Attorney asks jury to hear about 2019 Floyd arrest

MINNEAPOLIS>> A lawyer for a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death asked the judge again Tuesday to allow evidence of a previous arrest during which Floyd was found with drugs, a request the prosecutor derided as an attempt to “smear” Floyd’s character. Defense attorney Eric Nelson said that Floyd’s May 2019 arrest — a year before his fatal encounter with officer Derek Chauvin — was remarkably similar: He ignored officers’ commands, put something in his mouth, and had to be physically removed from a vehicle. In that arrest, several opioid pills were found, along with cocaine. But prosecutor Matthew Frank argued that evidence was prejudicial, and suggested the defense wanted to admit it as a backdoor way of depicting Floyd as a bad person.

An 81-year-old man who reportedly fell asleep at the wheel and crashed his car into a tree died from his injuries early Tuesday morning, authorities said. According to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, the crash happened on a curved section of Silver Lake Road near Dixboro Road in Lyon Township. The driver, who was a South Lyon resident, was alert after the crash and told deputies he had fallen asleep and ran off the roadway while operating his vehicle, a 2020 Chevrolet Equinox. He was transported to Ascension Providence Park in Novi and had been listed in stable condition, but two hours later the sheriff’s office was notified that he had died from his injuries. The driver had been wearing a seatbelt and alcohol doesn’t appear to have been a factor in the crash, the sheriff’s office said.