|
Use-of-force
expert
Barry
Brodd
testifies
on
behalf
of the
defense
on Day
12 of
Derek
Chauvin’s
murder
trial.
(REUTERS/Jane
Rosenberg)
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Defense
expert
calls
Chauvin's
actions
justified
and
reasonable
Chao
Xiong,
Paul
Walsh,
and
Rochelle
Olson
startribune.com
MINNEAPOLIS
- A
longtime
police
instructor
testified
Tuesday
that
former
Minneapolis
police
officer
Derek
Chauvin
was
justified
in
kneeling
on
George
Floyd
for more
than
nine
minutes
because
he
resisted
arrest
and
struggled
with
officers.
Barry
Brodd, a
use-of-force
expert
hired by
Chauvin's
defense,
told the
court
that
placing
a
suspect
stomach-down
on the
ground
is a
"control
technique"
and not
use of
force
because
it does
not
cause
pain. He
called
the
position
"prone
control"
while
prosecutors
have
repeatedly
called
it
"prone
restraint."
"I
felt
that
Derek
Chauvin
was
justified
and
acting
with
objective
reasonableness
following
Minneapolis
Police
Department
policy
and
current
standards
of law
enforcement
in his
interactions
with Mr.
Floyd,"
Brodd
said.
Brodd
was
among
five
witnesses
who
testified
Tuesday,
the
first
day
Chauvin's
defense
began
calling
witnesses
in the
trial
now
entering
its
sixth
week.
Chauvin
is
charged
with
second-degree
murder,
third-degree
murder
and
second-degree
manslaughter.
Brodd
buttressed
several
defense
strategies
by
testifying
that
officers
must
take the
totality
of the
circumstances
into
consideration
when
using
force,
that a
crowd of
bystanders
posed a
potential
threat
to
officers,
and that
compliant
suspects
can
suddenly
become
noncompliant
and
dangerous.
"I
can't
imagine
how many
times
I've
been
exposed
to
personally
or seen
other
officers
dealing
with a
traffic
stop or
jaywalking
or some
minor
offense
and they
end up
in a
fight
for
their
life
because
of the
conduct
of the
individual,"
said
Brodd,
who
served
22 years
with the
Santa
Rosa
Police
Department
before
retiring
in 2004.
However,
during
cross-examination
from
prosecutor
Steve
Schleicher,
Brodd
made
statements
that
could be
favorable
to the
state.
Brodd
testified
that a
suspect's
large
stature
or drug
use were
not
automatic
grounds
to use
force,
that
several
bystanders
did not
appear
threatening,
and that
Chauvin
verbally
acknowledged
Floyd
when he
complained
of
experiencing
pain in
his neck
and
stomach.
Schleicher
attempted
to cast
doubt on
Brodd's
assessment
of
Floyd's
conduct.
"Based
on your
view of
the
defendant
kneeling
on Mr.
Floyd …
the
defendant
did not
alter
the
level of
force
that he
was
using on
Mr.
Floyd,
did he?"
Schleicher
asked.
"No,"
Brodd
responded.
"Even
though
Mr.
Floyd
had
become
as you
put it,
at this
point,
compliant,
fair?"
Schleicher
asked.
"More
compliant,
yes,"
Brodd
said.
"Well,
what
part of
this is
not
compliant?"
Schleicher
asked.
"… A
compliant
person
would
have
both
their
hands in
the
small of
their
back and
just be
resting
comfortably,
vs. like
he's
still
moving
around,"
Brodd
said.
"Did
you say
resting
comfortably?"
Schleicher
asked.
"Or
laying
comfortably,"
Brodd
answered.
"Resting
comfortably
on the
pavement?"
Schleicher
asked.
"Yes."
"At
this
point in
time
when
he's
attempting
to
breathe
by
shoving
his
shoulder
into the
pavement?"
the
prosecutor
asked.
"I
was
describing
what the
signs of
a
perfectly
compliant
person
would
be,"
Brodd
said.
Brodd is
the
defense's
key
use-of-force
witness
aimed at
countering
the
testimony
of
several
prosecution
witnesses,
including
Minneapolis
Police
Chief
Medaria
Arradondo,
who
previously
testified
that
Chauvin
used
excessive
force
and an
unsanctioned
maneuver
when he
knelt on
Floyd's
neck
last May
25.
Under
direct
questioning
from
Chauvin's
attorney,
Eric
Nelson,
Brodd
relayed
a
hypothetical
domestic
violence
incident
he has
taught
students
where an
individual
is
Tased,
falls to
the
ground
and
strikes
his
head.
The
incident
isn't
deadly
force;
it's an
accidental
death,
Brodd
testified.
Katie
Wright,
the
mother
of
Daunte
Wright,
broke
down
while
describing
the last
time she
talked
to her
son
after he
was
pulled
over
during a
news
conf
Leila
Navidi,
Star
Tribune
Gallery:
Katie
Wright,
the
mother
of
Daunte
Wright,
broke
down
while
describing
the last
time she
talked
to her
son
after he
was
pulled
over
during a
news
conference
outside
the
Hennepin
County
Government
Center.
Brodd
told the
court
that
Floyd's
death
was not
the
result
of
deadly
force.
"Police
officers
don't
have to
fight
fair,"
he said,
adding
that
officers
can
escalate
their
use of
force up
a level
from the
force
they're
facing.
