An appellate court panel on Friday upheld ex-Minneapolis officer Tou Thao's federal convictions for violating the civil rights of George Floyd during his 2020 murder under the knee of a fellow officer.
The three-judge U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals panel concluded that prosecutors supplied sufficient evidence to support convictions on two counts of depriving Floyd's rights under color of law — charges that Thao failed to intervene in Derek Chauvin's use of unreasonable force and that Thao was "deliberately indifferent to Floyd's medical needs."
Thao was one of four officers — including Chauvin — convicted on both state and federal criminal charges in connection with Floyd's May 2020 death. He is serving a 3½-year federal prison sentence and will be sentenced Monday for a May conviction on state charges of aiding and abetting manslaughter.
Judge Jonathan Kobes authored Friday's opinion, deciding the appeal alongside judges James Loken and Ralph Erickson. The panel rejected Thao's claims of prosecutorial misconduct.
"I have the utmost respect for the court but I vehemently disagree with this decision and Mr. Thao will continue to pursue every possible avenue for relief in this case," said Robert Paule, Thao's attorney, Friday afternoon.
Kobes wrote Friday that prosecutors supplied evidence that Thao knew from his training that Chauvin's use of force was unreasonable and that he had a duty to intervene in another officer's use of unreasonable force.
In his appeals, Thao argued that he suggested putting Floyd in a side-recovery position. But Kobes wrote that Thao made the suggestion within the first minute of Floyd's restraint and did not intervene for the remaining eight minutes that Chauvin had his knee on Floyd's neck.
Of Thao's argument that he thought Floyd was experiencing excited delirium, Kobes pointed to testimony that, under MPD policy, neck restraints are inappropriate once the detainee stops resisting, even when a detainee is experiencing excited delirium.
