Former federal prosecutor believes charging decision in George Floyd death months away

Four Minneapolis Police officers were fired after the death of George Floyd.

There has been pressure at the local level to put the former officers behind bars. Now, that pressure is coming at a national level.

But making the decision to charge or not is a lengthy one.

"I think you’ve seen a real outcry for someone to do something quickly," said Steve Schleicher, a former federal prosecutor now with Maslon LLC.

Schleicher said he believes the case will be picked up by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

"This is a process and the process is going to take time," Schleicher said. "I would expect it to take months."

Within the last 5 years, three local cases have also generated national attention. Jamar Clark was shot and killed by Minneapolis police in November 2015. Both officers were cleared.

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Philando Castile was shot and killed by St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez in July 2016. Yanez was charged and later acquitted.

Justine Damond was killed by Minneapolis Police officer Mohamed Noor in July 2017. Noor was charged and convicted.

In all three cases, it took between 4 and 8 months to get a charging decision.

"If they were to present a job that was maybe half done to a jury, they’re not going to say, ‘Please forgive some of the evidentiary holes in my case, I was really in a hurry,’ nobody’s going to care," Schleicher said.

Cellphone footage is the key piece of evidence that the public is seeing, but Schleicher said investigators have to look at everything else, including body camera and surveillance footage, plus all the interviews.

"Just the simple act of collecting, it takes a lot of time," Schleicher said.

The world is watching, and while it’s hard for prosecutors to ignore, Schleicher believes they need to, stressing patience for everyone else.

"All members of the community are understandably anxious to see something happen, to see some forward progress on this but what the community does need to understand is it is important we get this right because the stakes are very high for everyone involved," Schleicher said.