Judge pauses jury selection in ex-cop’s trial in Floyd case
Exciting races on tap, but virus still may cause complications
MINNEAPOLIS — The judge overseeing the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer accused in George Floyd’s death paused jury selection Monday for at least a day while an appeal proceeds over the possible reinstatement of a third-degree murder charge.
As hundreds of protesters gathered outside the courthouse to call for the conviction of Derek Chauvin, Judge Peter Cahill said he does not have jurisdiction to rule on whether the third-degree murder charge should be reinstated while the issue is being appealed.
But he said prosecutors’ arguments that the whole case would be affected were “tenuous.”
Cahill planned to go ahead with the trial anyway and initially ruled jury selection would begin as scheduled Monday. But after prosecutors filed a request with the Court of Appeals to put the case on hold, the judge sent the potential jurors home for the day.
With no ruling from the Court of Appeals by midday, Cahill proceeded with other pretrial matters, most of which were routine.
Cahill said he would proceed with the trial unless the higher courts told him to stop.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to dismiss 16 of the first 50 jurors they reviewed “for cause,” which Cahill approved. There was no debate over why these jurors were dismissed so the reasons were unknown, but Cahill said earlier that
attorneys would agree to dismiss jurors for cause based on their answers to a lengthy questionnaire. “For cause” dismissals can be for a host of reasons, including when someone expresses views that indicate they can’t be impartial.
Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death. The Court of Appeals last week ordered
Cahill to consider reinstating a third-degree murder charge that he had dismissed.
Legal experts say reinstating the charge would improve the odds of getting a conviction.
Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, said Monday that he would ask the state Supreme Court to review the appellate ruling. He has 30 days to seek a review.
For the unintentional second-degree murder charge, prosecutors have to prove Chauvin’s conduct was a “substantial causal factor” in Floyd’s death, and that Chauvin was committing felony assault at the time. For third-degree murder, they must prove that Chauvin’s actions caused Floyd’s death, and that his actions were reckless and without regard for human life.
Floyd was declared dead May 25 after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against the handcuffed Black man’s neck for several minutes, holding his position even after Floyd went limp. Floyd’s death sparked sometimes violent protests in Minneapolis and beyond, and led to a nationwide reckoning on race.
Chauvin and three other officers were fired; the others face an August trial on aiding and abetting charges.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the courthouse as proceedings began, many carrying signs that read, “Justice for George Floyd” and “Convict Killer Cops.”
Inside the courtroom, Chauvin followed the proceedings attentively, making notes on a legal pad. Bridgett Floyd, George Floyd’s sister, sat in the seat allocated to Floyd’s family. No one attended to support Chauvin.
Jury selection will end after 14 people are picked — 12 jurors who will deliberate the case and two alternates who won’t be part of deliberations unless needed.
The jurors will be escorted to the courthouse daily and sequestered during deliberations. Their names will be kept confidential until further order of the court.
While LeBron James was largely resting through the All-Star Game, the Nets were adding another piece for a run at his title.
With James still near the top of his game and the Nets on top of the league in scoring, it’s easy to envision a coast-to-coast NBA Finals when a champion is crowned in July.
But, when most teams resume play Thursday, the leaders in the Eastern Conference might be doing so without their two best players.
As proven again when the 76ers’ Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons had to sit out the All-Star Game, the coronavirus might still have a say on this season, making uncertainty a sizable obstacle in the title chase.
“You’re playing every other day. You don’t know when you’re going to have practice time. You don’t know as far as what the restrictions and with COVID and things of that nature if you’re going to have all your guys,” James said. “So it’s very challenging for all teams, not just us.”
The bigger problem for the Lakers has been the absence of All-Star Anthony Davis because of a right calf injury. The defending champions have struggled without him, dropping six of eight to end the first half and falling 3 games behind the surprising West-leading Jazz.
The Nets have also been without an All-Star, though they’ve hardly missed Kevin Durant because of the brilliance of James Harden and Kyrie Irving. Blake Griffin agreed to join them Sunday night after the six-time All-Star cleared waivers after securing his buyout from the Pistons.
The Nets come out of the break a halfgame behind the 76ers. Embiid has been a force this season and become a leading MVP candidate, but he and Simmons were ruled out of the All-Star Game on Sunday morning because they got haircuts from a barber who tested positive for COVID-19.
“We start on the road, back-to-back games, with one practice. That’s a challenge in itself, right?,” 76ers coach Doc Rivers said.
“Then, obviously, not having those guys, that’s a lot of points, our two best defenders. So, obviously, it would hurt.”
