how did chauvin get his lawyer

by Lavon Denesik 6 min read

Overview

Prosecution for the murder of George Floyd

On May 25, 2020, Chauvin was one of four officers involved in arresting George Floyd on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill at a market and was the field training officer for one of the other officers involved. Security camera footage from a nearby business did not show Floyd resisting the arrest. The criminal complaint stated that, based on body camera footage, Floyd repeatedly said h…

Early life and education

Chauvin was born on March 19, 1976. His mother was a housewife and his father was a certified public accountant. When he was seven, his parents divorced and were granted joint custody of him.
Chauvin attended Park High School in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, but did not finish and later obtained a GED certificate. He earned a certificate in quantity food preparation at Dakota County …

Career

Chauvin joined the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) in 2001. While on the force he was involved in three police shootings, one of which was fatal. He received a medal for valor in 2006 for being one of several officers who fired on a suspect who pointed a shotgun at them, and another in 2008 for a domestic violenceincident in which he broke down a door and shot a suspect who reached for his pistol. He received a commendation medal in 2008 after he and his partner …

Civil rights violations case

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) convened a grand jury in February 2021 to investigate whether Chauvin violated Floyd's civil rights as well as another incident in September 2017 when Chauvin restrained a 14-year-old boy for several minutes, using his knee to lean into the boy's back and hitting him with a flashlight several times.
During the restraint, Chauvin ignored the boy's pleas that he could not breathe and the boy briefl…

Tax evasion case

On July 22, 2020, after the murder charges were brought against him, Chauvin and his then-wife were separately charged in Washington County, Minnesota, on nine felony counts of tax evasion related to allegedly fraudulent state income tax returns from 2014 to 2019. Prosecutors state the couple under-reported their joint income by $464,433, including more than $95,000 from Chauvin's off-duty security work. The complaint also alleges failure to pay proper sales tax on a $100,000 B…

Ramsey County Jail discrimination complaint

Following his arrest on May 29, Chauvin was booked and processed at the Ramsey County Jail. In June 2020, eight correctional officers who work at the jail filed a discrimination complaint against their supervisors with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. They alleged that during Chauvin's brief stay before his transfer to a state prison, non-white guards were not allowed to work on the fifth floor where Chauvin was being held. The complaint also alleged that a guard ha…

Personal life

Chauvin was registered with the Republican Party of Florida. Chauvin's ex-wife, a real estate agent and photographer, is a Hmong refugee from Laos who won in a "Mrs. Minnesota" beauty pageant in 2018. She filed for divorce the day before he was arrested for Floyd's murder, and the divorce was finalized in February 2021. The couple did not have any children together.