MINNEAPOLIS, MN – While a judge’s recent ruling regarding former Minneapolis Police Department Officer Derek Chauvin makes sense – it’s likely not going to make a lot of people happy.
The 44-year-old who is facing murder and manslaughter charges had recently bonded out of jail, and a judge is allowing Chauvin the opportunity to leave the state due to safety concerns.
NEW: Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged in the killing of George Floyd, can leave Minnesota due to “safety concerns,” a judge said Friday. https://t.co/GM0fz1VYwO
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) October 9, 2020
Most everyone stateside knows who Chauvin is at this point, as being the officer featured on the video who had his knee affixed to the back of George Floyd’s neck prior to Floyd passing away on May 25th.
Days after the incident captured on film, Chauvin was arrested under charges related to Floyd’s death.
Chauvin’s bail amount was set at $1 million under the charges levied against him which, when considering the charges being related to various counts of murder and manslaughter in the second and third-degree, is actually a pretty high bail amount when considering national averages for set bond.
It actually happens often – national average bond amount for manslaughter is $25K, national average for 2nd degree murder is $250K, and 1st degree murder bail amount average is $1M. So, he had about 4X the average bail amount for 2nd degree.
— Greg Hoyt (@GregHoytLET) October 9, 2020
On October 7th, after having been in custody for months, Chauvin bonded out and was released from jail.
Come October 9th, a Hennepin County judge was presented with evidence by the Department of Corrections that there were “safety concerns” pertaining to Chauvin attaining his pretrial release.
Considering the evidence presented, the judge has amended Chauvin’s release conditions so as to allow him to either reside in Minnesota or any neighboring state during his pretrial release.
Also present within the judge’s order was that Chauvin will have “no permanent address” available within the public court information system.
However, Chauvin will have to report address details to whoever his conditional release officer is.
There are still circulating conspiracies about where Chauvin managed to scrape up $1 million to post bond.
But released bond paperwork shows that he didn’t actually post the $1 million himself – he was released via a surety bond.
Here’s our @FOX9 #BREAKING news coverage as Derek Chauvin has posted $1M bail & is no longer in custody. #GeorgeFloyd https://t.co/feQkHTLra2 pic.twitter.com/b9nJ4DmcAL
— Paul Blume (@PaulBlume_FOX9) October 7, 2020
Meaning that he either put together roughly 10% of his bond amount or had equal collateral (or a little of both) and handed that over to the bond company that secured his release.
Essentially, it sounds as though those involved with the handling of this case are trying to closely guard Chauvin’s information pertaining to wherever his whereabouts will be while awaiting trial on release.
As mentioned earlier – the rationale makes sense, but this likely will not sit well with critics.
The handling of Chauvin’s case while he was in custody was also the source of bizarre controversy back when reports emerged alleging that only white correctional staff were allowed to work the floor where Chauvin was housed while in jail.
Here’s that report from June 23rd.
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ST. PAUL, MN – When Derek Chauvin was charged with Murder in the case of George Floyd, he was sent to Ramsey County Jail in St. Paul Minnesota.
It appears for at least the first month of his incarceration at the jail, only white corrections staff were allowed on the floor where Chauvin was being held.
This information has come to light after eight officers filed a complaint with The Minnesota Department of Human Rights accusing the superintendent of the Ramsey County Jail from keeping the eight CO’s from bringing Chauvin to his cell, or even being on the same floor as he was.
Minnesota jail accused of bias in allowing only white officers to guard Derek Chauvin.
Discrimination complaint says corrections personnel of color were barred from floor where officer accused in George Floyd death was held: @NBCNews. https://t.co/TznvsQKOts— Shomari Stone (@shomaristone) June 21, 2020
The eight officers filing the complaint, who are all people of color, said the order came down from Superintendent Steve Lydon, who is white.
The officers also contend that the move was a form of segregation and implied that he didn’t believe the officers could do their jobs because they are not white.
The Star Tribune reported, As Chauvin arrived, that all officers of color were ordered to a separate floor, and a supervisor told one of them that, because of their race, they would be a potential “liability” around Chauvin, according a copy of racial discrimination charges.
Lydon eventually said he was attempting to reduce the amount of trauma endured by his black corrections officers due to the alleged racism of the Chauvin/Floyd case.
One black acting sergeant wrote:
“I understood that the decision to segregate us had been made because we could not be trusted to carry out our work responsibilities professionally around the high-profile inmate — solely because of the color of our skin.
“I am not aware of a similar situation where white officers were segregated from an inmate.”
Bonnie Smith, a Minneapolis attorney representing the eight employees, said the order left a lasting impact on morale:
“I think they deserve to have employment decisions made based on performance and behavior. Their main goal is to make sure this never happens again.”
“A black acting sergeant who typically oversees the transport of high-profile inmates started a routine pat-down on Chauvin. [Superintendent Steve] Lydon instructed the sergeant to stop and replaced him with white officers, the charges say.”—@ByLizSawyer
— Ron Hogan (@RonHogan) June 21, 2020
Roy Magnuson, a spokesperson for the Ramsey County Jail in St. Paul Minnesota, initially denied the claims that the officers had been kept from Chauvin because of their race.
This weekend, however, they acknowledged the move and said that Lydon had been temporarily removed from the superintendent position while the allegations are investigated.
Magnuson also provided a statement that Lydon allegedly gave to investigators.
In the statement Lydon said he did segregate employees to prevent what he called “heightened ongoing trauma” from having people of color interact with Chauvin.
The statement said, in part:
“Out of care and concern, and without the comfort of time, I made a decision to limit exposure to employees of color to a murder suspect who could potentially aggravate those feelings.”
Lydon also said he had only done so for about 45 minutes and then, realizing he made a mistake, reversing the decision and offering an apology. The CO’s dispute that claim and say it lasted longer, effecting one shift two days later.
Smith, the attorney, said:
“If he [Lydon] is really trying to protect my clients from racial trauma, he shouldn’t be segregating them on the basis of skin color. He isn’t preventing racial trauma — he is creating it.”
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