Prosecutors plan to detail multiple excessive force allegations made against the ex-Minnesota police officer who is set to stand trial on Monday for George Floyd’s murder.
Among those alleging excessive force, LaSean Braddock told NBC News that then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pulled him over in 2013. Braddock explained he was accustomed to getting pulled over because he was sometimes mistaken for a man who had stolen his identity.
Braddock, 48, reportedly kept paperwork from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension as proof of the identity theft. He said in most instances of mistaken identity, officers would review the documents and let him go. But Chauvin and another officer allegedly pulled him from his car before stomping on his head and neck as he lay on the ground.
Braddock said he recognized Chauvin from the widely-circulated video that apparently showed him kneeling on George Floyd in May. A police report from the 2013 encounter confirmed Chauvin as one of the arresting officers, according to NBC News.
Braddock reportedly filed an excessive force complaint a day after the incident but it was dismissed.
“It’s unfortunate that they didn’t do anything to Derek Chauvin. If they had done something about it, it might not have went that far,” Braddock told the news outlet.
At least two other people reportedly lodged excessive force complaints against Chauvin that did not result in any disciplinary measures. The ex-officer was listed in more than 12 complaints, but he was never disciplined and only one resulted in a letter of reprimand, according to NBC News.
The Marshall Project reported that Zoya Code’s 2017 arrest is one of six arrests dating back to 2015 that prosecutors want to introduce during Chauvin’s trial. They believe the arrests show the former officer had a penchant for kneeling on citizens’ necks or on top of them, as he allegedly did during Floyd’s fatal arrest.
Code told the advocacy group that Chauvin violently arrested her after her mother falsely accused her of trying to choke her with an extension cord. She claimed she grabbed the cord while her mom swung it before leaving the home to calm down. Chauvin and another officer reportedly responded to the residence shortly after she returned.
Citing Chauvin’s report and bodycam footage, prosecutors said Chauvin informed Code she was under arrest and grabbed her arm. When Code pulled away, Chauvin allegedly took her to the ground and knelt on her back “even though she was offering no physical resistance at all,” according to prosecutors.
“He just stayed on my neck…Just to shut me up,” Code told The Marshall Project.
Domestic violence and disorderly conduct charges against Code were ultimately dropped, according to the news outlet.
On May 25, Minneapolis police officers were filmed arresting Floyd, 46, on suspicion that he used a counterfeit bill at the Cup Foods supermarket. After police pulled Floyd out of his car and handcuffed him, Chauvin was filmed forcing his knee into Floyd’s neck for eight minutes. Floyd was heard gasping for air and saying he could not breathe before he lost consciousness and died.
While Hennepin County’s autopsy report stated that there was no evidence “to support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation,” an independent autopsy asserted that sustained forceful pressure on Floyd’s neck and back led to his death.
Chauvin is facing second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges. The three other ex-officers involved in Floyd’s arrest, Thomas Lane, 37, J. Alexander Kueng, 26, and Tou Thao, 34 are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
In January, a judge ruled that Chauvin will be tried separately from Tou, Lane, and Kueng. Their trial is scheduled to begin this summer.
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[Featured image: Derek Chauvin/Hennepin County jail; George Floyd; Facebook]
