A defence attorney for one of the three former police officers charged in connection to George Floyd’s murder has claimed that convicted killer Derek Chauvin “called all of the shots” during the deadly encounter.
Tom Plunkett, the lawyer for J Alexander Kueng, sought to pin all the blame for Mr Floyd’s death on Chauvin as he gave his opening statements in the federal trial on Monday.
Mr Plunkett said that Mr Kueng was only a rookie cop when he was involved in the fatal arrest of the Black man outside a convenience store in Minneapolis back on 25 May 2020.
Mr Kueng and his codefendant Thomas Lane both followed the instruction of Chauvin, a veteran officer with 18 years with the Minneapolis Police Department and their field training officer, he told jurors.
Mr Kueng, Mr Lane and a third officer Tou Thao are currently on trial on federal charges of violating Mr Floyd’s civil rights by failing to provide him with medical care and by failing to intervene to stop Chauvin’s use of force.
Chauvin knelt on Mr Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds during an arrest over a suspected $20 counterfeit bill.
Footage of the encounter shows Mr Kueng was kneeling on Mr Floyd’s back, while Mr Lane held down his legs.
Mr Thao was holding back bystanders and stopping them from intervening.
Opening statements got underway on Monday morning in the trial which is expected to last around four weeks.
Mr Plunkett called out the Minneapolis Police Department saying it “let down” Mr Kueng with a lack of adequate training and a culture where intervention was not encouraged if an officer saw another officer doing something wrong.
He pointed out that on the day of Mr Floyd’s death, Mr Kueng was only on his third shift on the job.
He argued that the viral footage of Mr Floyd’s death was “not what Alex Kueng saw” from where he was positioned on the Black man’s back, reported KARE11 journalist Karla Hult.
Mr Plunkett called on the jury to use their “common sense” as he said the evidence will show Mr Kueng did not act “wilfully” in denying Mr Floyd’s civil rights.
Mr Lane’s defence attorney gave a similar line of argument, telling jurors in his opening statement that Chauvin “takes over” from the rookie officers as soon as he arrived on the scene.
Mr Lane, who was on his fourth shift on the job, and Mr Kueng had been first on the scene before Chauvin and Mr Thao arrived.
Mr Gray said that Mr Lane “did everything possible to help George Floyd” and had asked if they should roll the Black man onto his side, saying he was concerned about “excited delirium”.
He was told no by the senior officer Chauvin, he said.
“If they had hobbled him, he would be on his side and no doubt, would be alive today,” argued Mr Gray.
The attorney also said that Mr Lane plans to take the stand in his defence.
In his opening statement, Mr Thao’s defence attorney Robert Paule focused on the events leading up to Mr Floyd’s death, saying that the Black man failed to follow the commands of the officers and was acting “very erratic”.
“Not only is Mr. Floyd not following command, but he’s physically resisting at this point,” he said.
"Again, I’m not trying to denigrate Mr. Floyd," Mr Paule said, as he also references drug paraphernalia found on Mr. Floyd during the police encounter. 22/x
The defence attorney then insisted he is not trying to “denigrate Mr Floyd” as he referred to drug paraphernalia on the scene.
He called Mr Floyd’s death a “tragedy” but said it doesn’t mean his client’s actions “were criminal”.
“The events that occurred that day are indeed a tragedy. The fact that something ends tragically does not mean a crime has been a committed,” he told the court, reported Fox9’s Rob Olson.
“That does not mean the actions of Mr. Thao were criminal.”
The defence’s statements came after prosecutor Samantha Trepel delivered an opening statement earlier that morning, describing how the three former officers “watched as George Floyd died a slow and agonising death”.
The prosecutor told jurors that all three “chose not to act” to save the Black man as he lay dying and “made a conscious choice over and over again” not to administer medical aid and not to stop Chauvin from killing him.
“These three CPR-trained defendants stood or knelt next to Officer Chauvin as he slowly killed George Floyd right in front of them,” the prosecutor said.
All three former officers are charged with one count of depriving Mr Floyd of his civil rights by failing to provide him with medical care and showing a “deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs”.
Mr Thao and Mr Kueng are also charged with one count of depriving Mr Floyd of his civil rights by failing to intervene to stop Chauvin’s unreasonable use of force.
Both counts allege the officers’ actions resulted in Mr Floyd’s death.
They have all pleaded not guilty to the charges.
All three are also due to stand trial on state charges of aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter in June.
