George Floyd’s death was perpetrated by four police officers. The most visible of those officers was 19-year-veteran Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao, who stood in between bystanders as they yelled at the officers to let up on the pleading Floyd. But there were two other officers, both kneeling on Floyd’s back and legs, as Chauvin pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck for almost two minutes after officers could not locate a pulse on an already unresponsive Floyd. The 44-year-old Chauvin has already appeared before the court and had a bail of $500,000 reportedly set. On Thursday, 34-year-old Tou Thao, 26-year-old J. Alexander Kueng, and 37-year-old Thomas Lane appeared before Judge Paul Scoggin
CNBC reports that Judge Scoggin set all three men’s bails at $1 million, “But with certain conditions, the three men could be released on bail of $750,000 apiece,” according to the report. Judge Scoggin ordered the three men appear back in court on June 29. The three men are charged with aiding and abetting to both second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges in the death of 46-year-old Floyd.
The conditions that reduce their bail includes “not working in any law enforcement capacity, surrendering any firearms, voiding their firearm permits, having no contact with Floyd’s family and agreeing to waive extradition should they leave the state of Minnesota.” I wonder if Floyd would have gotten a similar deal if he were still alive? None of the three men brought in front of the court today entered pleas of guilt or innocence in the case.
Attorneys for Thomas Lane and Alexander Kueng told the judge that their clients were rookies who were deferring to their senior officer, Derek Chauvin, during the incident. Thomas Lane’s attorney, Earl Gray, told the judge that his client only held Floyd’s legs and asked Chauvin twice whether or not they should turn Floyd over on his side. Gray also claimed that Lane performed CPR on Floyd in the ambulance. Gray argued that Lane was not abetting as much as he was following the orders of his training officer.
Former officer Alexander Kueng was represented by attorney Tom Plunkett who did not argue the merits of the case. He did claim that his client, Kueng, had said “You shouldn’t do this,” at some point, in some context, during the incident. Both attorneys told the court that their clients had been officers for just four days before George Floyd was killed.
NBC 2 reports that Chauvin was originally set to appear before court this past Monday, June 1, but has had that court appearance pushed back until June 8.