3 cops face complex federal trial in George Floyd’s death

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The federal trial for three former Minneapolis police officers who were with Derek Chauvin when he pinned George Floyd to the street is expected to be complex as prosecutors try to prove each officer willingly violated the Black man’s constitutional rights.

Jury selection begins Thursday in the federal case against J. Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, who also face a state trial later this year on counts of aiding and abetting both murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death.

In the federal case, all three are broadly charged with depriving Floyd of his civil rights while acting under “color of law,” or government authority. Legal experts say it will be more complicated than the state trial because prosecutors have the difficult task of proving they willfully violated Floyd’s constitutional rights — unreasonably seizing him and depriving him of liberty without due process.

“In the state case, they’re charged with what they did. That they aided and abetted Chauvin in some way. In the federal case, they’re charged with what they didn’t do – and that’s an important distinction. It’s a different kind of accountability,” said Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor and professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.

While the state would try to prove the officers helped Chauvin commit murder or manslaughter, federal prosecutors must show that they failed to intervene. As Phil Turner, another former federal prosecutor, put it, prosecutors must show the officers should have done something to stop Chauvin, rather than show they did something directly to Floyd.

Floyd, 46, died on May 25, 2020, after Chauvin pinned him to the ground with his knee on Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes while Floyd was facedown, handcuffed and gasping for air. Kueng knelt on Floyd’s back and Lane held down his legs. Thao kept bystanders from intervening.

Chauvin was convicted in April on state charges of murder and manslaughter and is serving a 22½-year sentence. In December, he pleaded guilty to a federal count of violating Floyd’s rights.

Federal prosecutions of officers involved in on-duty killings are rare. Prosecutors face a high legal standard to show that an officer willfully deprived someone of their constitutional rights, including the right to be free from unreasonable seizures or the use of unreasonable force; an accident, bad judgment or negligence isn’t enough to support federal charges.

Essentially, prosecutors must prove that the officers knew what they were doing was wrong, but did it anyway.

Kueng, Lane and Thao are all charged with willfully depriving Floyd of the right to be free from an officer’s deliberate indifference to his medical needs. The indictment says the three men saw Floyd clearly needed medical care and failed to aid him.

Thao and Kueng are also charged with a second count alleging they willfully violated Floyd’s right to be free from unreasonable seizure by not stopping Chauvin as he knelt on Floyd’s neck. It’s not clear why Lane is not mentioned in that count, but evidence shows he asked twice whether Floyd should be rolled on his side.

Both counts allege the officers’ actions resulted in Floyd’s death.

Federal civil rights violations that result in death are punishable by up to life in prison or even death, but those stiff sentences are extremely rare and federal sentencing guidelines rely on complicated formulas that indicate the officers would get much less if convicted.

John Baker, a former defense attorney and professor at St. Cloud State University, said each officer has good defense arguments available. Baker said Chauvin was a senior officer and Lane and Kueng, who were new to the job, can argue they were doing what they were told to do. Baker said Thao can say he was just trying to keep other people from getting involved.

“The question is: Did they do enough and should they have stopped Derek Chauvin from doing what he was doing?” Baker said.

It’s not known whether any of the three officers will testify. Baker said he would advise them not to, because their testimony could be used against them in a state trial. But Osler thinks at least some of them might take the stand, saying police officers make some of the best witnesses because they are trained on how to testify.

It’s not clear whether Chauvin will testify, either. Turner said prosecutors don’t need his testimony because they have video that shows what happened. Osler said Chauvin’s federal plea agreement was crafted carefully to limit his usefulness to the defense.

That agreement says Chauvin knew that officers are trained to intervene if another officer is using inappropriate force, and that Chauvin didn’t threaten or force any of the three officers to disregard that duty.

It also says that Chauvin did not observe Thao or Kueng do or say anything to try to get Chauvin to stop. It says Chauvin heard Lane ask twice whether Floyd should be rolled on his side, but that Chauvin “did not hear or observe Officer Lane press the point, and did not hear or observe Officer Lane say or do anything else to try to get Officer Kueng and the defendant off of Mr. Floyd.”

Osler said those details are “quite intentional.”

“There must be some fear that he would fall on his sword and say it was all on me, not these other guys,” Osler said.

As rare as federal prosecutions of officers are, it’s rarer still that such a case would precede a state trial.

The future of the state case is uncertain. Osler said if the officers are convicted in federal court, the state trial could proceed, the officers could plead guilty, or the state could dismiss the charges — avoiding another trial. If the officers are acquitted, a state trial is likely to proceed.

“This trial is going to present an evolutionary step beyond what we saw at the Chauvin trial because we’re not looking at the killer, but the people who enable the killer. And that gets a step closer to the culture of the department,” Osler said.

