On July 7, the attorney for ex-officer Thomas Lane moved to dismiss the charges that he had illegally aided and abetted the May 25th alleged murder and manslaughter of George Floyd. The prosecution’s response is due on August 12 followed by a reply from Lane’s attorney with the hearing on the motion likely to be the one previously scheduled for September 11.[1]
The brief in support of the motion made the following arguments:
- “There is not substantial admissible evidence to survive a motion for a directed verdict that Thomas Lane aided and abetted second degree murder or manslaughter.”
- “There is no evidence in the voluminous discovery that Officer Lane played an intentional role in aiding the commission of a crime. There is no circumstantial evidence Lane knew that Chauvin was committing a crime. Hence, the legal requirements showing he acted with intent cannot be met.”
- “Lane did not intentionally aid, advise, hire, counsel, or conspire with Chauvin or otherwise procure Chauvin to commit second degree murder. Lane did not encourage any alleged criminal actions of Chauvin. He did not know and had no reason to believe that a third degree assault was being committed, nor did he intend for the restraints of his Floyd’s legs to help commit a crime.”
- “Lane did not know what Chauvin was thinking while restraining Floyd. Chauvin did not verbally tell Lane anything about his intentions other than waiting for the ambulance to arrive. Lane knew Floyd needed to be restrained and he knew Chauvin was authorized to use reasonable force to restrain.”
Lane’s attorney also submitted transcripts of the body-cam footage for Lane and ex-cop and co-defendant J. Alexander Kueng. Here are extracts from these transcripts:
- When Lane approached the vehicle containing Floyd and two other individuals, Lane drew his pistol when Floyd did not immediately show his hands. Floyd said, “”I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. God dang man. Man, I got shot. I got shot the same way, Mr. Officer, before.”
- When Lane ordered him to get out of the car, Floyd said, “Please don‘t shoot me, Mr. Officer. Please, don’t shoot me man. Please. Can you not shoot me, man?”
- Lane and Kueng then grabbed Floyd’s arms, prompting him to say, ““I’m not going to do nothing… I’m sorry Mr. Officer, I’ll get on my knees, whatever.”
- Lane then pulled Floyd out of the vehicle and asked the woman in the car (Schwanda Renee Hill), “Why’s he getting all squirelly and not showing us his hands, just being all weird like that?”
- Hill: “I have no clue, because he’s been shot before.”
- Lane: “Well I get that, but still when officers say ‘Get out of the car.’ Is he drunk? Is he on something?”
- Hill: “”No, he got a thing going on, I’m telling you about the police … He have problems all the time when they come, especially when that man put that gun like that.”
- After Kueng escorted Floyd from his car to a nearby sidewalk and sat him down, Floyd said, ‘Thank you, man. Thank you, Mr. Officer,” as Floyd remained cooperative. He gave Kueng his name and date of birth, adding once again that ‘I got shot last time, same thing, man.’”
- “Kueng then explained to Floyd that he was being detained for suspicion of passing a fake bill. Floyd said he understood.”
- Kueng: “And do you know why we pulled you out of the car? Because you was not listening to anything we told you,”
- Floyd: “Right, but I didn’t know what was going on,”
- Kueng: “You listen to us, and we will tell you what’s going on, all right?”
- Floyd: “Yes sir.”
- “Lane then asked Floyd if he was on something, while Kueng asked about the foam around his mouth. Floyd said he was scared, and that he had been playing basketball earlier.”
- “The two officers then attempted to place Floyd in the back of [their]squad [car], while he again pleaded with them not to, saying he was claustrophobic.”
- Lane or Kueng: “You can’t win.”
- Floyd: “I’m not trying to win . . . I’ll get on the ground, anything.”
- “After more struggle, Floyd began to collapse on the ground, saying, ‘I’m going to lay on the ground, oh, I’m coming down.’”
- As Lane and Kueng attempted to put Floyd into the back seat of their squad car, Floyd said, “‘Oh man, God don’t leave me man, please man, please man,’ he pleaded, telling them he was claustrophobic as the officers repeatedly ordered him into the back of the squad.”
