MINNEAPOLIS – A medical expert testifying for the defense took over the witness stand on Wednesday in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, former Minneapolis police officer, charged in the death of George Floyd.
Dr. David Fowler, former head of the medical examiner’s office in Maryland, said he believes Floyd had a “sudden heart rhythm disorder” due to his underlying heart condition while being stopped and muffled by police.
Several witnesses for the prosecution had earlier said Floyd died of oxygen from law enforcement. However, the chief medical examiner for Hennepin County, who performed the autopsy, told jurors Floyd’s heart disease was a contributing cause of his death.
‘The law enforcement and the compression of the neck is just more than what Mr. Floyd could take on the basis of his heart conditions, ‘said dr. Andrew Baker said last week.
Where the trial is taking place: The defense argues that Floyd’s hypertensive heart disease and the intake of meth and fentanyl, along with the fight with the police, led to him suffering from heart stress and eventually dying. The defense on Tuesday asked a former police officer and a retired paramedic in Hennepin County who both testified about Floyd’s drug-related arrest in 2019 in Minneapolis.
Prosecutors allege Floyd died of more than nine minutes from Chauvin’s knee to his neck. Over the course of 11 days, prosecutors called 38 witnesses to the scene and played dozens of videos of bystanders, surveillance and police officers.
Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death in police custody on May 25, 2020.
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Latest updates:
- Morries Hall, a man who was in an SUV with George Floyd before the fight with police, will not testify at Chauvin’s trial, Judge Peter Cahill ruled Wednesday.
- Cahill had earlier denied a motion for acquittal of Chauvin that was filed in oral argument by Chief Defense Attorney Eric Nelson. Such acquittal motions by the defense are usually made at the end of the state’s case, are largely pro forma legal actions in criminal trials, and are seldom or never granted by courts.
- The defense called its first six witnesses Tuesday after the prosecutor settled his case. The last witness of the day, Barry Brodd, defense usage expert, told jurors Chauvin was ‘justified’ in his use of force – the first witness to suggest that Floyd’s restriction was acceptable.
Dr. David Richard Fowler, a retired forensic pathologist and 17-year-old chief of medical examiner in Maryland, testified Wednesday for the defense.
According to Fowler, the memorial plaque inside Floyd’s veins and his hypertensive heart disease is the direct cause of his death, according to him. He noted that Floyd had a “sudden heart rhythm disorder” due to the heart disease, while being stopped and muffled by police.
Fowler noted that the most important contributing conditions would include Floyd’s intake of fentanyl and methamphetamine, which other experts called “accidental” abnormal cell growth in his pelvic area, and exposure to vehicle exhaust that could have led to carbon monoxide poisoning. That last contributing condition has never been raised by any expert before.
Floyd’s right coronary artery showed the greatest narrowing, with 90%, increasing the risk of sudden death, Fowler said. Stress increases the demand for oxygen throughout the body, he said. Methamphetamine is dangerous because it causes an increased risk of arrhythmia, increases the heart rate and causes the arteries to narrow to the point where it slows down the blood, Fowler said.
He added that the fight or flight response increases adrenaline, which narrows the arteries, accelerates the heart to increase oxygen and create a reserve and push blood to the limb.
Floyd was subsequently seen in the incident in 2019 by paramedics, and Fowler said his blood pressure was significantly high and “much higher than I would expect.” But Fowler said there are multiple explanations for it and “tension would definitely be one of them.”
Fowler said he received his training and previous experience in Cape Town, with expertise in pediatric pathologies, but he is also a licensed physician in the United States. As chief medical officer in Maryland, he said he investigates about 600 murders annually.
Fowler said he is being remunerated at $ 350 an hour. He said he was approached by Nelson to evaluate the case of George Floyd’s cause of death, but refused to accept it himself, but worked with a panel of practitioners.
“It was such a complicated and difficult matter that it would fit better with the work of The Forensics Panel,” Fowler said. He is a forensic pathology consultant for the U.S. panel, consisting of more than 30 members.
Fowler said 13 peer reviewers in various disciplines were involved in this case. Seven of them are forensic pathologists; among others pulmonologists, emergency physicians and toxicologists were among others, Fowler said.
Fowler is currently facing a federal lawsuit. While Fowler was chief medical examiner in Maryland, Anton Black, a 19-year-old black man experiencing a mental health crisis killed by police in 2018, ruled the death, according to The Baltimore Sun. No one was charged, and Black’s family filed the case in December.
Judge Peter Cahill on Wednesday destroyed a summons for testimony of Morries Hall, a man who was in the car with George Floyd, before the fatal fight with police.
The judge ruled that Hall has a fifth amendment right not to testify, because answering even questions with a small question could expose Hall to criminal charges. The charges could include allegations of possession of drugs found in the car, as well as a possible third-degree murder charge if the drugs are linked to Floyd’s death.
The ruling comes after Hall, who appeared in court before a brief trial before the Chauvin trial resumed, said: “I am afraid of criminal charges in the future.”
The defense confronted Barry Brodd, an expert on the use of the police, to provide a counterpoint to the jury, after several prosecution witnesses testified to the police’s violent abuse.
“I felt Derek Chauvin was justified and acting fairly,” he said.
Brodd testified in 2018 in the trial of Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke, who was charged with the shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014. Brodd testified that Van Dyke’s violent use against Laquan McDonald was justified. Van Dyke was later convicted of second-degree murder.
Brodd said the level of violence the officers used when they tried to place Floyd in the back of the police station and force Floyd to the ground was “objectively reasonable”, although he added: “I do not consider an inclined control to be ‘ a use of force. ‘
During cross-examination, prosecutor Steve Schleicher’s interrogation enabled the prosecution to replay audio and video of Floyd struggling again, saying he could not breathe. Brodd acknowledged that Floyd’s cries “may” mean he has a potential threat of positional asphyxia. Read more about Brodd’s testimony here.
The family of George Floyd and their lawyers stood outside the courthouse with the family of Daunte Wright on Tuesday afternoon. Police fatally shot Wright, a 20-year-old black man, in the nearby Brooklyn Center during a traffic stop Sunday in what police chief called an “accidental dismissal.”
“It’s unbelievable – it’s just something I can not see a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a 10km suburb from where the Chauvin trial of George Floyd took place, shooting dead another unarmed black man. , “civil rights attorney Ben Crump said.
Brandon Williams, the cousin of George Floyd, sent his condolences to the Wright family. “We were in a similar situation,” he said. “To the world I just say: damn, again? And when I say damn, I mean another black man or woman who was killed by excessive force by the police.”
Williams appealed to officers to ‘hold accountable, charge and convict.
“In the middle of the Derek Chauvin trial over the murder of my uncle George Floyd, in snow and icy weather conditions, we stood with this family,” he said. “That is unacceptable. When is enough?”