Former Minneapolis Police Officers Reject Plea Deal

(KNSI) — The two former Minneapolis police officers charged in the death of George Floyd rejected a plea deal Monday morning.

J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao were offered the deal to avoid a state trial and additional prison time stemming from their federal civil rights convictions earlier this year.

At a hearing Monday, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank offered to drop felony charges of aiding and abetting murder if they pled guilty to aiding and abetting manslaughter. They would have received a recommendation of three years in prison to be served concurrently with their federal prison sentences. Both Kueng and Thao said no with Thao adding, “it would be a lie and a sin” to accept the deal.

A state trial for the two aiding and abetting charges is set for October 24th. Their voluntary surrender date for the federal prison sentence is October 4th.

Former officer Thomas Lane accepted the same deal offered to Kueng and Thao and received three years in prison, to be served concurrently with his federal rights prison sentence of two and a half years.

Former Officer Derek Chauvin previously pleaded guilty to depriving Floyd and a then-14-year-old child of their constitutional rights. Chauvin was sentenced to 252 months in prison in July. He will concurrently serve his state sentence of 22 and a half years, which was handed down last year.

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