Trial for ex-officers charged with aiding George Floyd’s murder moved to 2022
The trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged with aiding and abetting the murder of George Floyd will be pushed back to March 2022, a judge ruled Thursday.
Thomas Lane, J Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao were scheduled to face trial on 23 August on charges they aided and abetted both murder and manslaughter when they assisted a more experienced officer, Derek Chauvin, in restraining Floyd face-down on the street last May, with Chauvin kneeling on his neck.
Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter last month. All four officers also face federal civil rights charges that allege they violated Floyd’s constitutional rights during his 25 May arrest.
Chauvin is to be sentenced on 25 June, following his conviction on the state charges. There is no date yet for when the federal cases will come to trial.
Judge Peter Cahill said he had changed the date so the federal case can go forward first.
He also said he felt the need to put some distance between the three officers’ trial and Chauvin’s due to all the publicity around the case.
The news that the trial was being pushed back came during a Thursday hearing on pretrial motions.
Defense attorneys for all three former officers agreed to the postponement. The state, via the assistant attorney general Matthew Frank, did not support the delay.
It was not made clear at Thursday’s motions hearing who had originally sought the change.
Cahill also considered a request that prosecutors be sanctioned after media reports that Chauvin had planned to plead guilty a year ago, and allegations that they haven’t disclosed information about the alleged coercion of a witness.
Attorneys for Lane, Kueng and Thao have said they want the court to require prosecuting attorneys to submit affidavits under oath that they are not responsible for the leak to the media.
In a filing late on Wednesday, Thao’s attorney also alleged that the Hennepin county medical examiner was coerced to include “neck compression” in his findings – and that prosecutors knew of it.
The former officers waived their right to appear at Thursday’s hearing.
The state attorney general, Keith Ellison, whose office is prosecuting the officers, has said allegations that his office was involved in a leak are false.
Chauvin is to be sentenced on 25 June.