A Minneapolis judge on Monday set a tentative date for the trial of the four former police officers charged in the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in his custody on Memorial Day.
Judge Peter Cahill set a trial on March 8, 2021 for the former officers, but did not say whether they would be tried separately or together.
Derek Chauvin, 44, was arrested on May 29, four days after he was caught on camera digging his knee into Floyd’s back of the neck for nearly nine minutes as the handcuffed black man struggled to breathe and begged for his life. Chauvin has been charged with Second Degree Involuntary Murder, Third Degree Murder and Second Degree Involuntary Murder.
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The other three officers on the scene, Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, have been charged with aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.
Kueng and Lane posted bail for a bond of $ 750,000 and have been out of custody. Thao is still behind bars with a $ 1 million bond without conditions or a $ 750,000 bond with conditions.
Chauvin, who appeared remotely via Zoom from the Oak Park Heights state prison, is on $ 1.25 million bail. He was wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and a mask. He accepted the trial date of 2021, given the 8,000 pages of discovery against him. The discovery is the process where prosecutors share evidence in the case with defense attorneys before the trial.
Ahead of Monday’s hearing, Chauvin’s attorney had made no public comment on the charges, while defense attorneys for Thao, Kueng and Lane attempted to greatly minimize the role of their clients in Floyd’s death, which has sparked massive protests across the country against uncontrolled police brutality and systemic racism
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Thao’s audience followed Chauvin’s on Monday afternoon. Her attorney argued that comments made about Floyd’s death by President Trump and Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz have unfairly clouded the case against her client. He also said he would push for a change of venue due to prejudicial pre-trial publicity.
Kueng and Lane’s hearings followed. Both men agreed to a September 11 hearing and a trial date for March 2021.
Earlier this month, the Minneapolis City Council unanimously passed a resolution to seek a community-run public safety system to replace the police department. The move came just days after a majority of the council voted to dissolve the police department as a direct result of Floyd’s death.
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When Kueng, Lane and Thao appeared in court for their first hearing in early June, their defense attorneys blamed Chauvin, who has nearly 20 years of experience under his belt, for killing Floyd. Lane was working his fourth shift and Kueng, his third, and his lawyers argued that they were simply following Chauvin’s lead.
Lane’s lawyer, Earl Gray, argued that Lane had asked Chauvin twice if they should throw Floyd, who was fighting, at his side, but they said no. Kueng’s attorney, Thomas Plunkett, said his client took Floyd’s pulse and told colleagues that he couldn’t detect one.
Video footage of the incident showed Lane holding Floyd’s legs while Kueng was propped up on his back while Floyd, handcuffed, was face down. Thao remained vigilant, dismissing passer-by’s concerns that Floyd was dying. Thao is seen looking ahead during the last minutes of 46-year-old life before Floyd is seen limping.
Activists have claimed for years that the Minneapolis Police Department is riddled with racism and that authorities have ignored the problem.
An investigation by Fox News revealed that Chauvin and Thao have had more than a dozen behavioral complaints against them in the past, but have not been formally reprimanded.
Chauvin has been the subject of 10 conduct complaints and three police shootings that did not lead to disciplinary action during his time in force. Thao’s record includes allegations of police brutality and a lawsuit.
Chauvin, who joined the Minneapolis Police Academy in October 2001, also had a lawsuit against him related to allegations of violating an inmate’s federal constitutional rights.
In 2006, he was one of five officers who responded to a stabbing at the home of Wayne Reyes, a man who police said stabbed his friend, his girlfriend, and then threatened to kill them all with a shotgun. The police reportedly chased Reyes, who got into his truck and fled. When he got out of the vehicle with the shotgun in hand, the officers fired multiple shots at Reyes and killed him. It was unclear which officer fired first. All five went on paid vacations while the incident was investigated.
Chauvin has also been the subject of three reviews by the Civil Review Authority in which he was found to use “degrading, sustained tone,” “derogatory, sustained language” and “language-other, sustained.”
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It has also been the subject of seven reviews by the local Police Conduct Office, which concluded that the reviews had been “Closed, without discipline”.
Thao, a 10-year-old force veteran, was sued by a man who alleged that Thao and two officers used excessive force during an arrest in 2014. According to that lawsuit, Thao brutally beat a handcuffed man during an arrest before escorting him to prison only in his underwear and a T-shirt. The lawsuit, which was eventually settled out of court, alleged that Thao and another officer hit and knelt the man’s face and body, resulting in broken teeth, as well as other trauma and bruising.
Fox News’ Madelin Fuerste contributed to this report.
