Staff Report –

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A federal jury in St. Paul, Minnesota found three former police officers guilty of federal civil rights offenses this week for their involvement in the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 that sparked international outrage and spawned a movement of protest against racist, corrupt cops who discriminate against African Americans in cities across America.

After a trial that lasted nearly five weeks, former Minneapolis Police officers Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng were found to have deprived Floyd of his constitutional right to be free from an officer’s unreasonable force when each willfully failed to intervene to stop former officer Derek Chauvin’s use of unreasonable force, resulting in bodily injury and Floyd’s death.

Thao, Kueng, and former officer Thomas Lane also were found to have deprived Floyd of his constitutional right to be free from a police officer’s deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs when they saw him restrained in police custody in clear need of medical care and willfully failed to come to his aid.

Both offenses are violations of Title 18, United States Code, Section 242, according to a press release from the United States Department of Justice.

The convictions announced this week are separate from state charges related to Floyd’s death. The federal charges addressed civil rights offenses that criminalize violations of the U.S. Constitution.

“Those who have sworn to enforce our nation’s laws must abide by them. Today’s verdict recognizes that two police officers violated the Constitution by failing to intervene to stop another officer from killing Mr. Floyd, and three officers violated the Constitution by failing to provide aid to Mr. Floyd in time to prevent his death,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement about the verdict. “The Justice Department will continue to seek accountability for law enforcement officers whose actions, or failure to act, violate their constitutional duty to protect the civil rights of our citizens.”

Acting United States Attorney Charles J. Kovats said in a statement that the fired officers stand convicted by a jury of their peers of willfully violating Floyd’s civil rights.

“The same rights guaranteed to each and every one of us by the United States Constitution,” Kovats said. “They had a moral responsibility, constitutional requirement, legal requirement, and a duty to intervene… and by failing to do so, they committed a crime. This is a reminder that all sworn law enforcement, regardless of rank or seniority, individually and independently have a duty to intervene and to provide medical aid to a person in need.”

Co-defendant Derek Chauvin previously pleaded guilty to willfully depriving Floyd of his constitutional rights while serving as a police officer. Chauvin also acknowledged that his conduct resulted in death and that he acted in callous and wanton disregard of the consequences to Floyd’s life.

Philonese Floyd, George’s brother, called it a good but sad day, according to Minnesota Public Radio.

“This is just accountability,” Philonese Floyd said after the convictions. “It can never be justice because I can never get George back. I can’t get my brother back.”

Chauvin was tried in state court and convicted of second-degree murder in 2021 and sentenced to 22.5 years in prison.

Evidence presented at the federal trial for defendants Thao, Kueng, and Lane established that on May 25, 2020, then-officer Chauvin held his knees on Floyd’s neck and back as he lay on the ground, handcuffed and unresisting. As soon as Floyd was on the ground, Chauvin placed his knee on the back of Floyd’s neck, while Kueng placed his knee on Floyd’s lower body. Chauvin would not remove his knee for the next nine minutes and 29 seconds, and Kueng maintained his position for the next eight minutes and eleven seconds, while Floyd pleaded with officers 25 times to let him “breathe.”

As Floyd lost consciousness and a pulse, Chauvin and Kueng maintained their positions on his body. Even as Floyd ceased movement and stopped speaking, and even as Lane noted that Floyd was “passing out” and Kueng said he could not find a pulse, none of the CPR-certified defendants did anything to stop Chauvin from keeping his knee on Floyd’s neck or to render the medical aid that they were trained and required to provide. Even as EMTs arrived and checked Floyd’s pupils and pulse, Chauvin did not move his knee and the other officers on scene did not render aid.

Firefighters and EMTs unsuccessfully attempted to revive Floyd on the way to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The county medical examiner ruled Floyd’s death was a homicide due to cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint and neck compression.

After the incident, an MPD supervisor and, later, an MPD lieutenant, spoke with Lane and Kueng. On both occasions, Lane and Kueng both omitted that Chauvin had knelt on Floyd’s neck, that Floyd had been restrained on his stomach for nine and a half minutes, that he had lost consciousness, and that officers had not been able to find a pulse.

Additionally, Kueng told the supervisor that Floyd did not stop moving until after an ambulance arrived on scene, which he admitted at trial was false. The MPD lieutenant testified that, after watching video taken by a bystander, he realized that what he was told and what was on the video was “totally different.”

He further testified that if an MPD officer observed another officer using too much force or doing something illegal, the officer has a duty to intervene to stop it, regardless of rank or seniority. Testimony offered at trial established that this duty to intervene is enshrined in MPD policy and is a component of the police department’s training program.

Evidence presented at trial also showed that MPD officers were required to complete emergency medical responder (EMR) training prior to entering the police academy, which includes CPR training. Further, MPD policy requires officers to determine if a subject is injured after a use of force and to render medical aid as soon as reasonably practical and requires officers assisting a person experiencing a medical crisis to provide first aid while awaiting EMS.

The jury found that the defendants disregarded this training and willfully violated Floyd’s constitutional rights. Kueng and Thao failed to intervene to stop Chauvin’s use of unlawful force and all three defendants failed to provide aid as Floyd suffered a medical emergency at the hands of a fellow police officer.

No sentencing date has been set. The statutory maximum sentence for the death-resulting violation of section 242 is life in prison.

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Charles J. Kovats, and Special Agent in Charge Michael F. Paul of the FBI’s Minneapolis Division announced today’s verdict.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the cooperation of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The case is being prosecuted by Special Litigation Counsel Samantha Trepel and Trial Attorney Tara Allison of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Samantha Bates, LeeAnn Bell, Evan Gilead, Manda Sertich, and Allen Slaughter of the District of Minnesota.