the conservative news site Alpha News, its star media figure Liz Collin and several other defendants last week in Hennepin County District Court.

Blackwell contends Collin lied about her, and "clouded her career." But now she faces what could be a challenging task: proving it.

Legal experts in Minnesota say proving defamation against media organizations like Alpha News and journalists like Collin is intensive.

Blackwell is currently the assistant chief of operations for MPD, a No. 2 ranking officer in the department. She will have to show that when Collin published her book "They're Lying: The Media, the Left, and the Death of George Floyd," and when "The Fall of Minneapolis" was released, those involved knowingly lied about her. If she can prove that, she'll also have to prove those lies stunted her professionally or injured her personally.

Jane Kirtley, the Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, said people considered to be public figures are asked to prove "actual malice," which is a different legal standard than simple ill will.

"It's a legal term of art which means you knew what you published was not true or you acted recklessly in publishing," Kirtley said. "That's a very high standard."

Collin has a lengthy history in Twin Cities media. She was a reporter for WCCO TV for 14 years before leaving the station in 2021. She is married to Bob Kroll, the former president of the union representing the officers of the Minneapolis Police Department. Collin serves as the on-camera interviewer for "The Fall of Minneapolis," directed by J.C. Chaix.

Blackwell is suing Collin, Chaix, Alpha News and Paper Birch Press, the publisher of "They're Lying," seeking unspecified damages. Attorneys for Blackwell declined to comment on the pending litigation. Attorney Chris Madel, who is representing all defendants, said, "Truth is a complete defense."

Actual injury to reputation?

Blackwell's testimony at Chauvin's criminal trial was straightforward.

She calmly answered a series of questions from prosecuting attorney Steve Schleicher for about 30 minutes and a handful on cross-examination from Chauvin's defense attorney, Eric Nelson. Most of Schleicher's questions were about how training worked within the department and Chauvin's history of attending training sessions during his 19-year career. Nelson focused on how many different training techniques Chauvin would have learned and the "30,000 pages" of training materials MPD turned over for the trial.

The scene from "The Fall of Minneapolis" is from the final questions Schleicher asked Blackwell.

He shows her an image of Chauvin with his knee on Floyd's neck. He says, "I'm going to ask you, officer ... is this a trained technique by the Minneapolis Police Department when you were overseeing the training of it?"

"It was not," Blackwell says.

"How does this differ?" Schleicher asks.

"I don't know what kind of improvised position that is," Blackwell says. "So that's not what we train."

It's what Collin and Chaix do next in the film that led Blackwell to file suit.

The film cuts to Chauvin's mother, Carolyn Pawlenty, who says that testimony nearly made her leap out of her chair.

Collin then interviews Pawlenty about what is known as maximal restraint technique. That maneuver was used for years by MPD on suspects who were acting aggressively. It involves using a hobble device — a tethered rope used to restrain a subject's ankles and secure them at the waist.

"Several of those witnesses testified that MRT or the maximal restraint technique was not a part of Minneapolis police policy," Collin says to Pawlenty.

"Oh, it wasn't part of the training?" Pawlenty asks incredulously. "Pages they didn't want to be presented in court because they weren't in the manual?" She reaches down by her chair. "I have seen the manual. I've read through the manuals. I've seen, I've seen them." She brings two books with an MPD logo and the titles "Use of Force and Force Applications" to her lap. "Hmmm. They're not in the manuals?" She shows them to the camera. "Well, they sure as hell are in Derek's training manuals. So how can they say that they don't exist?"

The film then shows what appears to be a drawing from the manual with a police officer kneeling on the neck of a suspect

Blackwell argues this editing led viewers to believe she testified the department did not train Chauvin on the since-banned maximal restraint technique. In her 38 minutes of testimony, she was never asked about MRT. Blackwell did testify that when restraining suspects by the neck, officers were trained to use their arms not their knees, but that testimony was edited out of the scene used in the film.

To prove actual malice, Blackwell would have to show that in creating that scene, Collin, Chaix and Alpha News knowingly manipulated her testimony.

Michael K. Steenson, a Bell Distinguished Professor of Law at Mitchell Hamline Law School, has spent his career focused on Minnesota tort law and how citizens can recoup damages after suffering physical or emotional harm.

