By Rochelle Olson
Star Tribune
August 29, 2020
The defense attorney for
former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is arguing that George
Floyd died from chronic health problems exacerbated by drug abuse, not
because of the restraint the officer used on him.
Eric
Nelson filed motions late Friday in Hennepin County District Court on
behalf of Chauvin, one of four officers charged in the May 25 death of
the 46-year-old Floyd. Nelson also is seeking to change the location of
the trial.
Throughout
his interaction with Floyd, “Chauvin exuded a calm and professional
demeanor” as well as a concern for the potential risks of the restraint
he used on him, Nelson wrote.
Chauvin,
the officer seen kneeling on Floyd’s neck, faces one count each of
second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and
second-degree manslaughter. Three other former officers, J. Alexander
Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, are charged with aiding and abetting
manslaughter and murder.
In
his 27-page motion, Nelson noted there was no bruising or tissue damage
to Floyd’s neck or back. “Chauvin was clearly being cautious about the
amount of pressure he used to restrain Mr. Floyd — cautious enough to
prevent bruising,” Nelson wrote, adding that a bystander video showed
Floyd raising his head several times while he was on the ground,
something Nelson said he would not have been able to do if Chauvin had
his neck fully pinned.
Images
from the police training manual as well as the scene of Floyd’s death
were included with the court filing. Motions to dismiss are standard
practice in criminal cases, but this one also provides a detailed
preview of arguments Nelson is likely to make at trial — if one is held.
Judge Peter Cahill will hear arguments on the motions Sept. 11.
The
state also has filed several motions, including one signaling that it
will seek an extended sentence for the officers if they are convicted at
trial scheduled for March 2021.
Chauvin
and Thao were the third and fourth officers on the scene. Kueng and
Lane were the first to confront Floyd outside Cup Foods in south
Minneapolis. The two responded to a 911 call from a store clerk alleging
that Floyd had paid with a counterfeit $20 bill, a felony.
What
Chauvin saw when he arrived on the scene with his partner Thao was a
“strong man struggling mightily with police officers, which seemed
contradictory to Mr. Floyd’s claims about not being able to breathe,”
Nelson wrote, adding that Floyd was “handcuffed and acting erratically.
Continued struggle posed a risk of injury to Mr. Floyd and, potentially,
to officers.”
Nelson
noted that the officers discussed but did not use a hobble restraint on
Floyd because doing so would have made it harder to move him into the
ambulance. “Chauvin demonstrated a concern for Mr. Floyd’s well-being —
not an intent to inflict harm,” Nelson wrote.
Recordings
from the body-worn cameras of Kueng and Lane as well as toxicology
results from Floyd’s autopsy indicate he had ingested fentanyl just
before his arrest — something that would have been problematic given his
underlying health, Nelson wrote.
“He
was a daily smoker of cigarettes. His heart was at the ‘upper limit of
size’ due to untreated hypertension. Mr. Floyd suffered from
arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease,” Nelson wrote.
Floyd
also told officers he had recently recovered from COVID-19 and was
still positive for the virus at the time of his death, the memo said.
Floyd also had been addicted to opiates for years and was under the
influence of narcotics when he died, according to the memo.
Nelson
wrote that he wasn’t attacking Floyd’s character by mentioning drug use
but that “the most likely cause” of his death was “fentanyl or a
combination of fentanyl and methamphetamine in concert with his
underlying health conditions.”
When
Hennepin County Medical Examiner Andrew Baker briefed prosecutors on
the results of Floyd’s autopsy, he said, “If [Floyd] were found dead at
home alone” with no evidence of other causes, it would have been
“acceptable” to label his death a drug overdose.
Fentanyl overdoses have been certified at levels significantly lower than the amount Floyd had in his body, Nelson wrote.
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