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>MINNEAPOLIS — A former Minneapolis police officer who held George Floyd’s back as he begged for breath and ultimately lost a pulse beneath the knee of officer Derek Chauvin nearly two and a half years ago pleaded guilty Monday to a state charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in the killing.
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>J. Alexander Kueng entered his guilty plea Monday, just as jury selection was set to begin in the third trial over Floyd’s killing. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors dropped a count of aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder against Kueng in the case.
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>Kueng had previously rejected a plea deal in the case, but after weekend negotiations between prosecutors and his defense, the former officer appeared in court Monday as his attorney announced they had negotiated an end to the case.
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>Asked to enter a new plea by Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter A. Cahill, who is overseeing the case, Kueng replied, “Guilty, your honor.”
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>The developments came as jury selection was set to begin in a joint trial for Kueng and former officer Tou Thao on state charges related to Floyd’s death. Thao, who held back bystanders at the scene, proceeded with his case, but asked for a trial before Cahill instead of a jury.
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>Kueng and Thao, along with their former colleague Thomas K. Lane, were previously convicted in February in federal court of violating Floyd’s civil rights when they failed to render medical aid to Floyd as he begged for breath and ultimately lost consciousness during a fatal May 2020 arrest.
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>A jury also found Kueng and Thao guilty of violating Floyd’s rights when they didn’t intervene when Chauvin pressed his knees into Floyd’s neck and back for nearly 9½ minutes.
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>Lane, who held Floyd’s legs, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison in July for violating Floyd’s rights. He pleaded guilty in May to a state charge of aiding and abetting manslaughter and was sentenced last month to three years in prison. The plea deal allowed Lane to serve his state sentence concurrently with his federal sentence. He is in custody at a federal prison outside Denver.
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>Chauvin pleaded guilty in December to violating Floyd’s rights and was sentenced July 7 to 20 years in federal prison. He is already serving a 22½-year state sentence for Floyd’s murder that he will serve concurrently.
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>In July, a judge sentenced Kueng to 36 months in prison and Thao to 42 months in prison on the federal charges related to Floyd’s death. Both officers have filed notice that they plan to appeal those charges — though it was not immediately clear how Kueng’s guilty plea would affect that case.
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>According to details of the plea deal read in court by Kueng’s attorney, Thomas Plunkett, his client agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a state sentence of 42 months in prison — which he will be allowed to serve concurrently with his federal sentence.
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>Kueng earlier this month began serving his federal sentence at a facility in Lisbon, Ohio. Thao is serving his federal sentence at a prison near Lexington, Ky. — though he is currently being held at a county jail in Minneapolis.

This is why there were protests. They murdered Floyd.

Good. Idk how any sane person can not say "I killed him by helping, even if I didn't know it, PLEASE send me to jail" due to sheer guilt alone and needing to have some form of atonement. I guess I can make assumptions but man I just... I don't get it...

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And we saw it on video. 40-50% of the country still tried to make excuses. Also, the same people passing laws in places that make it illegal to record things like how the police treated Floyd. Wait, why? I thought they did nothing wrong? Shouldn't filming them exonerate them?

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Why is thao's sentence longer than kueng's

Good. Now lock him up.

I struggle with the opposite on the other three, esp. the rookie. If you take the cop aspect out of it and view this from the angle of soldiers, doctors, construction workers, etc. where a mistake led to a death, I could very easily see the reddit outrage going the other way (as it did when Italy was threatening murder charges against the scientists who failed to predict the earthquake).

I got fired at work and might go to prison.

What happened?!

My boss screwed up. I thought they were wrong and pointed it out, but they told me it was fine and to shut up. Boss ended up being wrong and now I’m in trouble for not stopping them.

So your boss made the mistake and ignored you after you pointed this out…why did you get fired?

If this situation played out at my company, I couldn’t even see the other three getting in trouble if they kept their mouth shut, let alone the rookie for knowing enough to speak out.

Problem is, was he actually their boss? I thought he just had more experience, but was still their same rank?

He was the training officer for one of them I think.

Superior, being pedantic derails the conversation and loses the point. A rookie is going to have a very challenging time changing the behavior of a senior officer and another officer.

A surgeon is not the "boss" of the nurses, scrubs and assistants that work under them either.

I'm speaking more about the other officers though, not the rookie. Pretty sure the lead guy was directly supervising the rookie or something. But the other 2 were the same rank, no?

This isn't a "surgeon overseeing nurses" issue, this is "multiple nurses with experience killing a patient, but saying that the one who worked longer is purely at fault". Yeah, maybe the nurse who is still being trained can argue that, but the other 2?

Oh, yeah, your right. He did say -especially- the rookie.

Yeah, I would imagine if a nurse, a nurses aid and a student smothered their patient to death, I would be disappointed if the RN and PCA weren't charged but also disappointed if the student were (assuming they were idling and not, like, being sadistic, or something)

Yes, one was training the rookie, so I get that. But the other 2 were the same rank as the main guy, or am I mistaken?