- Lane or Kueng: “Man, you going to die of a heart attack. Just get in the car.”
- Lane then offered to sit in the squad car with Floyd and turn on the air conditioner. Floyd said, “”I’m not that kind of guy, man, I’m not that kind of guy … and I just had COVID, I don’t want to go back to that.”
- After Officer Chauvin arrived, he asked Kueng if the suspect was going to jail, and Kueng explained the man was under arrest for forgery.
- Chauvin asked the other two officers if they had a “restraint,” and the officers (who?) called for “Code 2” for medics after Lane said the man had banged his head against the partition glass in the squad car, resulting in a cut.”
- Chauvin told Floyd , “You’re under arrest, guy.”
- Floyd responded, “”All right, all right. Oh my god. I can’t believe this. I can’t believe this … After Chauvin said, “so you’re going to jail,” Floyd said, Mom, I love you … Tell my kids I love them. I’m dead.”
- Floyd then was placed on the pavement with Lane holding one of his legs while Kueng was holding his back. Floyd kept saying, “Mama, mama, I can’t breathe. I’m through, I’m through. I’m claustrophobic. My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Everything hurts. I need some water or something, please. Please? I can’t breathe officer.”
- As Lane asked Chauvin whether Floyd should be rolled on his side, Chauvin and Kueng said not to do so, and one of the officers called to upgrade the medics to Code 3.
- Floyd’s final words: ““Come on, man. Oh, oh. l cannot breathe. Cannot breathe. Ah! They’ll kill me. They‘ll kill me. I can’t breathe. Can‘t breathe. Oh!” and “Ah! Ah! Please. Please. Please.”
- After the medics arrived, Lane did chest compressions on Floyd.
- One of the medics asked the officers, “Was he [Floyd] fighting with you guys for a long time?”
- Lane: “ I mean a little bit, but not a long time, maybe a minute or two. We were just trying to get him in the squad and he came out the other end, so we were like we’ll just wait.”
- Medic: “I wonder what he was on.”
- Lane: “Not sure but he seemed very agitated and paranoid.”
- Medic: “That’s a shame.”
- Lane: “Yeah.”
According to the New York Times’ summary of these transcripts, Floyd told the police officers more than 20 times that he could not breathe and several times said the officers were killing him.
In addition, Lane’s court filing included a 60-page transcript of his interview by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and that this transcript had Lane responding to the question of whether at any time he felt Floyd was having a medical emergency, with the following: “Yeah, I felt maybe something was going on.” The Times also says Lane’s attorney claims a police photo of the interior of Floyd’s car showed “two crumpled counterfeit $20 bills that were found between the center console and the passenger’s seat.”
Another article in the Washington Post asserts that the “transcripts make clear that Floyd was trying to cooperate with police but was deathly afraid of them, at times telling them that he had had covid-19 and was worried that he was going to die because he couldn’t breathe.”
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[1] Xiong, Former officer Thomas Lane’s attorney seeks dismissal of charges in George Floyd killing, StarTribune (July 8, 2020); Olson. Body camera transcripts: George Floyd repeatedly begged police not to kill him, StarTribune (July 8, 2020); Staff Reports, Read the transcript of Thomas Lane’s body camera footage during George Floyd call, StarTribune (July 8, 2020); Staff Reports, Read the transcript of J. Alexander Kueng’s body camera footage during George Floyd call, StarTribune (July 8, 2020); Memorandum Supporting Motion To Dismiss, State v. Lane, Case No. 27-CR-20-12651 (Henn. Cty. Dist. Ct. July 7, 2020); Oppel, New Transcripts Detail Last Moments for George Floyd, N.Y.Times (July 8, 2020); Bailey, George Floyd warned police he thought he would die because he couldn’t breathe, according to body camera transcripts, Wash. Post (July 8, 2020); Wernau & Barrett, Attorney for Former Officer Asks Court to Dismiss Abetting Charges in George Flynn Killing, W.S.J. (July 8, 2020); George Floyd told officers ‘I can’t breathe’ more than 20 times, transcripts show, Guardian (July 8, 2020).