3 former police officers charged in George Floyd’s death reject plea deal
By Omar Jimenez, CNN
Three former Minneapolis police officers set to stand trial on state charges in George Floyd’s death have rejected a plea deal with prosecutors, the Minnesota attorney general’s office told CNN.
Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane face a state trial — currently slated for mid-June — on charges of aiding and abetting over their role in the fatal restraint of Floyd on a Minneapolis street in May 2020. They have pleaded not guilty.
The former officers were offered the plea deals on March 22, the attorney general’s office said. That was just a few weeks after they were found guilty in federal court of violating Floyd’s civil rights.
The attorney general’s office would not provide details of what the proposed plea deals entailed. Terms of the offer are expected to be made public when the trio’s state trial begins.
All three former officers remain free on bail and have yet to be sentenced for their conviction in federal court in late February.
Tom Plunkett, attorney for Kueng, declined to share details on why the offer was rejected. Lane’s attorney, Earl Gray, indicated he was not inclined to enter a plea negotiation without knowing his client’s sentence in the federal case. CNN has not heard back from attorneys for Thao.
The state charges stem from the officers’ actions — or lack thereof — on May 25, 2020, as their colleague, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee into the neck and back of Floyd, who was handcuffed and lying on his stomach on the pavement.
Kueng and Lane, both rookie officers, held down Floyd’s torso and legs while Thao stood nearby and kept a crowd of upset bystanders back.
Chauvin was convicted in state court last year of murder in Floyd’s death and was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison. As part of a plea agreement, Chauvin pleaded guilty in December to federal civil rights charges related to Floyd’s death and the restraint of a teenager in a separate incident.
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CNN’s Dakin Andone and Eric Levenson contributed to this report.
