A Minnesota judge on Tuesday lifted a gag order restricting comments from attorneys and others related to the criminal case regarding the four former Minneapolis police officers involved in the death of George Floyd.
Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill voided the order after the move was rejected by a coalition of news organizations and lawyers representing the former officers, The Associated Press reported. In making the decision, Cahill said he agreed with defense attorneys’ argument that a gag order would unfairly prevent his clients from addressing negative press reports.
“The gag order did not work,” Cahill said, according to The Minneapolis Star Tribune. “In any case, it may have exacerbated the problem.”
Cahill, however, did not comment on the motions to request the public release of camera footage from the body of Floyd’s arrest, the Star Tribune noted.
The videos are only available to the public by appointment, which media organizations claim violates state law on access to public records. Multiple media outlets detailed what body camera images showed last week after they were granted access.
Floyd, 46, died on May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes when Floyd said, “I can’t breathe.” Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter; The other three officers involved in the arrest, Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao, face charges of aiding and abetting the accused crimes.
An attorney for Lane in early July archived the police body camera images as part of an attempt to dismiss his client’s case. After the attorney requested that the videos be made public, Cahill issued a gag order that prevented attorneys and others from publicly addressing the case.
Local and national media outlets opposed the order, saying in a statement last week that “it threatens to prevent the press and the public from obtaining meaningful information related to these high-profile journalistic prosecutions.” All of the defense attorneys representing the former officers also opposed the order.
The footage of Floyd’s arrest sparked weeks of protests across the United States as protesters demanded that lawmakers take further steps to address racial injustice and police brutality.
In addition to the criminal charges, attorneys representing Floyd’s family filed a civil lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the four officers involved in his arrest.
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