Feds plan to indict Chauvin, different three ex-officers on civil rights expenses in Floyd’s loss of life

By Last updated Apr 29, 2021

So they had a contingency plan: if Chauvin was not found guilty on all counts, or if the case ended in court, they would arrest him in the courthouse, according to sources familiar with the planning discussions.

The backup plan would not be required. On April 20, the jury found Chauvin guilty of all three homicide and manslaughter, sent him to the safest detention facility in the state to await sentencing, and avoided the riots many feared would engulf the city again could.

Now that Chauvin’s state case is out of the way, federal prosecutors are moving on with their case. They plan to ask a grand jury to indict Chauvin and the other three ex-officers involved in the murder of George Floyd – J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao – for civil rights violations, a source said.

If the grand jury votes for an indictment, the former officials will face new civil rights charges in addition to the state’s cases, meaning all four could head for another criminal case in federal court.

The strategy of securing arrest and careful planning of the timing of the prosecution illustrate the intricate synchronicity of two parallel investigations into the most famous case of police brutality in decades. For most of last year, when Special Attorney Keith Ellison’s team followed up on murder and manslaughter charges, federal agencies have tried their own case privately before a grand jury – a group of 23 citizens who secretly meet to hear evidence and Ultimately, you decide whether there is a probable reason for a top-up.

Judge Peter Cahill repeatedly expressed his frustration in selecting the jury in Chauvin’s murder trial over the announcement of a $ 27 million payout from the city of Minneapolis to Floyd’s family. As a result, two seated jurors had to be fired for saying it affected their ability to be impartial.

Under the emergency arrest plan, the U.S. law firm in Minnesota would have charged Chauvin with criminal charges – a faster alternative to a federal charge that doesn’t require a large jury – so they could arrest him immediately and then ask a large jury to indict him, according to Sources who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Prosecutors want to indict Chauvin on two counts: for holding Floyd by the neck for more than nine and a half minutes in May 2020 and forcibly arresting a 14-year-old boy in 2017. In the latter case, Chauvin hit the teenager on the head with his flashlight, then grabbed him by the neck and hit him again, according to court records.

The other three ex-officers would only be charged in connection with Floyd’s death.

The federal case is being prosecuted by lawyers from the Department of Justice in Minnesota and Washington, DC

The charges would be in addition to the Department of Justice’s investigation into whether the Minneapolis police were engaging in any pattern and practice of illegal conduct. Justice officials announced the investigation the day after Chauvin was found guilty, another calculated move to avoid disrupting the state process.

A spokeswoman for the US law firm in Minnesota declined to comment on the possible charges or the contingency plan.

For the past decade, prosecutors have filed civil rights suits against officials in the United States an average of 41 times a year, according to a report from Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

The most recent civil rights trial against a Minnesota official was for St. Paul officer Brett Palkowitsch in 2019. Palkowitsch kicked an unarmed 52-year-old black man who was handcuffed and attacked by K-9 police. He had seven broken ribs and two collapsed lungs. Throughout the trial, Washington, DC, Justice Department attorneys painted Palkovich as a bully who deliberately defied the training and appeared to enjoy the brutality. The jury found the officer guilty of “using more force than a reasonable officer would use in the circumstances.”

Last summer, Justice Department officials vowed to conduct a thorough investigation into Chauvin and three other officials implicated in Floyd’s death amid rioting against police in the Twin Cities. On May 28, then-US attorney Erica MacDonald of Minnesota said in a press conference outside the FBI field office at the Brooklyn Center that the federal investigation would focus on whether officers were using their law enforcement authority to assert Floyd of his constitutional rights deprive. MacDonald resigned earlier this year, following a motion by the future presidential administration that US attorneys in most states should resign. Their permanent replacement has not been named.

The video of Chauvin’s arrest of Floyd on May 25, 2020 was the subject of the most prominent criminal case in recent years. Images of the white officer kneeling on the black man’s neck in Floyd’s final moments while Floyd begged for his mother and pleaded for mercy on viewers, sparking protests and riots around the world. In Minneapolis, the unrest culminated in the days after Floyd’s death with the burning of the 3rd District Police Station where Chauvin worked.

The second arrest that was the subject of the federal investigation is less well known. It was captured on body camera footage that prosecutors cite as evidence of Chauvin’s violent policing of suspects who refuse to bow to his will in the state case described in court documents. The video has not been made public but is described in court records.

On September 4, 2017, Chauvin and another officer responded to a domestic attack in which a mother said her teenage son and daughter attacked them. The officers arrived to find the 14-year-old son on the floor at the back of the house on his phone and ordered him to stand up because he was arrested.

When the boy refused to give in, Chauvin grabbed him and wordlessly hit the teenager several times in the head with his flashlight. The video shows Chauvin using a neck brace, choking the boy unconscious, and then putting him in a prone position with one knee in his back for about 17 minutes until paramedics arrive, court records show.

In a scene reminiscent of the Floyd calm, Chauvin held the position even after the child told him he was in pain and couldn’t breathe and after the mother tried to intervene, prosecutors said. At some point the boy began to bleed from his ear – after being hit by the flashlight, he later told paramedics – and he asked to be turned on his back. Then he started crying and asked again to be turned around, which prompted Chauvin to ask if the boy was “freaking out” at all.

“No,” replied the boy.

“Better not,” said Chauvin. He kept his knee on the child’s back. Prosecutors said Chauvin’s account of the incident indicated that the boy “then showed active resistance to efforts to arrest him” by “waving his arms around”. He went on to write that the boy, whom he described as “about 6’2” and at least 240 pounds, “would escalate his efforts not to be arrested,” and deliver (ed) a chauvin “because of the boy’s size couple of blows to (the teenage man) to hit his shoulders and hopefully gain control. “

The fluidity of the grand jury’s process makes the timing difficult to predict, but a source said they believe the charges will be dropped soon. The state trial of Kueng, Lane and Thao for aiding and abetting Floyd’s murder is due to begin in August.

(Reporter Libor Jany contributed to this report.)