County Attorney Mary Moriarty’s decision comes after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz mocked Tesla
A Minnesota prosecutor is allowing state employee Dylan Adams to skirt criminal charges for vandalizing Tesla cars and causing more than $20,000 in damages, even after surveillance footage caught Adams vandalizing the vehicles.
While police described the video as clear evidence that Adams committed felony-level vandalism, Hennepin county attorney Mary Moriarty (D.) declined to charge the 33-year-old, a program consultant at Democratic governor Tim Walz’s Department of Human Services. Surveillance footage shows Adams keying six parked Teslas and stripping their paint—just weeks after Walz mocked the electric car company, saying that watching Tesla stock fall gave him “a little boost during the day.”
Adams is not a political appointee, a Walz administration spokesperson said.
Instead of facing charges, Adams will be enrolled in a diversion program for first-time, low-level offenders, which the county attorney’s office said helps “ensure the individual keeps their job and can pay restitution, as well as reducing the likelihood of repeat offenses.”
The prosecutor’s decision comes as Tesla has seen a nationwide surge in vandalism and arson over CEO Elon Musk’s role in the Trump administration. Attorney General Pam Bondi has called these attacks “domestic terrorism” and announced last month that three individuals accused of targeting Tesla facilities with Molotov cocktails are facing up to 20 years in prison.
Moriarty became Hennepin County’s top prosecutor in January 2023 following donations from groups such as Faith in Minnesota, which has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from Democratic megadonor George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. She has come under scrutiny for repeatedly refusing to prosecute accused rapists and killers, according to the New York Post. In her first week on the job, for example, Moriarty dismissed charges against a 35-year-old man accused of raping a teenage girl, citing attorney misconduct.
Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara said his department is “frustrated” by the county attorney’s decision.
“The Minneapolis Police Department did its job. It identified and investigated a crime trend, identified, and arrested a suspect, and presented a case file to the Hennepin County Attorney Office for consideration of charges,” O’Hara told Minneapolis outlet KARE.
“This case impacted at least six different victims and totaled over $20,000 in damages,” O’Hara continued. “Any frustration related to the charging decision of the Hennepin County Attorney should be directed solely at her office.”
This article was originally published at freebeacon.com
