George Floyd's drug use could play a significant role in ex-officer Derek Chauvin's trial
- George Floyd's drug use could play a role in the trial of Derek Chauvin.
- Chauvin's attorney wants to introduce Floyd's May 2019 arrest, which involved drugs, into evidence.
- Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill ruled Friday a limited portion of the incident could be shown.
George Floyd's history of drug use could play a significant role in the trial of fired Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin.
Chauvin's attorney, Eric Nelson, wanted a video of Floyd's May 2019 arrest - a year before the police encounter that lead to his death - introduced into evidence.
During that arrest, Floyd ingested a controlled substance and was hospitalized because of his high blood pressure, Nelson said in court earlier this week.
Nelson argued during a motion hearing on Tuesday morning that Floyd's behavior that day, which he called erratic, was very similar to his actions on May 25, 2020 - the day Floyd died.
Nelson said during both situations he called for his mom and told officers that he had previously been shot. He also said the interaction demonstrates Floyd's history of high blood pressure, and how that condition - and drug use - might have played a role in his death a year later.
"You look at this and these similarities are incredible," Nelson said in court.
Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank argued that the video and arrest shouldn't be allowed into evidence as it is simply a "desperation of defense" to smear Floyd's character by bringing up his struggles with opioid use.
Frank told the court that if the video was an attempt to show whether or not Floyd took a pill before Chauvin confronted him in May 2020, "there is already evidence of that" so defense shouldn't have to bring in the old case.
"Doing so is just prejudicial," Frank said.
Cahill noted that day that Floyd's use of drugs was already an anticipated part of the state's case, and on Friday he allowed a limited portion of the video to be shown to the jury.
The 2019 arrest will serve as evidence over the contested cause of death in the case, Cahill explained.
The defense is going to try and convince a jury that Floyd's drug use played a role in his death, while the prosecution is going to argue that it's the manner in which Chauvin restrained Floyd that ultimately killed him.
The arrest, Cahill told the lawyers, was only relevant for the purposes of showing how Floyd's body reacted under similar circumstances. In both cases, Cahill said, Floyd was approached by officers who pointed guns at him. Also during both arrests, he had consumed drugs.
"Being pulled out of a car at gun-point, I'm sure, caused him great stress," Cahill said.
The paramedic who responded to the 2019 arrest, who advised Floyd that he needed to be hospitalized because he was having a hypertensive emergency involving high blood pressure, will be able to testify about her communications with him that day and why she made that call, Cahill said.
What won't be admissible, though, is how Floyd emotionally responded to the two arrests, for example calling out to his mother or telling officers that he had been shot before, Cahill said.
Chauvin, who was captured on video kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes, is facing charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.
Friday is the ninth day of voir dire in the case. Twelve jurors have already been selected. The jury will have 12 jurors and two alternates.