A judge has lifted the gag order in the high-profile cases of the four former Minneapolis police officers charged in the death of George Floyd.
The hearing on Tuesday followed a July 9 order from Judge Peter Cahill, barring the defendants — Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Kiernan Lane and Tou Thao — and all attorneys to not speak publicly about the cases. All four defendants’ lawyers filed a motion to lift, or an objection to, the gag order.
In vacating the gag order, Cahill said the defendants were persuasive in their argument that they have a right to respond to “pretrial statements to meet negative publicity,” according to pool reports.
“The gag order didn’t work,” Cahill added, as the media had been relying on “anonymous sources and other material.”
At the hearing, Kueng’s attorney was also seeking the public release of footage from Lane’s body camera in connection with a motion to dismiss Kueng’s charges. Last week, footage from Lane and Kueng’s body cameras became available to view by appointment only, but cannot be distributed. A coalition of media organizations also made a motion to release the footage.
Cahill did not decide on the release of the footage Tuesday. He has 90 days to do so, but said that he expects to make it before that deadline.
Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd. He remains in custody and appeared in court via video.
Lane, Kueng and Thao are all charged with second-degree aiding and abetting felony murder and second-degree aiding and abetting manslaughter. All three are currently out on bail and appeared in person at the downtown Minneapolis courthouse.
Audio transcripts of body cameras worn by the former officers were released earlier this month, after Lane’s attorney filed a motion to release them in support of a motion to dismiss charges against him.
Lane’s attorney, Earl Gray, has argued that the newly released transcripts show there was no probable cause to prove Lane committed a crime.
The former officers have not yet formally entered a plea.
Cahill has scheduled a trial date for March 8, 2021. The judge has yet to decide if the men will be tried separately or together.
The court is currently exploring allowing audio and video coverage of the trial. At Tuesday’s hearing, all defense attorneys were in favor of that, according to pool reports. Cahill had earlier denied cameras at the pretrial hearings.
Floyd, a Black man, was arrested on May 25 outside a convenience store in Minneapolis and accused of using counterfeit money to purchase cigarettes, according to police.
During the arrests, Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer, kneeled on Floyd’s neck for nearly 9 minutes, according to the criminal complaint. Floyd repeatedly called out, “I can’t breathe,” before he lost consciousness, according to a criminal complaint. Floyd was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Lane, 37, allegedly held Floyd’s legs down while Kueng, 26, allegedly held Floyd’s back as Chauvin allegedly dug his knee into Floyd’s neck, the criminal complaint said. Thao, 34, allegedly watched the entire incident with his hands in his pockets, according to the complaint.
Floyd’s arrest was captured on a bystander’s cellphone. The video was posted on Facebook and went viral, sparking protests against police brutality in Minneapolis and across the nation.
The four officers were fired from the police department. Two of them, Lane and Kueng, were rookies.
Bill Hutchinson, Janel Klein and Ella Torres contributed to this report.
(NEWARK) — A New Jersey woman was arrested after officials found an assault rifle that the Transportation Security Administration described as “artfully concealed” inside her suitcase at Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday.
TSA officers found the concealed weapon “behind the lining of a suitcase” during screening operations of checked baggage at the airport.
The assault rifle was found with a high-capacity magazine and four boxes of hollow-point bullets, TSA said. Officers also found three magazines — one of which was fully loaded — and two additional boxes of ammunition.
“Our TSA officers are very skilled at detecting firearms and other prohibited items,” Tom Carter, TSA’s Federal Security Director for New Jersey said in a press release. “This was an incredibly good catch on the part of our officers because the traveler attempted to evade detection by concealing the items beneath the lining of his suitcase.”
TSA said the Port Authority police were notified about the weapon and subsequently tracked down the woman, who was arrested along with her traveling companion.
(MINNEAPOLIS) — Nearly two months after George Floyd died at the hand of Minneapolis police officers, Minnesota state leaders approved a comprehensive police reform bill that included a ban on chokeholds and what it deemed “warrior-style training.”
The state Legislature passed the bill during the early morning hours Tuesday. Gov. Tim Walz said he will sign the legislation, calling the reforms “overdue,” in a statement. Among the 14 reform measures in the bill are a ban on police use of chokeholds, a ban on “warrior training,” increased de-escalation training and a new unit that will investigate police use of force incidents.
“After decades of advocacy by communities of color and Indigenous communities, the bipartisan passage of these measures is a critical step toward justice. This is only the beginning,” Walz said in a statement.