Find AP’s full coverage of the death of George Floyd at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd

Who are the 3 officers on trial in George Floyd’s death?

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Three former Minneapolis officers headed to a federal trial on civil rights charges this week in the death of George Floyd aren’t as familiar to most people as Derek Chauvin, a fellow officer who was convicted of murder last spring.

Thomas Lane and J. Kueng were the first officers to respond to a report that Floyd had tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill, and they helped Chauvin restrain Floyd. Tou Thao, the second-most senior officer on the scene after Chauvin, held back a group of bystanders shouting at the officers to get off Floyd.

Lane and Kueng were rookies just a few days into their jobs as full-fledged officers. Though both took note of Floyd’s deteriorating condition — Kueng remarked that he couldn’t find a pulse, and Lane asked if they should flip Floyd onto his side — neither tried to stop Chauvin as he pressed his knee into the handcuffed, Black man’s neck.

After the federal trial, Lane, Kueng and Thao face state charges of aiding and abetting murder.

Here’s a further look at the three former officers:

TOU THAO

Thao was Chauvin’s partner that day. Thao, a Hmong American, had been with the Minneapolis Police Department for around 11 years, starting as a community service officer, a program meant to foster diversity by grooming potential cops. He had been a full-fledged police officer for more than eight years.

Thao joined the force part time in 2008 while attending North Hennepin Community College. He was laid off temporarily at the end of 2009 during a budget crunch. He also previously worked as a security guard at Boston Scientific facilities in the Minneapolis area, as a supermarket stocker and as a trainer at a McDonald’s.

City records show six complaints were filed against Thao. He was also the subject of a 2017 federal lawsuit accusing him and another officer of excessive force. According to the lawsuit, Lamar Ferguson claimed that in 2014, Thao and his partner stopped him and beat him while Ferguson was on his way to his girlfriend’s house. The lawsuit was settled for $25,000.

Thao’s attorney is Robert Paule.

THOMAS LANE

Lane, who is white, joined the department in early 2019 as a 35-year-old cadet — much older than most rookies. He had no complaints in his file during his short time on the force.

According to the Star Tribune, he followed three generations of men from his mother’s family into the Minneapolis Police Department, including his great-great-grandfather Michael Mealey, who was chief from 1911 to 1912.

His previous jobs included stints as a corrections officer at Hennepin County’s juvenile jail and as an assistant probation officer with a Ramsey County residential program for juvenile offenders. The University of Minnesota graduate also said on his employment forms that he had done volunteer work tutoring Somali youth and at-risk elementary school students, and with a police activities league for kids on Minneapolis’ predominantly black north side.

Lane’s attorney is Earl Gray, who represented former Brooklyn Center officer Kim Potter, who was convicted of manslaughter in December in the shooting death of Daunte Wright. Gray also was on the defense team that won an acquittal in 2017 for former St. Anthony Officer Jeronimo Yanez in the shooting death of Philando Castile.

J. KUENG

Kueng, who is Black, was the youngest of the four officers at the scene. He was partnered with Lane that day. He was raised by his mother in north Minneapolis.

Family members told The New York Times in 2020 that Kueng, the son of a white mother and Nigerian father, wanted to become a police officer to bridge the gap between police and the Black community. Two of his siblings have spoken out critically about his role in Floyd’s death.

His personnel file, which says he speaks, reads and writes Russian, did not list any disciplinary actions.

Kueng was a 2018 graduate of the University of Minnesota, where he worked part-time in campus security. Like Thao, he was also a community service officer. He also worked nearly three years as a theft-prevention officer at the former Macy’s in downtown Minneapolis. And he worked short stints as a stocker at the downtown Target store, and as a youth baseball and soccer coach in Brooklyn Center.

Kueng and family members traveled to Haiti to volunteer after the 2010 earthquake, according to relatives and his attorney.

Kueng’s attorney is Tom Plunkett, who helped represent former Minneapolis Officer Mohamed Noor in the 2017 shooting death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond. Noor’s conviction for third-degree murder was overturned, but his manslaughter conviction stands.

Find AP’s full coverage of the death of George Floyd at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd

Timeline of events since George Floyd’s arrest and death

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Timeline of events since George Floyd’s arrest and death

FILE - A protester launches a teargas canister back at Minnesota State Police, on May 30, 2020, in Minneapolis. George Floyd’s death after his arrest by police officers in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, sparked widespread anger after millions of people saw video of the event. The four officers at the scene were quickly fired and charged in his death. Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder last year. The other three officers, Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao, now face a federal trial accusing them of violating Floyd’s civil rights. Jury selection starts Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A timeline of key events that began with George Floyd’s arrest on May 25, 2020, by four police officers in Minneapolis:

May 25, 2020 — Minneapolis police officers respond to a call shortly after 8 p.m. about a possible counterfeit $20 bill being used at a corner grocery and encounter a Black man, later identified as George Floyd, who struggles and ends up handcuffed and facedown on the ground. Officer Derek Chauvin presses his knee into Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes while bystanders shout at him to stop. Video shows Floyd crying “I can’t breathe” multiple times before going limp. He’s pronounced dead at a hospital.

