A judge ruled on Thursday that the trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged with aiding and abetting in the death of George Floyd will be delayed until March 2020 to allow a federal lawsuit against the three to proceed first.
Thomas Lane, J. Kueng, and Tou Thao were scheduled to stand trial on August 23 on charges of murder and manslaughter.
Derek Chauvin, the three officers’ co-defendant, were found guilty of second- and third-degree murder, as well as second-degree manslaughter, by a Minneapolis jury last month after hearing evidence such as that he put his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes.
News of the postponement of the trial against Lane, J. Kueng and Thao came during a hearing on pretrial motions. AP reports that the defense attorneys for all three agreed to the postponement.
The trial of the three former police officers was separated from Chauvin’s to comply with COVID-19 courtroom spacing restrictions.
