A Minneapolis judge pushed back the trial of the three former officers charged with aiding and abetting George Floyd‘s murder to March 2022.
Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng, and Tou Thao were initially scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 23, but the trial should be postponed due to publicity incurred from the verdict in the case of Derek Chauvin, said Judge Peter Cahill on Thursday.
The new trial date for the trio of former policemen is set for March 8, 2022, according to the Associated Press. Chauvin was found guilty of third-degree murder, second-degree unintentional murder, and second-degree manslaughter on April 20.
The defense attorneys agreed with the judge’s decision during the pretrial motion, but the state, which Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank represented, did not concur with the move.
The legal teams for the defendants also used the meeting to air their grievances and call for sanctions against the prosecution following a New York Times report that suggested Chauvin had pleaded guilty over a year ago in a deal that was rejected by former Attorney General William Barr. One or more individuals within the prosecutor’s office leaked the information to the press and compromised the integrity of the trial, the lawyers maintained.
Thao’s attorney, Bob Paule, demanded the state should be held accountable for “its role — directly or indirectly — in the leaking of highly prejudicial information related to potential plea agreements of co-defendants.” Cahill agreed to hold a hearing in August on the matter.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison previously called Paule’s assertion “completely false and an outlandish attempt to disparage the prosecution.”
Paule has also attacked state authorities for purportedly coercing Hennepin County medical examiner, Dr. Mark Baker, to include “neck compression” as a cause of death in Floyd’s autopsy. The attorney posited that Baker initially didn’t include the specific cause of death, but when pressed by Dr. Roger Mitchell, a former Washington, D.C., medical examiner, he changed his determination.
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“The bizarre allegations offered in support of the motion are false and wrong, and we intend to file a complete response,” Frank said in response to the allegations.
Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020, after Chauvin knelt on his neck for over nine minutes. The three other officers, some of whom were being trained by Chauvin at the time, were arrested shortly after. Lane was said to have held Floyd’s legs, Kueng allegedly held down his back, and Thao appeared on video warding off bystanders.