May 26 — Police issue a statement saying Floyd died after a “medical incident,” and that he physically resisted and appeared to be in medical distress. Minutes later, bystander video is posted online. Police release another statement saying the FBI will help investigate. Chauvin and three other officers — Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao — are fired. Protests begin.

May 27 — Mayor Jacob Frey calls for criminal charges against Chauvin. Protests lead to unrest in Minneapolis, with some people looting and starting fires. Protests spread to other cities.

May 28 — Gov. Tim Walz activates the Minnesota National Guard. Police abandon the 3rd Precinct station as protesters overtake it and set it on fire.

May 29 — Chauvin is arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. President Donald Trump tweets about “thugs” in Minneapolis protests and warns: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Protests turn violent again in Minneapolis and elsewhere.

May 30 — Trump tries to walk back his tweet. Protests continue nationwide .

May 31 — Walz says Attorney General Keith Ellison will lead prosecutions in Floyd’s death. The nationwide protests continue.

June 1 — The county medical examiner finds that Floyd’s heart stopped as police restrained him and compressed his neck, noting Floyd had existing health issues and listing fentanyl and methamphetamine use as “other significant conditions.”

June 2 — Minnesota’s Department of Human Rights launches a civil rights investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department.

June 3 — Ellison files a tougher second-degree murder charge against Chauvin and charges the other three officers who were involved in Floyd’s arrest.

June 4 — A funeral for Floyd is held in Minneapolis.

June 5 — Minneapolis bans chokeholds by police, the first of many changes to be announced in coming months, including an overhaul of the Police Department’s use-of-force policy.

June 6 — Massive, peaceful protests happen nationwide to demand police reform. Services are held for Floyd in Raeford, North Carolina, near his birthplace.

June 7 — A majority of Minneapolis City Council members say they support dismantling the Police Department. The idea later stalls but sparks a national debate over police reform.

June 8 — Thousands pay their respects to Floyd in Houston, where he grew up. He’s buried the next day.

June 10 — Floyd’s brother testifies before the House Judiciary Committee for police accountability.

June 16 — Trump signs an executive order to encourage better police practices and establish a database to track officers with excessive use-of-force complaints.

July 15 — Floyd’s family sues Minneapolis and the four former officers.

July 21 — The Minnesota Legislature passes a broad slate of police accountability measures that includes bans on neck restraints, chokeholds and so-called warrior-style training.

Oct. 7 — Chauvin posts $1 million bond and is released from state prison, sparking more protests.

Nov. 5 — Judge Peter Cahill rejects defense requests to move the officers’ trials.

Jan. 12, 2021 — Cahill rules Chauvin will be tried alone due to courtroom capacity issues. The other officers will be tried later.

Feb. 12 — City leaders say George Floyd Square, the intersection blocked by barricades since Floyd’s death, will reopen to traffic after Chauvin’s trial.

March 9 — The first potential jurors are questioned for Chauvin’s trial after a day’s delay for pretrial motions.

March 12 — Minneapolis agrees to pay $27 million settlement to Floyd family.

March 19 — Judge declines to delay or move the trial over concerns that the settlement could taint the jury pool.

March 23 — Jury selection completed .

March 29 — Opening statements are given.

April 11 — Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, is fatally shot by a white police officer during a traffic stop in suburban Brooklyn Center, sparking protests.

April 12 — Judge declines a request to sequester Chauvin jury immediately due to Wright ’s death.

April 15 — Testimony ends .

April 19 — Closing arguments . Jury begins deliberations.

April 20 – Jury convicts Chauvin on murder and manslaughter charges.

May 7 — Federal grand jury indicts Chauvin, Lane, Kueng and Thao on civil rights charges.

May 25 — A street festival, musical performances and moments of silence are held in Minneapolis and elsewhere to mark the anniversary of Floyd’s death . Floyd family members meet with President Joe Biden in Washington to talk about continuing pursuit of police reforms.

June 25: Cahill sentences Chauvin to 22 1/2 years in prison , after agreeing with prosecutors that aggravating factors warranted going above the 12 1/2-year sentence prescribed under state guidelines.

Nov. 2: Minneapolis voters reject a proposal to replace the city’s Police Department with a new Department of Public Safety.

