MINNEAPOLIS — Editor's note: The video above first aired Nov. 8, 2021.
A charge of felony harassment has been dismissed against the father of a 15-year-old boy who was fatally shot outside his school in an unrelated incident earlier this week.
Hennepin County Judge William Leary said allegations contained in a criminal complaint against Cortez Rice did not rise to the level of the statute, and granted his request to dismiss the charge. Judge Leary did give prosecutors seven days to file an amended complaint.
Rice is the father of Jahmari Rice, who died after being shot in the midst of a dispute with two other students at the South Education Center in Richfield.
The now-dismissed charge against Cortez Rice involved an incident Nov. 8, where Rice livestreamed a protest outside a condo he thought was the residence of Judge Regina Chu. Judge Chu had just issued a ruling prohibiting cameras in the courtroom for the trial of former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter, and Rice and other activists were attempting to get Chu to change her mind.
Rice's attorney Jordan Kushner says the statute behind the felony harassment charge requires evidence that the victim (Chu) suffered reasonable fear of bodily harm or substantial emotional distress, neither of which was spelled out in the criminal complaint.
While the sentence Rice is currently serving for a probation violation on another matter will likely keep him behind bars until March, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office announced Friday afternoon that it has agreed to allow Rice to attend his son's funeral services once arrangements are made.
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