Hennepin County Attorney’s Office asks judge to reconsider order disqualifying prosecutors in Floyd case
[KSTP]
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office on Monday filed a motion for a judge to reconsider his order to disqualify four prosecutors from the cases related to George Floyd’s death.
The motion also included an affidavit by William J. Wernz, the former director of the Minnesota Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility and a past president of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, in which he concluded, "…in my opinion, the interviews of the Hennepin County Medical Examiner by HCAO (Hennepin County Attorney’s Office) did not furnish any basis for a conclusion that they violated Rule 3.7."
In Friday’s pre-trial hearing to consider motions in the murder case against former Minneapolis police officers Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J Alexander Kueng, Chauvin’s attorney asked to have the four prosecutors — including Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman — disqualified from the case. Judge Peter Cahill granted the disqualification, saying they should have had a non-attorney in the room during the interview.
A schedule for a decision on the motion by Judge Cahill has not been set.
Former prosecutors call judge’s disqualification of county attorney ‘highly unusual’