People like Steven Crowder will see something like this a hundred times over and still lie to your face, saying it was fent that killed George Floyd. Maybe we should stop engaging in cordial debate with these absolute psychos. There are thousands of people who can be pulled out of red propaganda but there are also a subset of them who need to be cast out of society.

For months, no one really disagreed that floyd was murdered. But gradually the shock of watching a man get slowly murdered wore off and fox news propaganda made 30-40% of the country forget what their own eyes saw.

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And if we didn't see the video, nothing would've happened. The official police report was bullshit and they got caught red handed trying to cover it up.

Enjoy prison ya thugs.

The justice system is made up.

Enough people protested and now it’s overcompensating.

It’s supposedly better than it is.

Darnella Fraizer is a national hero for taking and releasing that video.

Hundred percent. It's why they're so afraid of being recorded.

The police have no one but themselves to blame for how they're perceived. They were given a chance to do the right thing but instead tried to justify murdering a man.

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All the officers on the scene were the same rank. Chauvin was the most senior officer but was not a superior officer. Chauvin was one of the FTO training officers for Kueng for a period of time while he and Lane were in field training, but that was months prior to the Floyd arrest.

I live about 20 minutes from where Floyd was murdered. There were definitely people defending Chauvin and saying Floyd deserved to die. The area he was killed is known to be "ghetto" so the "well he's a criminal who cares if he dies while breaking the law" crowd were very vocal around here. Almost as much as I heard outrage over Floyd being killed.

I could certainly be recalling it through rose tinted glasses, but I’m in uptown and both in person and online my recollection at least through the end of summer was that all but the most vocal racists were in agreement that floyd was murdered. Then fox news starting worming into people’s brains to make them forget what they saw

The fact that Chauvin was their superior at any point in their careers creates a precedent that he would be their acting superior during this incident, especially when they are still pretty new with the dept.

If they truly did follow the chain of command on this, I wouldn't be surprised if their actual supervising officer would have responded by having them follow Chauvins orders since he was the only superior officer on site.

Most likely... but it came at a cost, rather coincidentally.

Darnella's uncle? (Or somewhat close relative) was killed months after this in a supposed unrelated incident with a police car on the other side of town. Pretty sure due to a speeding police car responding to a call, running red lights and excessive speeds on a fairly residential road. Still no accountability on the cop who was involved.

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Its interesting what their criteria are that make someone a "criminal" and their death unimportant, and how little it has to do with whether the person in question committed any crimes. (They adore many people who have committed crimes, they just dont see those people as criminals....)

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I hate that dude so much

I feel like he's one of the worst conservative talking heads out there

Hey that's a fair assessment. I didn't mean to sound like you weren't in tune with the situation. I probably got the opposite memories as you due to a couple things.

1. I was essential through COVID so I continued to work around people, and of course got to hear people's views about COVID and then Floyd since it happened right about the time COVID shutdowns started to happen here

2. I work in construction and most people I've dealt with over the past 4-5 years praise Trump to the point I want to vomit

Nah, he’s right. There was plenty of sentiment that either we, the public, are missing something that happened before the camera starting rolling or it was accidental or that if it was on purpose he had it coming. And the Thin Blue Line movement grew leaps and bounds that day.

Fair enough, we could have just had our fingers on different pulses.

I was basing it on my conservative family seemingly agreeing it was awful in June but then changing tune by september.

Absolutely! These are likely the same people that cheered on DeSantis and flying "illegals" to Martha's Vineyard just being cruel human beings they are.

We are supposed to be better than what happened to Floyd. We are supposed to have higher standards than the "criminals". And we're not supposed to stand for being cruel to others even if they are abominations of life. Looking at you GOP. They are much more criminal than Floyd ever was if you ask me.

I mean, yeah, its a difficult situation to be in but they didn't follow the "chain of command". Per MPD training and policy, the first car on scene (Lane and Kueng) are in charge of it until a superior officer, like a sergeant arrives and all assisting cars defer to the first car. Now in real life, yeah that's maybe easier said than done but they should have known they were in charge of the scene.

I don’t agree with everything he says but I think his show can be pretty good and funny sometimes. I also dig when he confronts people who threaten to hurt or attack him online.

I feel like he relies on bad faith arguments and most of his "humor" is just trying to be offensive as possible. I have no problem with offensive jokes but there isn't anything of substance in his show or opinions.

Just my thoughts.

Oh fuck that rookie. He had his gun out and cursed Floyd within like 5, 10 seconds of knocking on his window.

Uh yeah tf people did disagree like some of us have amnesia

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Unfortunately people like Kanye are still out there arguing otherwise.

Paywalls are necessary to pay for quality independent journalism.

I stopped engaging in cordial debate with them a long time ago. I merely pointed out how they're just repeating something they read on Twitter, link them to the articles disproving their lies, and then call them a knuckle dragging red state flyover reject. I urge people to do the same. You're not going to change anyone's mind and no one asked you to save the world. Just tell them to f/o and make them feel shame and regret for opening their mouth.

They had better not tell Candice Owens, Ye, or Ben Shabibo about this one.

