FILE - In this April 15, 2021, file image from video, defense attorney Eric Nelson, left, and defendant, former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, address Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis. Chauvin, convicted of murder in the death of George Floyd, is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021, for allegedly violating the civil rights of a teenager in a separate case that involved a restraint similar to the one used on Floyd. (Court TV via AP, Pool File)
Eric Nelson, Derek Chauvin
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin appears to be on the verge of pleading guilty to violating George Floyd ’s civil rights, according to a notice sent out Monday by the court’s electronic filing system.
The federal docket entry shows a hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday for Chauvin to change his current not guilty plea in the case. These types of notices typically indicate a defendant is planning to plead guilty, though nothing will be official until it happens in court. The court system also sent out instructions for media to attend the hearing.
Chauvin has already been convicted of state murder and manslaughter charges for pinning his knee against Floyd’s neck as the Black man said he couldn’t breathe during a May 25, 2020 arrest. He was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in that case.
He and three other former officers — Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao — were set to go to trial in late January on federal charges alleging they willfully violated Floyd’s rights.
A message left with Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, was not immediately returned. The U.S. Attorney’s Office had no comment.
The information sent out Monday gives no indication that the other officers intend to plead guilty. Messages left for attorneys for Kueng and Thao were not immediately returned. Earl Gray, the attorney for Lane, is currently in a trial in the unrelated case involving the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright.
According to evidence in the state case against Chauvin, 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 held back bystanders and kept them from intervening during the 9 1/2-minute restraint.
Floyd’s arrest and death, which a bystander captured on cellphone video, sparked mass protests nationwide that called for an end to racial inequality and police mistreatment of Black people.
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