The verdict was announced on Tuesday by Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill, who based his decision on written filings by both sides and evidence presented in previous cases, after Thao rejected a plea agreement.
Thao was the last of the four former officers facing judgment in state court over Floyd’s death. Derek Chauvin, who was captured on video kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, was found guilty of murdering Floyd in 2021. Two other former officers, Thomas Lane and J Alexander Kueng, had pleaded guilty last year to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter, the same charge that Thao faced.
During the fatal arrest, Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck, while Lane and Kueng restrained his knees and buttocks. Thao stood to one side and kept back a small crowd of people, including an off-duty firefighter, who repeatedly yelled at the police to get off Floyd and check his pulse.
While Thao maintained that he did nothing wrong, prosecutor Matthew Frank argued that Thao knew his fellow officers were restraining Floyd in a way that was “extremely dangerous” because it could stop his breathing, which was the exact condition that Floyd repeatedly complained he was suffering.
Thao’s defence lawyer, Robert Paule, argued that the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Thao knew Chauvin was committing a crime or that Thao intended to help in a crime. Thao’s lawyers also wrote that his police training had taught him that knee restraints on a neck were appropriate in some instances, and he believed the other three officers were mindful of Floyd’s medical needs.
Chauvin was sentenced to 22.5 years in 123 at the hands of police set off mass racial justice protests across the United States.
