George Floyd pretrial begins for 3 former cops charged with violating civil rights

Tou Thao, J. Kueng and Thomas Lane face a Jan. 20 trial for allegations that they deprived George Floyd of his rights while acting under government authority.

Three former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights during an arrest that ended in his death were scheduled to appear in federal court Tuesday for a pretrial conference that could address a host of issues, including what evidence will be allowed at trial.

Tou Thao, J. Kueng and Thomas Lane face a Jan. 20 trial for allegations that they deprived Floyd of his rights while acting under government authority.

Specifically, the officers are charged with depriving Floyd of the right to be free from indifference to his medical needs. Thao and Kueng are also charged with willfully depriving Floyd, who was Black, of his right to be free from unreasonable force by failing to stop fellow Officer Derek Chauvin from pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck.

Chauvin, who is white, was convicted in April of state murder and manslaughter charges. Last month, he pleaded guilty to a federal count of violating Floyd’s civil rights.

The May 2020 killing was captured on bystander video and galvanized protests against police brutality around the U.S. and beyond.

According to evidence at Chauvin’s murder trial, Kueng and Lane helped restrain the 46-year-old Floyd as he was on the ground. Kueng knelt on Floyd’s back and Lane held down Floyd’s legs. Thao kept bystanders from intervening.

Pretrial hearings, sometimes called status conferences, are standard. U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson is expected to lay out how the trial will proceed and weigh what evidence will be limited or allowed. Both sides have filed several motions.

Among them, Kueng’s attorney, Tom Plunkett, wants paramedics to be barred from testifying about whether Floyd was dead when they arrived, saying it’s irrelevant. Prosecutors disagree, saying the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers’ actions resulted in Floyd’s death. They anticipate presenting evidence that shows the officers were trained that “when a person is no longer breathing and does not have a pulse, one must act quickly to provide potentially lifesaving aid.”