Dec. 15: Chauvin pleads guilty to a federal charge of violating Floyd’s civil rights.

Jan. 20, 2022: Jury selection is set to begin in the federal civil rights trial of the other three officers.

Find AP’s full coverage of the death of George Floyd: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd

Murals created during George Floyd protests are up for auction

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Dozens of businesses in downtown Asheville boarded up their windows when protesters marched in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis. Those planks of wood became the canvases for painted murals that remained up through the summer of 2020 and beyond.

Now 27 of those murals are up for auction through the Asheville Area Arts Council. One of those murals was commissioned by former BPR general manager David Feingold.

The online auction benefits the Martin Luther King, Jr. Association of Asheville, Buncombe County’s COPE Program and a community grant program of the arts council. Bidding ends Feb. 28.

‘Turning pain into purpose’: Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd, keeps brother’s legacy alive

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Philonise Floyd had never seen Lake Erie frozen over, let alone been as close to the lake as he was on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“It looks like Alaska to me,” Floyd told nearly 120 participants on a video conference call.

Wintry weather:Snow stacks up in Erie region as area remains under a winter storm warning until Tuesday

Floyd traveled through an Erie snowstorm to be part of Penn State Behrend’s MLK Day celebrations, only to be stuck in his hotel room.

But through a virtual format, Floyd managed to have a conversation with Behrend students about the legacy of his brother, George Floyd, who was killed at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota almost two years ago.

May 2020:George Floyd’s death sparks violence across the country

Philonise Floyd was first asked what turning pain into purpose meant to him. It’s a motto he boasted on his t-shirt — which included an illustration of George Floyd’s face morphed with a lion’s — and one Behrend chose as it’s MLK Day theme this year.

“I get up everyday and try my best to try to change laws, make sure other individuals don’t have to go through what my brother had to go through,” he said. “Laws are made for everybody, not just for one, so when I’m turning pain into purpose, I really mean that.”

The saying “turning pain into purpose” is what the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is all about, Philonise Floyd said. The act, which is a human rights and police reform bill, was passed in Congress but has yet to pass in the Senate.

The focus shifted to before May 2020, in which Philonise Floyd reflected on the type of man his older brother was.

“He was a big brother, not just to me but a lot of individuals who I grew up around, because a lot of us grew up without a father in the household,” he said. “He would teach kids how to play basketball, and people loved him because he was a big kid at heart.

“He just wanted to be loved, he didn’t want anyone to fear him. He used to say to me, ‘When people see me, they have fear and I don’t want individuals to be scared of me.’ "

Finding out about his brother’s death

On the day of his brother’s murder, Philonise Floyd didn’t even know it happened.

“It was the day after. I was on my way out of town to Oklahoma for work (as a truck driver). Someone sent me a photo of a man and I sent it to my cousin and my cousin said, ’that’s him,’ " he said. “I immediately started crying.”

Before he knew it, the video of his brother’s murder had gone viral.

“People watched someone lose their life like a motion cinema picture,” he said. “Anybody who has seen it, all you need is an inch of humanity to know that it was wrong.”

Philonise Floyd said the news destroyed him, but he never really got a chance to grieve because the work had just begun.

“I had to speak about it. So many people around the world wanted to know about who he was, what was going on,” he said. “If I didn’t speak about it, who was going to?”

On the day of his brother’s funeral, Philonise Floyd was on a plane to Congress to speak about why his brother’s life mattered, and how his unfair death was only one of many.

“When I went to Congress, I had never seen that many cameras in my life,” he said. “I’m not in the NBA or the NFL, I’m just a regular person brought in there to shed light on a situation that was terrible, not just to me, but the world.

“We live in a place where justice and liberty is supposed to reign, but we don’t get that,” he said. “Some say it’s not justice, it’s just us.”

Social justice:How Erie County is addressing its other public health crisis: racism

Continuing his brother’s legacy

Speaking out about racism and prejudice was never something Philonise Floyd thought he’d be doing, but the platform he’s been given from his brother’s death is one he plans to take advantage of.

“Many people around the world want to keep his legacy alive,” he said. “I’m just his brother and I’m just trying to do it, but I’m not just fighting for my brother, but all my brothers and sisters across the world, no matter what race or color.”

George Floyd’s death sparked a conversation that was long overdue. It’s one his brother plans to keep at the forefront of the social justice movement.

“People are always looking for a story and the story they got is one for a lifetime,” he said. “On this MLK Day, we have to keep fighting. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream that we march in solidarity. George is in the history books forever and I just want the world to be a better place for anybody and everybody.”

Baylee DeMuth can be reached at 814-450-3425 or bdemuth@timesnews.com. Follow her on Twitter @BayleeDeMuth.