Judge Sarah West, right, is facing scrutiny after overturning a unanimous jury verdict in a $7.2 million Medicaid fraud case. Left: A general view of downtown Minneapolis on Dec. 4, 2025. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images; Hennepin County Courts)
"It is highly unusual for a judge to reject a jury’s verdict in any case, much less a white-collar one, where issues of intent will almost always be circumstantial," Murray told Fox News Digital.
Minnesota’s circumstantial-evidence standard, she noted, is among the strictest in the country and requires prosecutors to "exclude any reasonable hypothesis of innocence."
Legal experts say Minnesota’s unusually stringent rule gives judges broader authority to vacate convictions if prosecutors cannot rule out every reasonable alternative explanation for the defendant’s conduct. The Minnesota Supreme Court is currently reviewing the decades-old standard, but Murray said West was applying the law as it stands today.
Until now, West had maintained a low profile on the bench, with no prior rulings that attracted substantial controversy. But last month’s decision was derided by Republican Minnesota Sen. Michael Holmstrom, who labeled her a "true extremist."
West, a former public defender appointed to the bench in 2018 by then–Gov. Mark Dayton, previously handled juvenile and child-protection cases in Hennepin County. She also held leadership roles in the Hennepin County Bar Foundation, which funds legal aid and community justice programs.
She presided over the prosecution of Abdifatah Yusuf, whom a jury found guilty of six counts of aiding and abetting theft after he and his wife were accused of stealing $7.2 million from the state’s Medicaid program while running a home-healthcare business, according to the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office.
Prosecutors said the business lacked a real office and operated "for years out of a mailbox," and that Yusuf allegedly used the money to fund a "lavish lifestyle" that included shopping sprees at luxury retailers such as Coach, Canada Goose, Michael Kors, Nike and Nordstrom.
But West tossed the conviction, ruling that the state’s case relied heavily on circumstantial evidence and failed to eliminate other reasonable inferences about Yusuf’s personal involvement in the billing scheme.
"There is a reasonable, rational inference that Mr. Yusuf was the owner… but that his brother, Mohamed Yusuf, was committing the fraud… without Mr. Yusuf’s knowledge or involvement," West wrote in her ruling.
She said the scale and nature of the fraud was "of great concern," but ruled the state failed to prove Yusuf knowingly participated in it.
Andy McCarthy, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney and Fox News contributor, said the ruling veered far beyond what trial judges are normally permitted to do, underscoring how exceptional the move was.
MINNESOTA FRAUD SCHEME UNEARTHS MILLIONS IN LUXURY PROPERTY, CARS: DOJ
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has filed an appeal. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Ben Walfoort, the jury foreperson, told KARE he was "shocked" by West’s decision and said the jury’s conclusion "was not a difficult decision whatsoever."
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has filed an appeal.
Meanwhile, the decision has also triggered a political fight, with Holmstrom sending a formal letter to Judge West demanding she unseal key exhibits — and the entire case record — arguing that the public "must know what is happening in their courts and in their welfare programs."
Holmstrom called the ruling "unprecedented" and said locking away documents produced in open court violates Minnesota’s tradition of transparency.
Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.
You can send tips to michael.dorgan@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/judges-stunning-reversal-7-2m-fraud-case-ignites-legal-political-uproar-minnesota