A federal prosecutor and private attorney who cut a stylish figure in the courtroom, Ken Saffold was "fair, impartial and really a drum major for justice," said Chief U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis. "You couldn't ask for a better person to be in the justice system, and to have as your friend."
Saffold, who lived in Mendota Heights, died of cancer Oct. 11. He was 58.
He grew up in Birmingham, Ala., and graduated from Virginia Union University in Richmond and Howard University Law School before taking a job with the Minnesota attorney general's office in the 1970s. He soon was named general counsel at Western Life Insurance Co., said Stephanie Burroughs Saffold, his wife of 34 years. Later, he became one of the first black prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office in Minneapolis.
In federal court, his criminal work including prosecuting several tribal leaders and others in fraud and embezzlement cases. But he also focused on blunting the impact of court processes, such as sentencing, that disproportionately affected minority defendants. He worked with young men to make them aware of "how merciless the criminal justice system can be," said U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones, who followed Saffold into the U.S. attorney's office. He recalled how Saffold renegotiated a defendant's 75-year sentence after the defendant's first attorney had botched the case.
"He was a tremendous public servant," said former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, who worked with him in the state attorney general's office.
About a decade ago, Saffold left the U.S. attorney's office to become a founding partner in what became Blackwell Igbanugo, one of the largest black-owned law firms in Minnesota. In recent years he administered claims in a lending-discrimination settlement for 22,000 black farmers who'd sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Saffold was an active member of Pilgrim Baptist Church in St. Paul and a jazz lover. A faithful patron of the Dakota Jazz Club since its days in St. Paul's Bandana Square, he was part of a group of preferred ticket-holders who gathered at the best table for several shows a month, calling themselves the A-Men Corner. "He was just the nicest guy, very gracious," said Dakota owner Lowell Pickett.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by three children, Kenneth of Atlanta, Keary of Eagan and Kathryn of New York City; his mother, Charlie Mae Saffold of Birmingham; two sisters, Sheryl Ortiz and Cheryl Agee, and three grandchildren.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, 511 Groveland Av., Minneapolis.
"He was just a good man," said Coleman. "In Yiddish, there's the word 'mensch.' Ken was a mensch. He was a good man, a good dad, a good member of the community."
