Sarah S. West
Role at the time: Hennepin County district judge ruling on Yusuf's post-verdict motion after presiding over his trial
Condemned
Statement summary
West concludes that the State's circumstantial evidence leaves a reasonable inference that Yusuf's brother, Mohamed Yusuf, committed the fraud without his knowledge. She finds the evidence insufficient to sustain the six aiding-and-abetting theft-by-swindle counts and grants the motion for a judgment of acquittal.
“While the Court is troubled by the manner in which fraud was able to be perpetuated at Promise, the State’s evidence did not exclude other reasonable, rational inferences that are inconsistent with Mr. Yusuf’s guilt.”
Read the original text (opens in a new tab)State v. Yusuf: district court order granting a judgment of acquittalCourt File No. 27-CR-24-13734; Order on Motion for Judgment of Acquittal, filed Nov. 20, 2025; order page and memorandum conclusion
Why we used this label
Relative to reinstating the jury's verdicts, the order takes the opposite view: it finds the evidence insufficient to sustain the six counts and sets the verdicts aside. The label records opposition to the verdicts standing, not a view of the fraud itself, which the order calls troubling.