A magistrate judge ruled Monday that four former Minneapolis police officers should stand trial together on federal civil rights charges related to the killing of George Floyd.
Lawyers for J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao asked the court to sever Derek Chauvin from their upcoming trial, arguing Chauvin's conviction in state court in April will prejudice them to a jury.
In denying that request, Magistrate Judge Tony N. Leung said the attorneys failed to prove that Chauvin's conviction will prevent them from a fair trial. The charges against Chauvin are not identical to the others, but there is "significant overlap and interplay" in the allegations, Leung said. "Also, the Government will be using essentially the same substantive evidence against each of the Defendants at trial," wrote Leung. "There will be witnesses. A number, if not a majority, of these same witnesses will be called to testify regardless of whether Chauvin is tried jointly with Thao, Kueng and Lane. The events at issue occurred during a short temporal period on a single day in a single location. In addition to the discrete unities of time and place, there can be no genuine dispute that all four Defendants were at the scene of the events giving rise to this case."
Leung's order dismisses the motion "without prejudice," meaning his decision could still be reversed.
The former officers are accused of using the "color of the law" to deprive Floyd of his constitutional rights to be "free from the use of unreasonable force" when Chauvin pinned down Floyd with a knee on his neck for more than nine minutes, and the other three did nothing to stop him. All four have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Attorneys for Lane, Kueng and the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment on the decision, and attorneys for Thao and Chauvin did not immediately respond.