Three Minneapolis ex-police officers were indifferent to George Floyd's
pleas, jury told
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[January 25, 2022]
By Jonathan Allen
ST. PAUL, Minn. (Reuters) - Three former
Minneapolis officers broke the law by failing to stop Derek Chauvin
killing George Floyd during an arrest and were indifferent to the
handcuffed Black man's dying pleas, a prosecutor told a jury in opening
statements in the federal trial on Monday.
Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane are charged with violating
Floyd's civil rights during his arrest on a road outside a Minneapolis
grocery store in May 2020, video of which sparked street protests
against racism and police brutality around the world.
In opening a trial that hinges on when a police officer has a duty to
intervene in a colleague's misconduct, federal prosecutor Samantha
Trepel, from the U.S. Department of Justice's civil rights division,
said the defendants had broken their oath with a callous indifference to
Floyd, 46.
She said video captured how Kueng at times seemed more preoccupied with
some gravel lodged in the tire of the nearby police car than the man
beneath him repeatedly saying: "I can't breathe."
Their lawyers argued that widely seen cellphone video of Floyd's killing
does not capture chaotic and even frightening events leading up to an
arrest in a dangerous neighborhood.
Two of the defendants were rookies only a few days into the job, they
noted, while Thao was described by his lawyer as nothing more than a
"human traffic cone" who made sure onlookers and passing vehicles stayed
clear.
Last year, the defendants' former colleague Chauvin, 45, was found
guilty of murder and manslaughter in Floyd's death at the end of a
nationally televised state trial in April 2021, and a Minnesota judge
sentenced him to 22-1/2 years in prison.
Chauvin, who is white, was also charged alongside his colleagues by
federal prosecutors with violating Floyd's civil rights in their
capacity as police officers. Chauvin changed his plea to guilty last
December. Thao, Kueng and Lane https://www.reuters.com/world/us/after-chauvin-sentencing-charges-remain-police-officers-floyd-case-2021-06-25,
who could face years in prison if convicted, have all pleaded not
guilty.
"For more than nine minutes, each of the three defendants made a
conscious choice over and over again not to act," Trepel told the jury.
"They chose not to intervene and stop Chauvin as he killed a man slowly
in front of their eyes on a public street in broad daylight."
She said that the officers had sworn an oath to care for people in their
custody, and were required by law to stop Chauvin and give Floyd medical
aid.
Defense lawyers say the three defendants had a duty to arrest Floyd on
suspicion he used a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes, and were not
criminally liable for the conduct of Chauvin, who they deferred to as
the most senior officer present.
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(L-R) Former Minneapolis police officers Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and
J. Alexander Kueng in a combination of booking photographs from the
Minnesota Department of Corrections and Hennepin County Jail in
Minneapolis, Minnesota. U.S. Minnesota Department of Corrections and
Hennepin County Sheriff's Office/Handout via REUTERS
Earl Gray, a lawyer for Lane, said
Floyd was visibly intoxicated when Lane and Kueng first approached
him and struggled against being put into the back of their police
car.
"He was all muscle," Gray said. "These two rookies simply could not
get this fellow in the back seat and were clearly doing something
wrong. So what does Chauvin do? He takes over and he grabs the guy
and he puts him on the ground."
Floyd's girlfriend, Courteney Ross, said during a recess that the
defendants were shirking responsibility and trying to blame Floyd
for his own death.
"I know that when someone is crying out for help, the right thing to
do is help them," she said.
'DELIBERATE INDIFFERENCE'
Prosecutors are seeking to convince the jury in the U.S. District
Court in St. Paul that the men willfully failed to help Floyd during
what Trepel called Chauvin's "slow-motion killing." The indictment
says a person under arrest has a right to "be free from a police
officer's deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs."
Thao, 36, and Kueng, 28, face an additional count in the indictment,
which says they willfully failed to stop Chauvin using excessive
force against Floyd, violating Floyd's right to be free from
unreasonable seizure.
Thao had worked for the Minneapolis Police Department for eight
years. Lane, 38, and Kueng, who helped restrain Floyd's lower body,
had joined only a few months prior, and Chauvin was their field
training officer.
Kueng was "a rookie officer" on his third shift ever on the job and
was let down by his seniors with "inadequate training," his lawyer
Thomas Plunkett told the jury. Lane would take the stand in his own
defense, his lawyer said.
The jury will hear from other Minneapolis police officers that the
defendants were trained in how to administer medical aid to people
in their custody, and taught that moving Floyd onto his side could
have saved his life, Trepel said.
They will also hear from some of the horrified bystanders who
shouted at the officers to check Floyd's pulse, Trepel said.
"After Mr. Floyd lost the ability to speak, the people on the
sidewalk stood up for him," Trepel told the jury. "They understood
just by seeing his body go limp, listening to his words and then
listening to his silence that, unless somebody changed what was
happening, he would die."
After the federal trial, the three men face a state trial for aiding
and abetting Floyd's murder.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Alistair
Bell)
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