Former Minneapolis Police Officer Thomas Lane, Charged Over George Floyd’s Death, Fighting Prosecutors Over Evidence

In February, Lane’s attorney filed a motion asking the court to order the state to “produce and disclose all use of force arrest reports where force was used by a Minneapolis police officer in making an arrest and another officer, either orally or physically, intervened in the use of force by his or her fellow police officer, in the last fifty years.”

Lane is one of the three other police officers, aside from Derek Chauvin, that was involved in the fatal arrest of George Floyd. Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, guilty of third-degree murder and guilty of second-degree manslaughter. He is scheduled to be sentenced in June.

Lane, along with former officers Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, is facing charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

Based on court documents, Lane’s attorney appears the state will not be able to produce any incidents where an officer intervened when another officer was using force against a suspect.

In response, the prosecutors say Lane’s request is nothing more than an attempt to “usurp the Court’s time and resources.”

They add, “Actually, counsel for Defendant Lane is aware that this has happened within the Minneapolis Police Department in the last 50 years. Lieutenant Richard Zimmerman has described an incident in which he was chasing and finally caught a suspect. Then a senior officer came up and hit the suspect, at which point Lt. Zimmerman intervened and told the senior officer to back away from Lt. Zimmerman’s suspect.”

The state is asking the court to deny Lane’s motion.