Trial for ex-cops in Floyd case postponed: reports

WASHINGTON — A judge postponed the trial of three former Minneapolis policemen accused of taking part in the murder of George Floyd to March 2022 after they said that prosecutors leaked prejudicial information about the case, according to media reports.

Tou Thao, 25, J. Alexander Kueng, 27, and Thomas Lane, 28, all fired and arrested days after Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020, have been charged with aiding and abetting the second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter of Floyd.

Former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin was convicted on April 20 of murdering Floyd, 46, by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes, in a case that marked a milestone in America’s fraught racial history and a rebuke of law enforcement’s treatment of Black Americans. The death, captured on cellphone video, led to protests around the nation and overseas.

On Thursday, attorneys for Thao, Kueng and Lane raised concerns that information had been leaked that would taint the jury pool, and that a key witness was coerced into amending his findings.

The attorneys said prosecutors leaked “damning” information to the New York Times about Chauvin’s supposed plan to plead guilty and asked Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill to sanction prosecutors, including state Attorney General Keith Ellison.

In a statement, Ellison had earlier called the leak allegation “completely false and an outlandish attempt to disparage the prosecution.”