Floyd was killed on Memorial Day when four officers arrested him following a 911 phone call from a convenience store over a counterfeit bill. The arrest was filmed by bystanders and security cameras and showed white Officer Derek Chauvin putting Floyd on the ground and placing his knee into the suspect’s neck as he gasped, “I can’t breathe.”
Chauvin was later arrested and charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter, while the three other officers, Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Kiernan Lane, were charged with second-degree aiding and abetting felony murder and second-degree aiding and abetting manslaughter.
Floyd’s death sparked massive protests around the country calling for police reform and an end to use of force during arrests. The Minnesota legislative package addresses some of those concerns.
Under the legislation officers in the state cannot perform a chokehold, tie “all of a person’s limbs together behind the person’s back to render the person immobile” or secure “a person in any way that results in transporting the person face down in a vehicle.”
The legislation also bars police forces from offering “warrior-style training” to its members, which is defined as “training for peace officers that is intended to increase a peace officer’s likelihood or willingness to use deadly force in encounters with community members.” Any member who conducts the training on their own will not receive education credits or tuition reimbursement from their departments, according to the legislation.
Minneapolis’s police department had previously banned “warrior-style training” last year but the Minneapolis police union offered to pay for the training for any member who wanted to partake in it on their own time.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement the state bill did not go far enough, especially since his city enacted similar reforms. He also called out the lack of reform when it came to police arbitration.
“At the local level, change-oriented leaders like [Minneapolis PD] Chief [Medaria] Arradondo will continue to see their ability to effect a culture shift limited without changes to arbitrators’ authority to overturn disciplinary decision for egregious misconduct,” Frey said in a statement.
Representatives from the Police Officers’ Federation of Minneapolis, the union representing the city’s officers, didn’t immediately return messages for comment.
Another reform in the package includes retraining officers on the way they handle persons suffering from mental health issues and persons with autism. It also requires the state to come up with a pilot program where officers work with county mobile crisis mental health services.
Myriam Borzee/iStockBy JON HAWORTH and EMILY SHAPIRO, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — The novel coronavirus pandemic has now killed more than 611,000 people worldwide.
Over 14.7 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some governments are hiding or downplaying the scope of their nations’ outbreaks.
The United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 3.8 million diagnosed cases and at least 141,158 deaths.
Here is how the news is developing Tuesday. All times Eastern:
1:40 p.m.: Trump administration working with hospitals on religious accommodations
The Trump administration says it is working with hospitals on accommodations for religious leaders to visit patients and health care workers.
Roger Severino, director of the Office for Civil Rights at the Health and Human Services Department, told reporters Tuesday that the administration has helped to resolve several issues so far, including a medical student who didn’t want to shave his beard but was told the N95 respirator wouldn’t fit properly otherwise.
The student, who was on rotation at Staten Island University Hospital in New York City, was allowed to use a powered air purifying respirator instead, Severino said.
“This was a win-win situation,” Severino said. “It avoided the difficult and painful situation of having to force someone to choose between their deeply held religious beliefs and pursuing the practice of medicine.”
In another case, the Trump administration intervened when a Maryland woman was told in June that her husband couldn’t receive visitors after being in a serious motorcycle accident. The hospital did not believe he was close to death and thought visitors presented safety concerns.
The Health and Human Services Department intervened and a priest was allowed to visit, Severino said.
“Spiritual needs don’t exist only at the point of death” Severino said.
1:05 p.m.: South Carolina National Guard to help hospitals with surge
The South Carolina National Guard is sending about 40 medics to five hospitals to help respond to a COVID-19 surge, officials said Tuesday.
Georgetown County and Horry County have reported over 4,000 new coronavirus cases since July 1, hospital officials said.
All local hospitals are at or near capacity in their ICU, emergency and inpatient care departments, officials said.
12:20 p.m.: 10 new states added to NY travel advisory list
Ten new states have been added to New York’s travel advisory list.
The new states are: Alaska, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Virginia and Washington.
Those states join: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.
Minnesota has been removed from the list.
Travelers headed to New York, New Jersey or Connecticut from those states must quarantine for two weeks.
The quarantine applies to states with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a one-week average, or any state with a 10% or higher positivity rate over a one-week average.
11:40 a.m. Florida county asks parents to sign waiver for kids to take part in after-school activities
In Highlands County, Florida, parents must sign a COVID-19 waiver for students to take part in extracurricular activities this summer and during the upcoming school year, reported ABC affiliate WFTS.
