Prosecutor reveals evidence used in Jake Gardner indictment.. they had no case

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A day before, Franklin noted, President Donald Trump had tweeted a statement that said, in part, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” The tweet came after protesters had burned a Minneapolis police station during protests over the May 25 death of George Floyd in police custody.

Franklin said “the evidence is significant in terms of Jake Gardner’s affinity for the president.”

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As he was sitting in the bar, Franklin said, Gardner was texting back and forth with people who were providing reports on what was happening downtown and in the Old Market. Franklin said Gardner made reference in texts and Facebook messages to looters and how they could be dealt with. One of the conversations dealt with whether the “field of fire” from inside The Hive was clear, Franklin said. Kleine said his understanding of the evidence is that the “field of fire” comments came from a Gardner friend, not from Gardner himself. Kleine, a Democrat, noted that plenty of people in Omaha support Trump — and several may have liked that tweet. Neither that nor the field of fire comment adds up to motive, Kleine said.

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Franklin would not say whether Scurlock had Gardner in a chokehold, as Gardner claimed to police. He criticized a reporter for revealing that an expert had been brought in to talk about chokeholds.

Reporter: “Was he in a chokehold or wasn’t he?”

Franklin: “I don’t know. You look at the video and tell me.”

Reporter: “Well, you enhanced the video — surely you know?”

Franklin didn’t respond.

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“You know he (Scurlock) had his own agenda that night and it wasn’t to peacefully protest,” Kleine said.

Kleine alleged that Scurlock was “out there terrorizing” others that night. He declined to detail those acts. A law enforcement official told The World-Herald that Randall and Scurlock had been accused of shoving a kid on a skateboard, which caused a bystander to intervene. However, no videos have emerged to back up that allegation.

Kleine also noted that Scurlock had gotten out of jail in mid-May for misdemeanor assault on the mother of his child.

“One of the comments she made is, ‘He’s getting more violent all the time,’ ” Kleine said.

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“There was no new credible or relevant evidence provided by Mr. Franklin today that Mr. Gardner’s state of mind was to harm anyone.”

They noted that “Don Kleine shares (our) view.”

Said Kleine: “I know Fred Franklin — he’s a good man. But he really seemed to have his mind made up before he went in there as to what his theory of the case was.”

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