The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Pinning down Floyd justified, expert says
Defense presentation begins after 11 days of prosecution testimony.
Former Officer Derek Chauvin was justified in pinning George Floyd to the ground because of his frantic resistance, a use-of-force expert testified for the defense Tuesday, contradicting a parade of authorities from both inside and outside the Minneapolis Police Department.
About expert’s testimony
Taking the stand at Chauvin’s murder trial, Barry Brodd, a former Santa Rosa, California, police officer, said officers don’t have to wait for something bad to happen; they need only to have a reasonable fear that there’s a threat and then adjust their actions accordingly.
“It’s easy to sit and judge ... an officer’s conduct. It’s more of a challenge to, again, put yourself in the officer’s shoes to try to make an evaluation through what they’re feeling, what they’re sensing, the fear they have, and then make a determination,” Brodd said.
He also said he didn’t believe Chauvin and the other officers used deadly force when they pinned Floyd on his stomach, with his hands cuffed behind his back and Chauvin’s knee on his neck or neck area for what prosecutors say was 9½ minutes.
Brodd likened it to a situation in which officers used a Taser on someone fighting with officers, and the suspect fell, hit his head and died: “That isn’t an incident of deadly force. That’s an incident of an accidental death.”
Several top Minneapolis police officials — including the police chief — have testified that Chauvin used excessive force and violated his training. And medical experts called by prosecutors have testified Floyd died from a lack of oxygen because of the way he was restrained.
What the defense said
Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson has argued the 19-year Minneapolis police veteran did what he was trained to do and Floyd died because of his illegal drug use and underlying health problems, including high blood pressure and heart disease. Fentanyl and methamphetamine were discovered in his system.
As the defense began presenting its case Tuesday after the prosecution rested following 11 days of testimony and a mountain of video evidence, Nelson sought to plant doubt in jurors’ minds.
He brought up a 2019 arrest in which Floyd suffered from dangerously high blood pressure and confessed to heavy use of opioids, and he suggested the Black man may have suffered from “excited delirium” — what a witness described as a potentially lethal state of agitation and even superhuman strength that can be triggered by drug use, heart disease or mental problems.
What the officer said
Nelson called to the stand Nicole Mackenzie, a Minneapolis police training officer, to expound on excited delirium. While Floyd was pinned to the ground, a relatively new officer at the scene had mentioned that the 46-yearold Black man might be suffering from such a condition.
Mackenzie testified that incoming officers are told how to recognize the signs of excited delirium: Suspects may be incoherent, exhibit extraordinary strength, be sweaty or suffering from abnormally low body temperature, or seem like they suddenly snapped.