Judge allows live video during trial of officers charged in George Floyd death

Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill also denied the defense's request to move the trial out of Minneapolis.

MINNEAPOLIS – A Minnesota judge has declined defense requests to move the trial of four Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd’s death, and also ruled that all four would be tried in a single proceeding.

Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill ruled Thursday after defense attorneys argued that pretrial publicity had made it impossible for the four men to get a fair trial. They had also cited a Sept. 11 hearing in which the men and their attorneys were confronted by angry protesters outside the courthouse.

Cahill’s ruling also says audio and video recording, broadcasting, and livestreaming will be allowed during the trial.

Moving the trial away from Minneapolis to less diverse areas of the state likely would have affected the makeup of the jury.

“I think you are going to have a hard time finding a representative jury pool similar to Hennepin County,” said Brian Toay, an attorney for Wold Johnson in Fargo. “You are very likely to get an all-white jury if you were to have a trial in Clay County. I couldn’t imagine the uproar that would have happened if that would have been the case.”