A St. Cloud Area Legal Expert is Chiming in On Lane’s Plea Deal

(KNSI) – Legal experts are chiming in on Wednesday’s guilty plea on a state charge of aiding and abetting manslaughter by former Minneapolis Police Officer Thomas Lane in the May 2020 death of George Floyd.

Lane and two other former officers, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao were charged in state court with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in the case. A fourth officer, Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder in April of 2021. Lane, Kueng, and Thao were convicted in February in federal court for violating Floyd’s civil rights.

St. Cloud area attorney Mike Bryant with Bradshaw & Bryant Law Offices is not connected to the case, explains why Lane would take a plea deal.

“He’s probably taking advantage of the opportunity and saying ‘why go through a trial after what they’ve been through already?’ Why put myself or anybody else through it, or he may actually be making an agreement that he’ll testify in some way. He took the stand in the federal court trial. So, you’ve got that testimony already.”

Kueng and Thao are scheduled to go on trial for the state charges next month.

Lane is expected to be sentenced to three years in prison, which is below sentencing guidelines. Bryant says that seems reasonable given the circumstances because Lane had no criminal record, and “what you always run into in any type of sentencing or charging of police officers is the statutes aren’t made for police officers, and there is no ‘typical.'”

As part of the plea deal, the aiding and abetting murder charge will be dropped.

Lane is scheduled to be sentenced on the state charge on September 21st. Whatever sentence he gets on the state charge, he will serve concurrently with the federal charges. That sentencing date has not been set.

___