The waiver asks that parents agree to check their children’s temperature each day, visually inspect their children for signs of illness and confirm that the children have not been in contact with a coronavirus-positive person in the last two weeks. Parents also must agree to promptly pick up their children if they show signs of illness and to keep their children at home until they are illness-free for at least 72 hours without medicine.
The waiver is meant to remind parents that participating in any activity now carries a risk, Deputy Superintendent Andrew Lethbridge told WFTS.
11:05 a.m.: Florida has 5 counties with no available ICU beds
In hard-hit Florida, five counties — Hernando, Monroe, Nassau, Okeechobee and Putnam — had no available ICU beds as of Tuesday morning, according to the state’s Agency for Healthcare Administration.
Of the adult ICU beds across the state, just 16.47% are available, the agency said.
Those numbers are expected to fluctuate throughout the day.
At least 21,780 coronavirus patients in Florida have been hospitalized since the pandemic began — up 517 from Monday, according to the state’s Department of Health.
Florida’s positivity rate is now at 13.62% as the state’s number of COVID-19 cases reaches 369,834.
Miami-Dade County, which includes Miami, and Bay County, which includes Panama City, are especially hard hit.
Miami-Dade County has a positivity rate of 19.2% while Bay County’s positivity rate stands at 24.4%
10:05 a.m.: NJ closing DMV center after employee tests positive
A DMV licensing center in Wayne, New Jersey, is closing for one week after an employee tested positive, state officials announced Tuesday.
The facility will be sanitized and the employee will quarantine for two weeks.
9:25 a.m.: Cases in Alabama county double in two weeks
Officials in Calhoun County, Alabama, about 70 miles east of Birmingham, are pleading with residents to wear masks as COVID-19 cases surge in the area.
Of the county’s 814 coronavirus cases, 430 of those were reported in just the last two weeks, Michael Barton, director of Emergency Management for Calhoun County, said Monday.
“This is alarming,” Barton said, adding that hospitals are at an “all-time high in reaching our capacity.”
One local hospital had five COVID-19 patients two weeks ago. That hospital now has 44 patients.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued a mandatory statewide mask requirement last week.
“Make sure that you wear your mask and you adhere to all of the standards and guidelines that you possibly can,” urged Joe Weaver, CEO at the local Stringfellow Memorial Hospital. “We know it’s restrictive, but at the same time, there’s no other thing. There’s nothing else that we can do at this point in time.”
4:43 a.m.: Russia’s first COVID-19 vaccine ready, deputy defense minister says
Russia’s first vaccine against the novel coronavirus infection, which was created by military specialists and scientists of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, is ready, First Deputy Defense Minister Ruslan Tsalikov told Argumenty i Fakty.
“Final assessments on the results of testing by our specialists and scientists of the National Research Center have been already made. At the moment of release all volunteers without exception developed immunity against the coronavirus and felt normal. So, the first domestic vaccine against the novel coronavirus infection is ready,” Tsalikov told the newspaper.
2:43 a.m.: Ft. Worth federal women’s prison announces third COVID-related death
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons announced late Monday a third COVID-related death at FMC Carswell, a specialized federal medical prison for women in Ft. Worth, Texas.
Teresa Ely, 51, tested positive for COVID-19 on June 30 and was transported to a local hospital where she received treatment until she died Monday, July 20.
The BOP announcement said Ely had “long-term, pre-existing medical conditions, which the CDC lists as risk factors for developing more severe COVID-19 disease.”
“Ms. Ely was a 51-year-old female who was sentenced in the Western District of Virginia to a 252-month sentence for Engaging in a Criminal Enterprise and Continuing a Criminal Enterprise,” read a statement from the prison. “Ms. Ely had been in custody at FMC Carswell since September 19, 2007.”
1:37 a.m.: NFL players will be tested daily for COVID-19 for at least the first two weeks of training camp
The NFL announced that players will be tested daily for the coronavirus for at least the first two weeks of training camp.
The league also made an offer to the NFL Players Association to play no preseason games this summer, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The players had been pushing to not play preseason games this year, and the league had been seeking to play two games instead of the usual four.
The league’s proposal to the players includes an offer for a longer training camp acclimation period, a source told ESPN’s Dan Graziano, and that is closer to what the union proposed.
