Prosecution Consultant Calls Chauvin Use of Force ‘Excessive’

5:20 p.m.
The seventh day of testimony in the Derek Chauvin trial ended with the expert testimony of Los Angeles police Sgt. Jody Stiger, who agreed that excessive force was used when George Floyd was arrested just prior to his death.
Stiger, a paid consultant, trained in use-of-force tactics and who helped write some of the LAPD policy on the topic, said that Chauvin went beyond what was necessary to restrain Floyd.
“My opinion is that the force was excessive,” said Stiger, who reviewed the case and the evidence in it before coming to Minneapolis to testify. He noted that Floyd did seem to be resisting arrest, so officers were justified in using force to get him to comply. “However once he was placed in the prone position on the ground, he slowly ceased his resistance and at that point the officers...should have slowed down or stopped their force as well."
Judge Peter Cahill ended testimony for the day early and said that Stiger would be expected back to continue his testimony Wednesday morning (April 7).

Minneapolis PD Use-of-Force Trainer Testifies Only The Necessary Amount of Restraining Hold Should Be Used on Suspects

2:00 p.m.
Prosecutors have called to the witness stand the first use-of-force expert from the Minneapolis police in the Derek Chauvin murder trial. Minneapolis PD Lt.  Johnny Mercil, served in several MPD units before he was promoted to lieutenant and placed in charge of the department’s use-of-force training.
In questioning from special prosecutor Steve Schleicher, Mercil testified, explaining conscious and unconscious neck restraint. The first is moderate pressure, the second is more extreme, to make a suspect lose consciousness so an officer can gain control. But also said the MPD does not train neck restraint by using the legs and as far as he knows, never has.
"The minimum amount of force that you need to accomplish the objective of arresting and detaining somebody is what you should use,” Mercil explained.
Mercil, who did not train Chauvin, was shown a photo of the former officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck Schleicher asks, "If the subject was under control and handcuffed, would this be authorized?" To which he replied "I would say no."
But the lengthy testimony included cross examination in which the defense continued to ply the theory that Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck was not the lethal force the prosecution is portraying and that an angry crowd may have been a factor in Chauvin holding that position.
In a photo that showed Chauvin restraining Floyd on the ground, defense attorney Eric Nelson asked Mercil, who has studied Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, about use of prone control techniques to gain control of a suspect in a particular circumstance. He views the image and says Chauvin could have employed the use of his body weight to subdue Floyd, but he has trained officers to stay off of the neck.
Officers, he said, are told to “be mindful of the neck area and look for the shoulder."

Nelson then showed another photo from the perspective of former policeman Thomas Lane’s body camera, pointing out that Chauvin’s knee appeared to be on Floyd’s shoulder blade rather than his neck. Mercil said he couldn’t quite tell.
“Does this appear to be a neck restraint?” Nelson asked. “No, sir,” Mercil said.
In a redirect, following Nelson’s questioning, Schleicher asks Mercil if the kneeling across a suspect’s back is meant to end at a certain point, to which he agreed and that it is not appropriate to hold someone in that position until they no longer had a pulse.
The testimony continued with Schleicher and Nelson volleying with questions about the impact bystanders had on the arrest.

“If we’re talking about the continuation of use-of-force and the involvement of onlookers,” Nelson asked, “the words they use matter, correct?” 

“Yes, sir, they do,” Mercil answered.
“If they’re cheering on and saying ‘good job, officer’ that’s one consideration,” Nelson asked.
“Correct.”
“But if they’re saying ‘I’d slap the f--- out of you,’ or ‘you’re a p-----,’ or ‘you’re a chump,’ would that reasonably tend to rise alarm in a police officer?
“Yes sir.” Nelson then concluded his questioning.
On a final redirect, Schleicher asked a single question: “And if they’re saying ‘get off him, you’re killing him,’ should the officer also take that into account and consider whether they’re actions need to be reassessed?”
“Potentially, sir. Yes,” said Mercil.
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George Floyd’s Friend Appears At Hearing On Allowing His Testimony in Chauvin Trial

10:25 a.m.

Morries Hall, the friend of George Floyd who was a passenger in his vehicle when he was arrested by Minneapolis police, appeared in a virtual court hearing Tuesday, but it hasn’t been determined if he will be compelled to testify in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin.
Hall is in jail on charges not related to Floyd, having been arrested in Texas after fleeing Minneapolis shortly after Floyd’s death and extradited back. He has said that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and declined to testify.
But prosecutors who want to use his testimony are hoping that Hall could be granted immunity so that any testimony he gives would not incriminate him. A number of questions he could be asked might do that if he were not immune from prosecution, including queries regarding prior testimony of Floyd’s girlfriend Courteney Ross that Hall gave Floyd drugs a month before he died; that Hall gave Floyd two pills before police approached him and he fell asleep, which could potentially make him a party to third degree murder.
However, Judge Peter Cahill decided there were some questions that Hall could be asked about the incident that would not incriminate him.  “There is really a small narrow topic that might be permissible," he said during the hearing. No jurors were present.
RELATED: George Floyd's Close Friend Morries Hall Will Not Wear Prison Jumpsuit During Trial Hearing
After hearing from Assistant Minnesota Attorney General Matthew Franks, defense attorney Eric Nelson and Hall’s public defender Adrienne Cousins, the Judge asked Nelson to write out the questions he would ask him.
His decision on allowing Hall’s testimony is expected in another hearing in the coming days of the trial.

