Chauvin trial break

On Friday Minneapolis Police Department Lieutenant Richard Zimmerman took the stand. He is the department’s senior homicide investigator and its most senior officer period. He was called to the scene on the evening of George Floyd’s death. Having subsequently watched bodycam videos of the restraint of George Floyd, he found it unreasonable and excessive in relevant respects under department policy.

Zimmerman is an extremely credible witness. He seems to me like a character who might have walked off the TV series Homicide. Defense counsel Eric Nelson found no meaningful avenue of cross examination with him. He is a strong witness in support of the prosecution.

I have not found a video of Zimmerman’s testimony in its entirety. The chunk below is the best I could do. It provides a substantial glimpse of how it went.

Query how Zimmerman’s testimony comports with Judge Cahill’s pretrial ruling number 18 at page 5 of the court’s order on defendant’s motions in limine. The answer is not clear to me.

I have found my daily updates on the Chauvin trial to be a grind that is not offset by any special illumination I have been able to lend to the proceedings. While I intend to continue observing the proceedings, I will take a break from the daily updates in the hope I that I will find occasions to weigh in down the line. If you have been following along in my series so far, I thank you and hope you will rejoin me when I have more to offer.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses