2nd DOJ Indictment Accuses Chauvin In 2017 Arrest of 14-Year-Old

MINNEAPOLIS — A federal grand jury Friday indicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in a Sept. 4, 2017 incident involving the arrest of a 14-year-old boy. The indictment claims Chauvin willfully deprived the Minneapolis teen of his constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer.

This indictment is separate from the one he and three other former officers face in the death of George Floyd.

In 2017, Chauvin, without legal justification, hit the teen with a flashlight multiple times and held him by the throat, the first of two counts claims.

The second count says Chauvin — again without justification — held his knee on the boy's neck and the upper back of the teenager even after the teenager was lying prone, handcuffed, and unresisting.

Chauvin's actions resulted in "bodily injury," according to the indictment.

In November, state prosecutors argued that the body camera footage from the incident was relevant to Chauvin's murder trial in the death of George Floyd and that it should be admitted into evidence.

Judge Peter Cahill denied the motion, and the jury was not informed of the incident.

The memorandum from state prosecutors about the 2017 arrest is public, however. In it, the prosecutors claim that the body camera footage showed "a far more violent and forceful treatment of this child" than what Chauvin described in his police report.

"The videos show Chauvin’s use of unreasonable force towards this child and complete disdain for his well-being," they wrote.

The 2017 incident began after Chauvin was dispatched to a domestic assault call after a mother reported that she had been assaulted by her two children, a son and a daughter.

On Sept. 4, 2017 at 9:13:22:

"A mere 33 seconds after telling him to come out of the room, both officers grabbed the child," state prosecutors who reviewed the body camera footage described.

"At that point in time, the child was backed up against his bedroom wall. Officer Walls told the child to get on his stomach, and when he did not, Chauvin hit the child with his flashlight, just eight seconds after first grabbing the child. Two seconds later, Chauvin grabbed the child’s throat and hit him again in the head with his flashlight. The child cried out that they were hurting him, and to stop, and called out "mom.' Chauvin told Officer Walls to use his Taser on the child, but Walls did not have a Taser."

At 9:14:15:

"Chauvin applied a neck restraint, causing the child to lose consciousness and go to the ground," wrote prosecutors.

"Chauvin and Walls placed him in the prone position and handcuffed him behind his back while the child’s mother pleaded with them not to kill her son and told her son to stop resisting. About a minute after going to the ground, the child began repeatedly telling the officers that he could not breathe, and his mother told Chauvin to take his knee off her son."

"Chauvin removed his knee from the child’s back, some 17 minutes after restraining him to the floor and kneeling on him," prosecutors added.

Prosecutors said 2017 arrest was similar to Floyd's arrest

The prosecutors for the trial in Floyd's death argued that the 2017 arrest was relevant for their case:

"Just like with Floyd, Chauvin used an unreasonable amount of force without regard for the need for that level of force or the victim’s well-being. Just like with Floyd, when the child was slow to comply with Chauvin and Walls’ instructions, Chauvin grabbed the child by the throat, forced him to the ground in the prone position, and placed his knee on the child’s neck with so much force that the child began to cry out in pain and tell Chauvin he could not breathe. And just like with Floyd, Chauvin ignored those pleas and refused to provide medical assistance. Instead, Chauvin held the child down with his knee on the child’s neck and back for nearly 17 minutes."

Cahill denied the motion.