Teams are used to it after a first half in which the unavailability of players and coaches because of health and safety protocols forced 31 games to be called off. For every team, the first big test of the second half is the coronavirus one that will determine who is good to go upon returning from break.
Once that’s finished, teams can look ahead to a busy and exciting stretch run. With many clubs bunched in the standings and another play-in tournament opening up additional paths to the postseason, even teams that weren’t as sharp as they hoped in the first half have reason for hope.
That includes teams such as the Heat and Celtics — last season’s Eastern Conference finalists — plus the Mavericks and Warriors, all at or barely above .500 but perhaps just one hot streak from a nice leap up the standings.
Or maybe the Bucks, who were running away with the best record in the East last year when the season stopped but have been inconsistent this season, can discover their old form. The Bucks will be fearsome again if Giannis Antetokounmpo shoots anywhere near the way he did in the All-Star Game, when he went 16-for-16 en route to MVP honors.
“I’ve got to keep working hard and I’ve got to keep enjoying the game of basketball, and hopefully more important things can come, and hopefully my goal is to be a champion one day,” the two-time regular-season MVP said. “Hopefully we can hold the big trophy.”
A number of teams could have a shot. The Lakers may have looked like a solid favorite to repeat when the season started, but Davis’ health throws that into question.
Perhaps the Jazz can capitalize. They were the team whose coronavirus issues caused the season to stop last March 11. Now, they have three All-Stars and a league-leading 27-9 record.
“It’s definitely been rewarding but at the end of the day we’re not here to celebrate and act like we’ve done something and it’s only March,” Donovan Mitchell said. “I think we’ve got to continue to get better.”
Bradley Beal tossed around a few different theories one recent afternoon, trying to talk through the one thing that has been gnawing at him, just a little, for about a month — ever since the first round of all-star fan voting was released and he saw his name atop a list of the highest-profile guards in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.
What was first a 180,206-vote lead over second-place finisher Kyrie Irving had bloomed into a gap of more than 700,000 fan votes by Feb. 18, when Beal was named an All-Star Game starter for the first time in his career. Of all the guards in the league, fans had cast more votes only for Stephen Curry, meaning Beal had beaten out Luka Doncic, James Harden and Damian Lillard as the guy die-hards most wanted to see in the NBA’s glitzy annual showcase, which was held Sunday in Atlanta.
Beal delivered, scoring a team-high 26 points in 31 minutes for Team Durant, which lost, 170-150, to Team LeBron. Beal shot 10 for 16 from the field, including 6 for 12 from three-point range.
But one year after Beal was left out of the game altogether, his sky-high approval rating required some processing.
“That’s been the toughest side of things to embrace, like, the fact that it is a popularity contest,” Beal, 27, said in a phone interview last week.
To be clear, winning a popularity contest in a player-driven league in a landscape in which most successful athletes also have spit-shined personal brands is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s an extraordinary feat for a player based in Washington.
Beal became just the fourth Wizards player this millennium to start in an All-Star Game. He followed Michael Jordan, who earned the nod in his comeback year in 2002 and started in 2003 only because Vince Carter gave up his spot; Gilbert Arenas, who hired a marketing consultant and openly launched an all-out media blitz to earn his starting nod in 2007; and John Wall, a former No. 1 pick who was a cultural phenom the moment he stepped foot in D.C. and finally earned the starting honor in 2015.
Beal is the only one to lead his position group in voting.
“It’s kind of surreal, to go from 800,000 votes last year to over a million in the first round this year,” Beal said. “That was —
it’s kind of hard to put together. It speaks volumes to the hard work I put in.”
When he was snubbed for the 2020 All-Star Game, the guard was averaging 28.7 points and 6.4 assists and shooting 45.3 percent from the field carrying a 16-31 Wizards team — the first player in 41 years to average at least 28.6 points and not make the all-star team, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
This year, Beal upped his scoring average and is pouring in a league-best 32.9 points per game, shooting 48.2 percent from the field. He is again shouldering a sub-.500 Wizards team (14-20) that, critical to the popularity contest aspect of the All-Star Game, has not played a single nationally broadcast game this season.
Fans outside the Washington area must fork over a couple hundred bucks a year to watch Washington on the league’s over-thetop streaming service.
Even then, Beal isn’t sure the average viewer fully appreciates how difficult it is to average 30 points for a season, a feat only 11
players have accomplished since 2000.
“I think people think I go out and just shoot a lot of shots, and granted, yes, I do have probably more opportunities than a lot of other guys around the league, possibly,” Beal said. “But when you know that each and every night [opponents] have to game-plan for me and then I still am able, with my teammates, to go out and do the same thing I’m doing? Like, that’s not easy to do. It’s not easy to score 20 points. It’s not easy to score at all.”
