MINNEAPOLIS (Legal Newsline) - British tabloid the Daily Mail has disclosed partial bodycam video of George Floyd’s arrest by Minneapolis police officers on May 25, setting off an investigation into the leaked footage, as well as raising questions about Floyd's cause of death and why the state hasn't willingly released the footage.
The Associated Press reported on Aug. 3 that the release of the videos, 10 minutes from former officer Thomas Lane’s bodycam and 18 minutes from former officer J. Alexander Kueng’s bodycam, has been characterized as an unauthorized leak and is being investigated by a Minnesota court.
In an Aug. 4 tweet on Twitter, the Columbia Bugle accused Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison of hiding the videos while the DailyWire’s Matt Walsh reported that the video leak reveals the story of George Floyd’s death is ‘far more complicated than the media led us to believe.”
And an Aug. 6 report by the American Spectator asserts that "the physical, scientific, and electronically recorded evidence in the case overwhelmingly and conclusively proves" that police are not guilty of charges they face. Officer Derek Chauvin, seen on cellphone video pressing his knee into Floyd's neck as Floyd lay on the ground, is charged with second-degree murder and former officers Lane, Kueng, and Tou Thao are charged with aiding and abetting that murder.
"...[T]he evidence proves that, when he first encountered the police, George Floyd was well on his way to dying from a self-administered drug overdose," wrote George Parry for the Specator.
Ellison did not immediately respond to requests for comment but his spokesperson previously told Legal Newsline on July 2 that the footage was being withheld because the case was still under investigation.
“The body-camera footage is evidence in the investigation along with many other kinds of evidence,” said John Stiles, deputy chief of staff with the Office of Minnesota Attorney General. “There is no current timeline for releasing it.”
In an interview with the Washington Post, Ellison said he is a firm believer in transparency and the public's right to know, but in explaining his refusal to release bodycam video he said that "a higher priority" is a "successful prosecution."
Former prosecutor Bilal A. Essayli says the footage release should be all or nothing before trial.
“The George Floyd use of force is still excessive and it doesn't justify what the officers did but it provides more context to the situation,” Essayli told Legal Newsline. “Arguably the bodycam footage could help the defense if the public sees a different light to the incident. If the footage paints George Floyd in a bad light, that could potentially help the defense.”
As previously reported, it was a court that released only the transcripts after a motion was filed on July 8 by defendant Officer Thomas Lane to dismiss the charges against him.
“Either the government is required to release all the video footage or none of it,” Essayli told Legal Newsline. “I don't really think it's fair to selectively piecemeal or to release segments that may be very inflammatory and not show the whole picture and that's often what we see with police shooting incidents or other uses of force where maybe a law enforcement agency only releases a certain clip of it that looks really bad but then you get different angles from other sources that show a different perspective.”
There are also serious ethical concerns, Essayli added.
“If I keep a video out of the public eye for so long and it allowed people to develop an opinion on the case, t's going to be very hard to find objective jurors who are going to sit at trial on the case,” he said. “So, it's definitely an issue where it may have negatively and maybe permanently tainted the jury pool.”
While some American cities have been engulfed with protestors since May 25 because officer Chauvin is alleged to have killed a compliant Floyd while in custody, Essayli said there would have been public outcry regardless if the partial bodycam footage had been leaked earlier in the investigation.
“The use of force was still excessive and inappropriate,” he said. “This was a catalyst for a larger narrative having to do with abuse of police force. It's impossible to know but I don't think it would have really changed the protests. What happened, happened. The footage is disturbing whether it's in context or not. It would have evoked a strong, emotional reaction from most people."