He said if Blackwell were able to establish the defendants used actual malice against her in their work, proving the other leg of a defamation lawsuit, that Blackwell's reputation and career were harmed, is another major hurdle.

"That is the kicker with damages," he said. "It can be very difficult to establish actual injury to reputation."

Collin's book was published Oct. 17, 2022. "The Fall of Minneapolis" was released Nov. 16, 2023.

Between those two events, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara promoted Blackwell. She was put in charge of daily operations including patrols and investigations.

Blackwell, who also serves in the Minnesota National Guard, alleges that the "lies published by the Defendants" have harmed her career history and her future career prospects. The lawsuit also says the lies have caused her significant distress and led "co-workers, soldiers, friends and members of the public" to confront her.

If the lawsuit goes to trial, Blackwell would have to shoulder the burden of proving the allegations made against her were false, Kirtley said.

"There has to be damages to the reputation," she said. "There has to be."

Cherry-picking or exposing truths?

"The Fall of Minneapolis" declares its intentions immediately by claiming it will show viewers "what politicians and the media don't want you to see" about the killing of Floyd, the conviction of Chauvin and the civil unrest that caused $500 million in damage to the city of Minneapolis. It has proven extremely popular, racking up 2.8 million views on YouTube, where it is free to view.

The tone of the film, from its narrative structure to its editing and score, creates the sensation of unlocking a government conspiracy.

While the film is based on Collin's book and she is on screen throughout, "The Fall of Minneapolis" also relies on interviews with former MPD officers, body camera footage from the arrest and murder of Floyd, archival footage of the civil unrest in Minneapolis in the wake of that murder, local and national government response to that unrest, footage from the trial of Chauvin, and dozens of highlighted court and government documents.

It argues that Floyd's history of drug use, criminal convictions and arrests were underplayed at trial. It highlights the autopsy performed by Hennepin County Medical Examiner Andrew Baker, who wrote the level of fentanyl in Floyd's system was extremely high. It shows police body camera footage of the arrest of Floyd where he says he can't breathe while being put into the squad car. At that moment, the film overlays text which reads, "No one is 'kneeling on his neck.'" It argues that Chauvin was following MPD training with how he restrained Floyd by putting his knee on his back and neck, and that training materials which prove this — like the training manuals Pawlenty holds up in her interview — were not allowed at trial by presiding Judge Peter Cahill.

There is little explanation that several of these elements were presented and argued extensively over a six-week trial that was broadcast worldwide before Chauvin was convicted on all counts and sentenced to 21½ years in prison.

As a film that is positioned as a counternarrative to a murder that created a global reckoning over race and a trial that was covered by every major news outlet in the country, it is selective in its use of footage and facts.

But that is actually a space where the defendants might argue they did not have actual malice, Kirtley said, while acknowledging she has not seen the film.

"Deliberately cherry-picking facts, that could be actual malice," she said. "But on the other hand, if the idea is, 'no, no, we already know the perceived narrative out there and we are uncovering new facts,' ... that could be an argument that it's not actual malice."

Kirtley also said that if "The Fall of Minneapolis" was moving facts around to manipulate the truth, "like shuffling a deck of cards," instead of creating a factual counterargument, then Blackwell could have a basis to prove defamation.

Documentaries add another layer to that complexity, as they have long existed in a gray area between facts, opinion and argument.

Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11″ became the highest-grossing documentary of all time under a spotlight of controversy over its accuracy about the Sept. 11 attacks. "Leaving Neverland" won an Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special before being sued by the estate of Michael Jackson, alleging it was full of fabrications. There's a cottage industry of films and books questioning the accepted narrative of the assassination of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

The number of individuals accused in "The Fall of Minneapolis" of manipulating the public, producing misleading facts or testimony, or advancing their career via the murder of Floyd, the conviction of Chauvin and unrest in Minneapolis is extensive. It includes Baker, Blackwell, Cahill, former Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, among many others.

Blackwell is the only person in the film to have filed a lawsuit for defamation.

Her lawsuit highlights the final line of "The Fall of Minneapolis" which reads: "If we don't stand for the truth, we'll fall for the lies."

"Plaintiff agrees wholeheartedly with this statement," the lawsuit reads. "However, at least with respect to Blackwell, the Defendants lied."