Police officer admits lending his gun for drive-by shootings in the Hmong community

Shannon Prather:

A former St. Paul police officer who admitted lending his department-issued pistol for a pair of drive-by shootings in the Hmong community will serve five days in the county workhouse.

Ramsey County District Judge Edward J. Cleary sentenced Tou Mo Cha to 30 days in jail Wednesday with two days' credit, but made the ex-cop eligible to serve 23 days on home electronic monitoring, according to court records.

The 11-year department veteran pleaded guilty to one count of felony terroristic threats in February and agreed to resign immediately from the department.

Tou Mo Cha must pay $1,000 restitution and serve five years' probation. If the 36-year-old St. Paul resident completes his probation, the offense becomes a misdemeanor on his record.

St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington described the sentence as "lighter than I would have liked."

"Tou Cha disgraced his badge and his oath of office," he said. "He embarrassed the police and his own community."

The former officer wouldn't help police in unraveling other acts of violence in the Hmong community, which was a "great frustration," Harrington said. "This was a chance for him to make things right."

Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner said Tou Mo Cha did not get a sweeter deal because of his former status as a law enforcement officer.

"I would have preferred a longer sentence in the workhouse. I certainly think the judge's sentence is adequate for public safety purposes," Gaertner said. "From the beginning, our priority was not how many days would he sit in jail. We wanted to make sure he was never a police officer in this state again. We accomplished that."

The drive-by shootings were part of a spate of violence that rocked the Hmong community and included firebombing and arson. Police first suspected Tou Mo Cha was involved when video surveillance of a phone booth showed him making a threatening phone call to the Lao Veterans of America on April 26, 2004. Ballistics tied Tou Mo Cha's .40-caliber Glock semiautomatic handgun to the shootings.

After Tou Mo Cha's arrest last spring, he told police that he handed over his pistol out of fear that a powerful Hmong faction with the influence to bribe City Hall would harm his family. Tou Mo Cha's police interrogation about possible bribery prompted Harrington to turn over the former officer's statements to the FBI.

Gaertner has not charged anyone else in the drive-by shootings that occurred six months apart. In the first shooting, windows were shot out at several unoccupied businesses, including the Dara Thai restaurant, which is Hmong-owned, in the 700 block of North Milton Street in St. Paul on Nov. 29, 2003. On April 20, 2004, five bullets were fired into the Maplewood home of Xang Vang, the translator for former Hmong military leader Vang Pao. No one was injured.

Tou Mo Cha declined to address the court before his sentencing Wednesday, but St. Paul Police Sgt. Richard Straka gave a victim impact statement explaining he had known him since their days at the police academy. Straka said he had considered Tou Mo Cha a friend to whom he went for advice when investigating Hmong crimes.

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