Battle over Floyd’s past arrest, history is a key trial issue

MINNEAPOLIS — A lawyer for the former Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee against George Floyd’s neck wants to bring up Floyd’s history of drug use and a previous arrest in an effort to show jurors that Floyd was partly to blame for his own death.

A prosecutor says it’s irrelevant and that Derek Chauvin’s lawyer is trying to smear Floyd to excuse his client’s actions. Chauvin is charged with murder and manslaughter.

Floyd, a Black man, died May 25, after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against his neck for about nine minutes. Floyd’s death, captured on a widely seen bystander video, set off weeks of sometimesviolent protests across the country and led to a national reckoning on racial justice.

Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill previously rejected Chauvin’s attempt to tell the jury about Floyd’s May 2019 arrest but heard fresh arguments Tuesday. He said he would rule on the request Wednesday morning at the earliest.

Defense attorney Eric Nelson argued that new evidence makes the earlier arrest admissible: Drugs were found last December during a second search of the car Floyd was in, and were found in a January search of the squad car into which the four officers attempted to put Floyd. He also argued the similarities in both encounters are relevant: Both times, as officers drew their guns and struggled to get Floyd out of the car, he called out for his mother, claimed he had been shot before and cried, and put what appeared to be pills in his mouth.

But prosecutor Matthew Frank argued that evidence from the 2019 arrest was prejudicial. He said the defense wants it as a backdoor way of depicting Floyd as a bad person.

And he argued that the only relevant thing in Floyd’s death is how he was handled by Chauvin and the other officers.

“What is relevant to this case is what they knew at the scene at this time,” Frank said.

Nine jurors had been seated through Monday, including five who are white; one who is multiracial; two who are Black; and one who is Hispanic. The jurors include six men and three women and range in age from their 20s to their 50s.

The selection process continues until 14 people — 12 to deliberate and two alternates — are seated. Opening statements are expected March 29.

Cahill is also considering a defense motion to postpone the trial after Nelson argued that a $27 million settlement to the Floyd family-announced last week unfairly tainted the jury pool.

Cahill planned on Wednesday to re-interview the seven jurors who had been seated by that point to determine whether they could continue to serve.