MINNEAPOLIS – The attorney for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death, asked the judge overseeing the case to delay the trial and reconsider a change-of-venue motion, saying he was “gravely concerned” the $27 million civil settlement announced last week between the city of Minneapolis and the Floyd family has tainted the jury pool.
Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s defense attorney, questioned the “suspicious timing” of the settlement and argued it was “highly prejudicial” against his client. He called on Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter A. Cahill to “at least” call back the seven jurors already seated in the case to question them to see if they had read the news of the settlement and if they could continue to be impartial in the case.
“The fact that this came in the exact middle of jury selection. It’s perplexing to me,” Nelson said. “Whose idea was it to release this information?
In this image taken from video, Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill speaks during pretrial motions, prior to continuing jury selection in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, Thursday, March 11, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn.
He criticized members of the Minneapolis City Council and Mayor Jacob Frey, suggesting they had intended to sway public opinion in the case. He was particularly critical of Frey, who is also a civil rights attorney, saying “he should have known better.”
Cahill didn’t immediately rule on the defense requests, but agreed the developments were “concerning.” “I wish city officials would stop talking about this case so much,” he said.
But Cahill said he would take the motions into consideration while proceeding forward with jury selection.
The settlement, unanimously approved by the Minneapolis City Council, was announced during an afternoon break in jury selection Friday and went unmentioned for the rest of the day, even as several city officials, including Frey, joined the Floyd family and their attorneys at a nearby news conference to announce the payout.
Several observers have questioned the timing of the settlement and why the city didn’t wait to announce the payout until after the trial.
George Floyd Christopher Harris via AP
In 2019, the city paid $20 million to the family of Justine Damond, who was fatally shot in 2017 by a Minneapolis police officer as she approached his squad car after calling 911. That settlement was announced after a jury convicted the former officer.
A Minneapolis official told The Washington Post on Friday that the city was concerned about the timing. The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the city consulted with Hennepin County Chief District Court Judge Toddrick S. Barnette, who told the city it could proceed. Barnette has not responded to a request for comment.
Seven jurors have been seated in the case – a faster pace than expected as the court seeks 12 jurors and up to four alternates. Joe Tamburino, a longtime Minneapolis defense attorney, said Cahill had several options – including recalling the seven jurors who have been selected to allow attorneys to ask about their exposure to the settlement. Potential jurors have been asked to avoid the news since they were summoned in the case in late December, and Cahill often begins their questioning by asking whether they have “accidentally” been exposed to any headlines and what they recall of that news.
Some observers have said it is possible that Cahill could scrap jury selection and start over.
“This development is not good for anybody. Nobody wants to redo this,” said Tamburino. “This is not good for the defense. . . . And this is not good for the prosecution. Under our rules of ethics, they have a greater duty to make sure fairness occurs in trials than anyone else. And this is bad for the system.”
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