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Ex-Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin, who was convicted for murdering George Floyd in Minnesota state court earlier this year, is now expected to also plead guilty to federal civil rights charges.
Chauvin had initially pleaded not guilty to charges of violating Floyd’s right to be free from unreasonable force after he pinned his knee on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes while Floyd was lying prostrate and handcuffed, repeating that he could not breathe until he died.
A change of plea hearing has been scheduled for Chauvin for Wednesday at 9 a.m. at the federal courthouse in St. Paul, a federal court docket on Monday showed, indicating that he plans to plead guilty.
Chauvin, 45, is currently serving a state sentence of 22 1/2 years for Floyd’s murder after he was found guilty in April of of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020.
Three other Minneapolis police officers, Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao pleaded not guilty to federal civil rights charges and were expected to stand alongside Chauvin at trial for their involvement in Floyd’s death. They were indicted in May by a federal jury for depriving Floyd of his right to be free from unreasonable seizure.
The three officers are additionally facing state charges of aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter for not providing Floyd medical assistance. That trial is scheduled for March.
Chauvin is additionally facing separate federal charges for an incident that occurred in 2017, in which he’s accused of violating a teenager’s civil rights when he allegedly put a 14-year-old boy in a restraint similar to Floyd’s. Chauvin allegedly hit the teenager in the head with his flashlight, choked him and held his knees against the back of the boy’s neck for 17 minutes, at one point causing the teen to lose consciousness, police body camera footage shows, according to court documents.
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