Testimony was scheduled to continue, including more from Minneapolis police personnel beginning Tuesday morning.
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Chauvin Defense Pushes Back Against Minneapolis PD Chief On Use of Force Tactics

5:20 p.m.
The defense lawyer for former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin tried to point out places where certain uses of force would be necessary when cross examining Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo.

"Would you agree that the use of force is not an attractive notion?" attorney Eric Nelson asked. 

"I would say the use of force is something that most officers would rather not use," Arradondo replied.
"Sometimes an officer has to command the presence? They have to take control of the situation?" Nelson asked, to which Arradondo agreed.
Nelson went on to ask Arradondo about using the neck restraint maneuver that Chauvin used on George Floyd. He admitted that it was within Minneapolis police policy to use it, but clarified further: “It is contrary to our training to indefinitely place your knee on a prone handcuffed individual for an indefinite period of time.”
Chauvin pinned Floyd by the neck for nearly nine minutes.

The chief was on the witness stand for nearly four hours on Monday (April 5). He answered lengthy questions from prosecutors in which he criticized Chauvin’s tactics and pointed out that what he did was a breach of reasonable boundaries when it comes to arresting a non-resisting suspect.
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Minneapolis PD Chief Makes Clear His View Of Derek Chauvin’s Tactics

3:45 p.m.

The head of the Minneapolis police force testified that former officer Derek Chauvin violated department policy and went beyond his training when he placed his knee on the neck of George Floyd last May, which led to his death.
Chief Medaria Arradondo, who fired Chauvin along with the three other officers responding at the time, said that de-escalation tactics were not followed as directed and the amont of force used was not necessary to subdue Floyd when officers restrained him after arresting him under suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill.
"Once Mr. Floyd had stopped resisting — and certainly once he was in distress and trying to verbalize that — that should have stopped," Arradondo said. "There's an initial reasonableness of trying to just get him under control in the first few seconds. "But once there was no longer any resistance, and clearly when Mr. Floyd was no longer responsive and even motionless, to continue to apply that level of force to a person proned out, handcuffed behind their back, that in no way shape or form is anything that is by policy, part of our training and is certainly not part of our ethics or values."
The testimony came after lengthy questioning from prosecutors to spell out to jurors exactly what MPD policy is and how it should be applied.
Arradondo, who has been in the role for three years and also testified against former Minneapolis officer Momamed Noor, who was convicted in the 2017 shooting death of Justine Damond, blasted Chauvin’s use of the kneeling maneuver not long after it happened. He told special prosecutor Steve Schleicher that how such tactics  are applied is what law enforcement is graded on.
"It is my firm belief that the one singular incident we will be judged forever on will be our use of force,” said Arradondo. “While it is absolutely imperative that our officers go home at the end of their shift, we want to make sure our community members do too."
Judge Peter Cahill ordered a break to prepare for defense cross examination after the chief’s testimony.
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ER Doctor Treating George Floyd Says His Heart Had Stopped, Likely From Asphyxia

April 5, 2020
11:55 a.m.

George Floyd went into a cardiac arrest which the emergency room doctor felt he had no means of treating, so he was pronounced dead, the physician treating him testified on Monday (April 5).
The second week of witness testimony began with prosecution questioning of Dr. Bradford Langenfeld, who was working the ER at Hennepin County Medical Center on May 25, 2020, and received Floyd for care. He told special prosecutor Jerry Blackwell that it was unlikely that Floyd died of a drug overdose, despite drugs being found in his system during an autopsy.
He said that the paramedics told him that he had been arrested, but did not say that he had overdosed or had a heart attack, nor that he got CPR from the arresting officers or bystanders.
When asked what moved Floyd into cardiac arrest, oxygen deficiency, or asphyxia, Langenfeld said: “At the time, based on the information I had, it was one more likely than the other possibilities.”
An independent autopsy found that George Floyd died of “asphyxiation from sustained pressure” to his neck, which was applied when former officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on it.

“Exited delirium,” on the other hand, Langenfeld said, was not something that was a determining factor in the cardiac arrest.
After the first hour of testimony, Judge Peter Cahill dismissed the jury for the morning break. Defense cross examination is expected to begin when court is called back into session.
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Click here for details from Week 1 of the Derek Chauvin Trial.