3 ex-cops charged in George Floyd’s death want federal trial separate from Derek Chauvin
Three former police officers who were at the scene of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis want their federal trial to be separated from the trial of convicted killer Derek Chauvin, who was the one pressing his knee on the Black man’s neck for nine deadly minutes last year, their lawyers said in court filings Tuesday.
Attorneys for J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao said the two men would be unfairly prejudiced if they went to trial with Chauvin — partly due to his level of culpability in Floyd’s caught-on-tape death. An attorney for Thomas Lane filed a separate motion supporting his co-defendants’ request.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment in May charging the four ex-cops with violating Floyd’s civil rights during the May 25, 2020 encounter that led to nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism.
The indictment came just days after a Minnesota state jury found Chauvin guilty of second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The white cop’s three former colleagues are set to face their own state trial in March 2022.
Kueng’s attorney, Tom Plunkett, said evidence against Chauvin would confuse jurors, who he said would not be able to “compartmentalize the evidence as it related to Mr. Kueng,” depriving the fired police officer of his right to a fair trial.
Kueng and Lane were the first ones to arrive at a Minneapolis convenience store last year after employees accused Floyd of using a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes. The officers later helped Chauvin hold the 46-year-old victim face-down on the pavement while Thao stood next to them trying to keep bystanders away from the scene.
The federal grand jury concluded that Kueng and Thao “willfully failed to intervene” to stop Chauvin’s use of unreasonable force and that all four officers “willfully failed to provide life-saving efforts” as Floyd lay on the ground “in clear need of medical care,” court documents show.
Chauvin, who was sentenced to 22 years in state prison, is also accused of violating Floyd’s “constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer.” A separate federal indictment additionally charges him with of violating a 14-year-old boy’s constitutional rights in a 2017 arrest in which the disgraced officer used a neck restraint against the boy, according to prosecutors.
Thao’s attorney, Bob Paule, said his client wants nothing to do with Chauvin’s case and would prefer to have his own separate trial.
“The jury will have insurmountable difficulty distinguishing the alleged acts of each defendant from the alleged acts of his co-defendants,” Paule wrote in his motion.
With News Wire Services