Nelson
has
argued
that
Floyd
likely
died of
a drug
overdose
and
pre-existing
health
issues,
including
heart
disease.
The
county
medical
examiner
ruled
Floyd's
cause of
death
"cardiopulmonary
arrest
complicating
law
enforcement
subdual,
restraint,
and neck
compression."
The
medical
examiner
listed
hardening
and
thickening
of the
artery
walls,
heart
disease
and drug
use as
"other
significant
conditions."
Fentanyl
and
methamphetamine
were
found in
Floyd's
system.
Brodd
said
it's
important
"to put
yourself
in the
officer's
shoes.
It's
easy to
sit in
an
office
and
judge an
officer's
conduct."
Brodd
testified
that
police
used
force in
getting
Floyd
into the
back of
a squad
and then
in
positioning
him on
the
street
after he
fell out
the
other
side of
the
vehicle.
But, he
added,
once
Floyd
was on
the
ground,
the
"prone
control"
position
was not
a use of
force.
"It's a
control
technique,"
Brodd
said.
"It
doesn't
hurt."
Former
officers
J.
Alexander
Kueng
and
Thomas
Lane
first
encountered
Floyd
and
tried to
get him
in their
squad.
Chauvin
arrived
to
assist.
Kueng
knelt on
Floyd's
buttocks
and
thigh
area
while
Lane
knelt
and held
onto his
legs.
Former
officer
Tou Thao
kept a
crowd of
angry
bystanders
at bay.
Kueng,
Lane and
Thao are
scheduled
to be
tried
Aug. 23
with
aiding
and
abetting
second-degree
murder
and
manslaughter.
All
four
defendants,
who were
fired,
are out
on bond.
Other
factors
supported
Chauvin
keeping
Floyd on
the
pavement,
Brodd
said.
"In
this
situation
there
were
space
limitations,
Mr.
Floyd
was
butted
up
against
a patrol
car,
there
was
traffic
still
driving
down the
street,
there
were
crowd
issues
that
took the
attention
of the
officers,
and Mr.
Floyd
was
still
somewhat
resisting,
so I
think
those
were all
valid
reasons
to keep
him in
the
prone,"
he said.
During
cross-examination,
Schleicher
walked
Brodd
through
several
video
clips
taken
from
police
bodycam
footage
and
cellphone
video
recorded
by
bystander
Darnella
Frazier.
He also
showed a
still
image of
Chauvin
kneeling
on
Floyd's
neck.
Brodd
repeatedly
disputed
Schleicher's
definition
of "on
top"
when the
prosecutor
asked
him
multiple
times if
Chauvin
was "on
top" of
Floyd.
Brodd
said "on
top"
meant
laying
his full
body
atop of
Floyd,
but he
eventually
conceded
the
point.
Brodd
testified
that
Chauvin
kept
himself
in the
same
general
position
as Floyd
"is
becoming
more
compliant."
He also
described
one of
Floyd's
arms as
"resting
comfortably"
on the
pavement.
The
state
has
noted
that
Floyd
used his
arms, a
hand and
a
shoulder
to ease
his
breathing
under
the
weight
of the
officers.
Schleicher
reacted
to
Brodd's
characterization
of
Floyd's
arm and
asked,
"Struggling
to
breathe
is being
noncompliant?"
No,
Brodd
said.
Under
redirect
from
Nelson,
Brodd
said the
clips
Schleicher
played
showed
"highlights"
and not
the full
sequence
of
events.
"He's a
very
strong
individual,"
Brodd
said of
Floyd,
noting
how
three
officers
struggled
to get
him in
the
squad's
back
seat.
Earlier
in the
day,
Shawanda
Hill
testified
that she
ran into
Floyd,
her
ex-boyfriend,
inside
Cup
Foods
last
May. He
appeared
"happy,
normal,
talking,
alert,"
she
said.
But
when
they
went to
his
vehicle
so he
could
drive
her
home, he
fell
asleep,
she
said,
adding
that he
was
tired
because
he had
been
working.
Hill
testified
that she
awakened
Floyd to
warn him
that a
Minneapolis
officer
was at
his
window
with a
gun
drawn.
Lane and
Kueng
were
investigating
the use
of a
fake $20
bill to
buy
cigarettes.
" 'Baby,
that's
the
police.
Roll
down the
window,' "
Hill
said she
told
Floyd.
"… The
man had
a gun at
the
window.
[Floyd]
instantly
grabbed
the
wheel,
and he
said,
'Please,
please
don't
shoot
me.' "
Nelson
has
tried to
show
that
Floyd's
behavior
before
and
during
his
encounter
with
police
was
affected
by
drugs,
which
put the
officers
on
alert.
Hill
said she
saw
nothing
to
indicate
Floyd
was
having
health
problems
such as
shortness
of
breath
or chest
pains.
Minneapolis
Park
Police
officer
Peter
Chang
also
testified,
telling
the
court he
arrived
at the
scene to
watch
over
Floyd's
car and
two
passengers.
He said
bystanders
were
"loud"
and
"very
aggressive"
toward
the
other
officers.
Assistant
Attorney
General
Matthew
Frank
tried to
quash
the
notion
of a
dangerous
crowd.
"They
never
radioed
for
help,
did
they?"
Frank
asked of
the
other
officers'
reaction
to the
crowd.
"No,"
Chang
said.
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