The NFLPA has not yet informed the league whether it will accept the proposal.
12:45 a.m.: Church-related COVID-19 outbreaks continue to pop up in West Virginia
During Monday’s briefing, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced that several new church-related outbreaks of COVID-19 have been identified at places of worship in Grant, Logan and Wood counties.
Last week, the governor announced that additional church-related outbreaks had already been identified in Boone, Kanawha, Raleigh and Taylor counties.
Between all seven of these counties combined, these outbreaks account for about 75 total cases.
“We’ve absolutely got to stay on top of this with all in us,” Gov. Justice said. “Please know that the church setting is the ideal setting to spread this virus.”
The governor urged all West Virginians in church settings to follow the state’s safety guidelines, including using every other pew, maintaining social distancing, and wearing face coverings.
“I know these things are really difficult to do,” Gov. Justice said. “But, for right now, they have to be done because, if we don’t, all we’re going to do is lose more people.”
“We could very well lose a lot of our grandmothers and grandfathers – people who have so much wisdom to still continue to pass on – we absolutely don’t need to be losing these great West Virginians,” he said.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty ImagesBy AARON KATERSKY and IVAN PEREIRA, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Michael Cohen alleges he was sent back to federal prison and put in solitary confinement as retaliation over a tell-all book on the president he aims to publish, according to a lawsuit filed by the disgraced attorney.
Cohen filed the suit in New York Federal Court Monday against U.S. Attorney General William Barr, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and the Warden of the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York, where Cohen is currently confined, contending his detainment is in “retaliation for his protected speech.”
Cohen, who is serving a three-year sentence for violating campaign finance laws and lying to Congress, was sent back to the facility on July 9 after spending two months on furlough in home confinement.
He alleges in the suit that U.S. Probation Officers offered him “an unconstitutional demand” where he was prohibited from speaking to the media in any form. That stipulation included a book that Cohen has been writing over the last year where he claims he will reveal new details about the president during his decade as Trump’s attorney, according to the suit.
“The First Amendment forbids respondents from imprisoning Mr. Cohen in retaliation for drafting a book about the President and for seeking to publish that book soon,” the suit said.
A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons told ABC News in a statement that it does not comment on pending litigation. Representatives for Barr’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Department of Justice furloughed Cohen, 53, from prison and released him to his Manhattan home in May over coronavirus concerns in federal detention facilities. The suit said he had been working on his manuscript shortly after he was sent to the Otisville facility in 2019 and complied with prison rules.
“Mr. Cohen did most of his writing in plain sight in the law library. Indeed, staff at Otisville, including Camp Administrator Robert Schreffler and Correctional Counselor James DeLeo, explicitly informed Mr. Cohen that they were aware he was writing a book,” the suit said.
The suit said the book will detail Trump’s behaviors behind closed doors such as making “pointedly certain anti-Semitic remarks against prominent Jewish people and virulently racist remarks against such Black leaders as President Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela.”
Cohen continued to work on the manuscript after he was furloughed and teased the book on his Twitter account on July 2, according to the suit.
During a meeting on July 9 with probation officers to formalize terms of homeconfinemen on July 9, Cohen and his attorney asked for clarification on the home confinement demands that restricted his public comments. Probation officers said his request would be sent “up the chain of command” for a decision, according to the suit. Cohen and his attorney stayed in a waiting room for about an hour-and-a-half and never received clarification or an agreement to sign before agents took him back into custody, the suit alleges.
During a court hearing on July 9, Cohen and his attorney asked for clarification on the home confinement demands and probation officers said his request would be sent “up the chain of command” for a decision, according to the suit. Cohen and his attorney stayed in a waiting room for about an hour-and-a-half before agents took him back into custody, the suit alleges.
He is currently living in a 12-by-8-foot cell in the prison by himself, according to the suit.
The suit contends that Cohen never refused to sign the agreement over his confinement rules and the Bureau of Prison’s statements about his conduct and responses to the court orders are false.
Two other books about the president have drawn legal challenges, including “The Room Where it Happened” by former national security adviser John Bolton and “Too Much and Never Enough” by Mary Trump, the president’s niece. Both have been published.
“The government’s effort to exercise prior restraint over Mr. Cohen’s book is only the latest in the Trump Administration’s efforts to censor speech that reflects negatively on Trump himself or his Administration,” Cohen’s lawsuit said.
kali9/iStockBy MEREDITH DELISO, ABC NEWS
