Just last month the world watched as former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter of George Floyd. Now, the trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged with aiding and abetting Floyd’s death will be pushed back to March of next year. Thursday, May 13, a judge ruled that the trial of the three former Minneapolis cops charged in aiding and abetting the murder of George Floyd would be postponed until March of next year.
NBC News, reports J. Alexander Kueng, Tou Thao, and Thomas Lane were originally scheduled to stand trial in August. Chauvin, along with the three other men were indicted on federal civil rights charges last week. According to Judge Peter Cahill, he changed the date so that the federal case could go first, and so there would be time between Chauvin’s trial and the other three officers’.
In addition to this, he wanted to allow the publicity over Chauvin’s conviction to cool off. Cahil added that moving the other officers’ trial would ensure the federal case can go forward first. No date has been set for the federal case, but Cahill said it carries higher potential penalties.
Defense attorneys for all three former Minneapolis officers agreed to the postponement. The state, via Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank, did not support the delay. It isn’t confirmed at Thursday’s motions hearing who originally sought the change.
According to NBC News, Cahill also weighed Thursday 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 former Minneapolis Kueng and, Thao, and Lane said they would like the court to require prosecuting attorneys to submit affidavits under oath that they aren’t responsible for the leak to the media.
NBC reports, In a filing late Wednesday, Thao’s attorney made allegations that the Hennepin County medical examiner was coerced to include “neck compression” in his finding, and that prosecutors reportedly knew of it
