MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murder in the death of George Floyd pleaded not guilty Thursday to violating the civil rights of a teenager in a separate case that involved a restraint similar to the one used on Floyd.
Derek Chauvin was convicted earlier this year on state charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder & second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s 2020 death. He was sentenced to 22 1/2 years. He’s also charged in federal court with violating Floyd’s civil rights when he knelt on the Black man’s neck for about 9 1/2 minutes as Floyd was facedown on the pavement, not resisting & pleading for air.
But another indictment against Chauvin alleges he carried out a similar act against a then-14-year-old boy in 2017. This indictment alleges Chauvin deprived the teenager, who is Black, of his right to be free of unreasonable force when he held the teen by the throat, hit him in the head with a flashlight & held his knee on the boy’s neck & upper back while he was prone, handcuffed & not resisting.
When U.S. Magistrate Judge Hildy Bowbeer asked how he would plead to the charge, Chauvin replied, “Not guilty, your honor.”
Thursday’s hearing was held via videoconference, and Chauvin appeared from the state’s maximum security prison, where he’s being held following his murder conviction. He was in a large room & wearing a plain T-shirt as he sat at the head of a long table.
According to a police report from the 2017 encounter, Chauvin wrote that the teen resisted arrest & after the teen, whom he described as 6-foot-2 & about 240 pounds, was handcuffed, Chauvin “used body weight to pin” him to the floor. The boy was bleeding from the ear & needed two stitches.
That encounter was one of several mentioned in state court filings that prosecutors said showed Chauvin had used neck or head & upper body restraints seven times prior to Floyd’s death dating back to 2014, including four times state prosecutors said he went too far & held the restraints “beyond the point when such force was needed under the circumstances.”
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