One legitimate explanation for the popularity surge, aside from the undeniable scoring numbers, is that Beal’s visibility has grown in the past year.
He signed an endorsement deal with Jordan Brand ahead of the season and was constant media fodder during the Wizards’ particularly bad stretch in January and February, when his forlorn faces on the sideline became viral memes on at least a weekly basis. Beal acknowledges that the ceaseless churn of trade rumors concerning him also played a role in raising his profile among fans.
But Beal — or at least the people around him — played a role in elevating his all-star stock, too. The guard was bluntly honest multiple times last year when answering questions about his snub, stating he felt disrespected, a sentiment his teammates and coach echoed.
His agent, Mark Bartelstein, told The Washington Post that the league’s coaches “sent a horrible message” by not naming Beal an all-star reserve.
Beal’s partner, Kamiah Adams, set the NBA’s online ecosystem aflame with an appearance on the Wizards’ postgame radio show for a thorough breakdown of what she referred to as the political nature of the All-Star Game.
Laid back and quiet by nature, Beal said he is always appreciative of those who speak up on his behalf — especially Adams, who frequently tweets along with Wizards games. The pair occasionally have conversations about Adams’s online presence — plenty of NBA significant others have faced backlash after venturing into the public eye — but ultimately Beal sees her as part of his voice.
“She’s a fan, at the same time. Kamiah has a voice, and she has freedom of speech just like any other fan,” Beal said. “So she has every right to defend her husband the way she does. I’m always appreciative of it. There are moments I tell her to dial it down just a little bit or there are certain things you can and can’t comment on, but for the most part, I give her free rein. She’s part of my voice. I will say, she’s not the whole thing, but she speaks sometimes for me. I would say that.”
Beal wouldn’t change a thing about how he has honestly answered questions and advocated for himself in the past year concerning the All-Star Game and being left off the all-NBA team, but something did shift in him in the wake of the snub. Beal didn’t want to crave anyone’s approval anymore; he wanted to get back to playing basketball for the pure love of the game.
But even then, he couldn’t let go of the idea of what it means to be respected in today’s NBA.
“This year, I had the mind-set that I wasn’t going to let anybody shoot me down,” Beal said. “I wasn’t going to give anybody a reason to not respect what I was doing. I didn’t really care whether you did or not, but in my head, I was personally just not going to let that happen.”
Maryland’s Brenda Frese was named Big Ten women’s basketball Coach of the Year on Monday by both her peers and the league’s media panel.
Frese led the No. 7 Terps (21-2, 17-1 Big Ten) to the Big Ten regular-season title for the sixth time in seven seasons. Last month, she surpassed Chris Weller to become the school’s all-time winningest coach with her 500th career victory at Maryland.
This is Frese’s fourth Big Ten Coach of the Year honor, having previously won in 2002, 2015 and 2019.
She was also named Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year in 2013, Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year in 2000 and Associated Press National Coach of the Year in 2002.
The Terps, the top seed in the Big Ten tournament that begins this week in Indianapolis, have the top scoring offense in the nation at 91.3 points per game. According to FiveThirtyEight, Maryland has the most efficient offense in the nation per 100 possessions at 121.8 points, a figure that ranks fifth since HerHoopStats began tracking the stat in 2015-16.
Maryland has won 10 straight games and is 109-13 (.893) in league play since joining the Big Ten in 2014.
The Terps will face the Minnesota-Nebraska winner in the quarterfinals on Thursday at 11 a.m.
The Terps also had several players honored by the conference Monday. Sophomore guards Ashley Owusu and Diamond Miller were named first-team All-Big Ten by the coaches and media, while senior Katie Benzan, a transfer from Harvard, was named to the second team.
Senior forward Chloe Bibby, a transfer from Mississippi State and redshirt sophomore forward Mimi Collins, a transfer from Tennessee, received honorable mention.
Owusu, last season’s Big Ten Freshman of the Year, was a unanimous selection after leading the team with 18.7 points and 5.8 assists per game. Miller doubled her scoring and rebounding to 17.5 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.
St. Frances graduate Angel Reese, the former No. 2 recruit in the country, was named to the All-Freshman Team by the
media. Reese missed 14 games because of a foot injury in December, but is averaging 11.0 points and 6.0 rebounds in nine games.
Redshirt junior Channise Lewis earned a
Big Ten Sportsmanship Award.
Meanwhile, Michigan’s Naz Hillmon was named Big Ten Player of the Year, Northwestern’s Veronica Burton was named
Defensive Player of the Year, Penn State’s Maddie Burke was named Sixth Player of the Year and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark was named Freshman of the Year.