Derek Chauvin’s bail has been increased to $1.25 million as the former police officer charged in the death of George Floyd made his first appearance in court today

Derek Chauvin’s bail has been increased to $1.25 million as the former police officer charged in the death of George Floyd made his first appearance in court today.
In setting bail, Judge Denise Reilly acknowledged Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank’s assertion that the case had prompted, ‘a strong reaction in the community to put it mildly.’
Chauvin’s defense attorney Eric Nelson raised no objections and agreed to make arrangements to have the firearm Chauvin admitted to having at his home removed should he post bail.
His appearance came exactly two weeks after video of Floyd’s death ignited outrage that erupted into violence and protest as the world bore witness to the 46-year-old’s agonizing final moments; 8 minutes and 46 seconds, dying under the knee of the fired Minneapolis cop.
It had been due to take place last week, but was pushed back due to security concerns.
Those same concerns led Chauvin, 44, to not appear in person but via video link from the maximum security Minnesota Correctional Facility in Oak Park Heights where the former police officer has been held under suicide watch since being moved from Hennepin County Jail on June 1.
Chauvin spoke only to confirm his name, address and date of birth and when asked if he had any firearms still in his possession.

Chauvin answered clearly and without hesitation for the most part stumbling only slightly when asked to state his address before prefacing his response, ‘Well it used to be…’
In the days after Floyd’s death, protesters wrote ‘Murderer’ in chalk outside his home, as well as ‘A murderer lives here.’
Chauvin’s charges were upgraded to include second degree murder last Wednesday, the same day the officers who did nothing as he pressed the life out of Floyd were arrested.
In the 15 days since Floyd’s death and his arrest, Chauvin has been swiftly off-loaded by his wife of ten years, former Minneapolis pageant queen Kellie, 45, who filed for divorce the day before charges were brought.
Meanwhile two of the three officers who looked on as Floyd died moved with similar alacrity, to place all blame firmly on the 20-year-old veteran at their own first appearances last Thursday.
The three other officers present when George Floyd was killed – Alexander Kueng, 26, of Plymouth; Thomas Lane, 37,  of St Paul; and Tou Thao, 34, of Coon Rapids, appeared in Hennepin County District Court on June 4.

Thao’s attorney made little objection, but attorneys for Kueng and Lane kicked back at this and the charges leveled against their clients arguing that both were rookies – Kueng was on his third shift and Lane was just four days on the force – who had no sway over Chauvin, a far more senior officer and a veteran of 20 years.
‘What was he supposed to do? Tell Chauvin to get off?’, Lane’s attorney, Earl Gray demanded.
Gray described Lane as ‘a good guy.’ He reminded the judge that his client had asked repeatedly, ‘Shall we roll him?’ and that his client alone had got into the ambulance and attempted to resuscitate Floyd with CPR.
For his part Kueng’s attorney, Thomas Plunkett painted his client as a ‘young African American male who grew up with an absentee father and a single mother’ and had turned to law enforcement to make his community ‘a better place.’
As it was, he insisted, he was no flight risk and had never lived more than 10 miles from where he was born in South Minneapolis where his family ties are significant.
According to Plunkett, the graduate of Henry Patrick High School shared in the childcare since his mother adopted four at-risk children from the community.

Unlike Chauvin, the disgraced former cops had been escorted through an underground tunnel between Hennepin County Jail and Hennepin County District Court.
Just a couple of blocks away, mourners gathered at North Central University for a memorial service held by family and friends and led by Civil Rights leader Rev Al Sharpton.
It was the first of three. A second was held Sunday in Raeford, North Carolina, the town where Floyd was born. He will be buried in Houston on Tuesday in a plot next to his mother.
In setting the bail, the judge said he had ‘struggled to find any comparisons’ for the cases but appeared convinced by Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank’s assertion that the terrible nature of the crime and the high profile rendered each defendant a high flight risk.
If convicted as charged, the men face up to 40 years in prison on the first count, with the second carrying a sentence of up to 10 years and a maximum fine of $20,000.
The actions of all four officers are now all too well-rehearsed and set down in a detailed Statement of Probable Cause pieced together from surveillance footage, interviews with witnesses and their own body cameras.

Officers outside the Public Safety Facility building in Minneapolis 

Chauvin and Thao arrived in separate squad cars at this point and all four officers began trying to push Floyd into the car as he, ‘repeatedly said that he could not breathe.’
At 8.19pm Chauvin pulled Floyd from the car and he went to the ground face down. Keung had his back, Lane held his legs, Chauvin placed his knee on Floyd’s neck in an act that has reverberated around the world.
Floyd said, ‘I’m about to die,’ he repeatedly called for his ‘mama’ and said he could not breathe but they held their positions as Chauvin pressed the life out of the 46-year-old.
After five minutes Floyd stopped moving, after six he fell silent and stopped breathing. Lane said he ‘wanted to roll him on his side.’ Kueng check his wrist and found no pulse.
Still they held their positions. Two minutes later at 8.27pm Chauvin finally relinquished his pressure. By then he was holding down a dead man.
Kueng, Thao and Lane will next appear at a June 29 hearing.

As the alleged killers in court, mourners gathered at North Central University for a memorial service held by family and friends and led by Civil Rights leader Rev Al Sharpton.
It was the first of three. A second was held Sunday in Raeford, North Carolina, the town where Floyd was born. A third memorial service was held in his hometown of Houston on Monday.
He will be buried in Houston on Tuesday in a plot next to his mother.