Chauvin expected to change plea in Floyd federal civil rights case

Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, is set to change his plea to guilty this week in a federal civil rights case.

A grand jury indicted Chauvin and the other three officers involved in Floyd’s death — J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao — with depriving Floyd of his rights under the color of law.

One count against Chauvin alleges he deprived Floyd of the right to be free from unreasonable seizure. Another count alleges Kueng and Thao failed to intervene in preventing the unreasonable seizure. And a third count that names all four officers accuses them of depriving Floyd of his liberty without due process of law.

Court documents show Chauvin pleaded not guilty to the counts against him on Sept. 14.

University of St. Thomas law professor Mark Osler says it’s likely Chauvin is attempting to reach a plea deal to avoid a very long prison sentence if convicted in federal court.

"With the state conviction he’s already been sentenced to 22-and-a-half years," Osler told 5 Eyewitness News on Monday. "He’s been serving that time in the state. The federal time will run concurrent, or at the same time as the state time. So it’s likely the sentence would have been longer if he’d been convicted in federal court. In fact, looking at the sentencing guidelines if he’d gone to trial and not gotten credit for accepting his responsibility he could have been looking at a life sentence, and that’s likely what he’s trying to avoid by pleading guilty."

The change of plea hearing is set for 8 a.m. Wednesday at the federal courthouse in St. Paul, according to a news release from the Minnesota U.S. District Court.

All four officers were set to be tried jointly. It’s unclear how the cases of the other three will be impacted by Chauvin’s change of plea. The lawyers representing Kueng, Lane and Thao all filed motions asking to have their trials severed from Chauvin, but the judge presiding over the case rejected their requests.

A Hennepin County jury already convicted Chauvin of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death. Judge Peter Cahill sentenced him to 22½ years in prison for his crimes.