Chauvin Attorney Seeks Delay, Prospective Juror Dismissed After City Settles With Floyd Family

By Deena Winter Max Nesterak, Minnesota Reformer

March 15, 2021

The defense lawyer for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin made a flurry of motions Monday morning in response to an unprecedented $27 million settlement agreement announced Friday with the family of George Floyd, who died under Chauvin’s knee last May.

Defense Attorney Eric Nelson said he was “gravely concerned” about the news, questioning the timing and saying the settlement has an “incredible propensity” to taint the jury pool. He requested the trial be delayed and moved, which Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill said he would consider.

Cahill said the settlement announcement was unfortunate, and agreed to call back for further questions the seven jurors who’d already been seated before Monday. He denied, however, Nelson’s request for more strikes of potential jurors as selection continues.

With the national media in Minnesota covering the trial, city leaders joined members of the Floyd family and their legal team on a stage to announce the settlement, the largest in the city’s history. The Floyd family’s attorney Ben Crump praised Minneapolis city leaders for approving the settlement, calling it a watershed moment in U.S. history.

Crump said during the press conference that 50 million people watched the video of Chauvin, and “once you see the video, you can never unsee the video.”

“Because we know, America, we’re better than this,” he said.

Chauvin’s defense attorney argued the widespread coverage of the settlement jeopardizes his client’s ability to get a fair trial because it amounts to a conviction in the eyes of the public.

The prosecutor, Steve Schleicher, said the prosecution can’t control the civil case or the City Council or the news cycle, and denied Nelson’s suggestion that the announcement or language used was coordinated with prosecutors. He opposed Nelson’s request to postpone the trial or grant extra juror strikes, saying jurors don’t pay as much attention to the case as the lawyers suppose.

Schleicher said he wasn’t sure “which way it cuts,” meaning who it favors. On the one hand, the large settlement signals guilt. On the other hand, a juror could believe that justice has already been served through the large settlement.

“The problem is, it cuts,” Cahill replied.

Jurors and potential jurors have been told to avoid news about the case, but they’re allowed to do things like scroll through Facebook, and Nelson said it would have been difficult to miss the news of the $27 million settlement.

On Monday morning, the first prospective juror said she heard the news of the settlement accidentally when she turned on the radio.

“When I heard that I almost gasped at the amount,” she said. “With this particular officer, I don’t think I can be impartial.”

She was dismissed.

The settlement announcement immediately concerned people like former Chief Hennepin County Public Defender Mary Moriarty, who said it could prompt the judge to move Chauvin’s trial or lead to appeals if Chauvin is convicted.

“The state wants him convicted, obviously. But they also don’t want appeals issues, and if there are enough errors at trial or a big error, the Court of Appeals or Supreme Court can reverse the conviction. And we have to go through all this again,” Moriarty said.

Moriarty also said any decisions made in Chauvin’s case have the potential to set a precedent, with negative consequences for future criminal defendants.

“There are many people who have no empathy, understandably, for Chauvin. But I think it’s important that absolutely everybody gets a fair trial,” Moriarty said. “If we do things that prevent him from getting a fair trial, those things also apply to public defender clients and fall on the backs of Black and brown people.”

Council Member Jeremiah Ellison, who served on the Floyd lawsuit negotiation committee, said he wasn’t afraid of what impact the settlement might have on the criminal trial, and that it would be unfair to Floyd’s family to make them wait.

“It was without question the right thing to do,” said Ellison, the son of Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office is prosecuting Chauvin. “The timeline is dictated by when the two parties come to an agreement. That’s what this reflected.”

Nelson noted that Frey is a lawyer who should have known better, and Jeremiah Ellison was one of the City Council members on the stage at the press conference. He said he’s not accusing the attorney general of wrongdoing, but it was “profoundly disturbing.”

“This is not fair,” Nelson said.

Jeremiah Ellison dismissed the suggestion that there might be improper discussions between him and his father.

“There’s never any coordination between what we’re doing on the civil side and what’s going on on the criminal side,” Ellison said.

From the defense’s perspective, a settlement agreement shouldn’t be announced until after a jury issued its verdict. But waiting for a verdict can influence the civil case.

In the case of the police killing of Justine Ruszczyk, the city of Minneapolis didn’t reach a then-record-setting $20 million settlement until after former officer Mohammed Noor was found guilty of third-degree murder.

Robert Bennett, who represented Ruszczyk’s family in its civil lawsuit, said the verdict benefitted his side.

“The city desperately did not want to pay that much money in the Ruszczyk case,” Bennett said. “But after the verdict, I think it probably increased the value of the case.”

While the settlement could affect the criminal trial, it could ease tensions in a city fearful of an acquittal and the possibility of violence and destruction like that seen in the wake of Floyd’s death.

“It could have been an expression from the family that they don’t want the kind of violent protests that happened after Floyd’s death,” Bennett said.

In announcing the settlement, Crump praised city leaders for their commitment to justice, both in making the settlement and committing to larger policy changes to prevent future police killings.

The Minnesota Reformer is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to keeping Minnesotans informed and unearthing stories other outlets can’t or won’t tell..