I don't know that I'd say overcompensating. I'd say, not turning a blind eye.

We had a lot of chuckle fucks up in Blaine who were defending the police.

Wasn't Chauvin a Sargeant or considered the superior officer once he arrive on scene?

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Being an opportunist, he could have denied to avoid the consequences, but once unavoidable you admit.

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Yeah. They are just trying to have their cake and eat it too. Play military on the streets, but without any of the accountability that the military has. No requirements on rules of engagement. A simple "feared for my life" clears any cop of wrong doing, and the good ole boys network to cover shit up.

Luckily cities and states have begun implementing new laws for cops that require them to act against illegal orders. At least it's something in the right direction.

More likely he knows a trial won't go well for him and took the lesser of two punishments. No sane person is going to want to go to prison.

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Why are they still using the journalistic weasel words on the murder?

There's been a conviction on that bit, a jury declared it a murder and assigned guilt for it.

You sound like every person who thought I was insane years ago for saying that Joe Rogan was a toxic, fascist-platforming douchebag.

You left out the part where your boss was kneeling on someone’s neck while they struggled to breathe and then went unconscious and he didn’t stop.

This was not just some “mistake”. He killed him slowly and intentionally while people all around yelled that he was dying.

I’ll give you a real world example a buddy of mine had to deal with earlier this year.

Crew went out to fix wires on a telephone pole. One worker went up the pole to make the repair. That worker was not wearing the appropriate gear for working around live wires, and failed to follow policy around what could and couldn’t be touched when making this repair. They were electrocuted to death because of this. The rest of the crew, including the crew supervisor (blue collar team leader) weren’t properly paying attention and failed to notice either mistake even though they were all trained to do so.

Do you charge the rest of the crew with manslaughter for not following proper policies and intervening when a co-worker was dealing with a dangerous and potentially life-threatening scenario? If not, what would be your logic for differentiating the two scenarios?

The difference is that you have a long time to observe clearly that the thing being done is very very wrong and is slowly killing the guy after it actually starts. No one is saying the guy should have recognized the possibility of danger when they started their patrol.

After it was clear to EVERYONE that they were killing the person, you would be expected to intervene.

If the guy in your example were slowly being electrocuted over the course of multiple minutes (I know that's really not a thing) and there were a "turn off the power" button right next to everyone and they didn't push it, THEN you talk about charging (ha!) the people with a crime. Even more if instead of a worker they forced a bystander onto the electrical lines and electrocuted him.

Also, and not really relevant:

> electrocuted to death

A bit redundant. "shocked" is the word for it that doesn't require dying.

Why are you bringing up JR? We were discussing someone else, try to pay attention.

A conservative with abysmal reading comprehension? I, for one, am shocked!

Okay there guy, hope your day gets better.

“I can’t lose face if I just imply he’s mad.”

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The two problems with this logic being the rule of law:

1. You’re disregarding the inherent danger aspect. Line repair work is a far more dangerous job than being a cop, and exponentially more people die fixing phone/power lines than they do while getting arrested. Lineworkers are trained to know one wrong step can be an instant death and that there is no second chance if you mess up. It’s also not an instant mistake like you’re making it out to be. Proper equipment and precautions are supposed to be taken before the worker heads up to the wires, allowing for a similar window for others to catch the mistake.

2. Somewhat combined with the above, this logic would suggest far more doctors, nurses, and pharmacists should be criminally held accountable for mistakes, especially if you’re ignoring the inherent/imminent danger aspect. Many of their patients are already worried about death, and they’d have far more than ~10 minutes of being told someone isn’t well to identify and correct a mistake.

This is not a “mistake”. This is callous disregard for human life.

I’m honestly baffled how you’re even able to come anywhere near equating these things.

Who determines the difference between callous disregard and mistake and how do you write a law to differentiate the two? If you’re the spouse or child of the dead lineman, are you not going to be calling for justice because coworkers decided to chat about a football game vs. take 15 seconds to follow policy and look out for the worker’s safety?

This also isn’t nearly as black and white as you make it. We had a garbage truck driver in Philly kill a cyclist because they forgot to signal they were making a turn. Also had a train conductor in Philly approach a turn at too high of a speed leading to a derailment and several deaths. Student died at my college during a football practice because they went on a lift in high-winds and no one thought to tell them not to. In all three of these instances, you had plenty of people calling for criminal charges against everyone involved who didn’t view screwing around while driving a train through a city as anything less than a callous disregard for human life.

Having a long time after the murder began to easily stop the murder is how you differentiate.

It’s VERY simple.

Other things involve doing something dumb but it not being blatantly obvious that it would 100% kill someone.

The guy stood by while the cop took minutes to slowly kill the guy.

Holy shit. I’m done. You’re making me dumber by trying to argue these other things are anywhere near the same.

Do you even realize how narrow your ignorant definition is? You’ve somehow made this so specific that the cops in the Freddie Gray case did nothing wrong in your eyes while leaving it open enough for an overzealous DA to charge a doctor.

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The most outrageous thing is that the police department rigged the initial autopsy report to try to blame Floyd for getting murdered... .