Court will resume at 10:30 a.m. EDT, 9:30 a.m. CDT, 8:30 a.m. CDT, and 7:30 a.m. PDT. Judge Peter Cahill has started things rolling early on previous days. Sometimes it has been to clear up some objections or motions. A couple of times he had the jury brought in early and started. It is safe to check in at a quarter past the hour.
Good morning. Today is Day 7 of the Chauvin Murder trial. Short re-cap of yesterday’s proceedings. The day started a bit early — judge questioned the jury off camera. He came back to say the issue was an allegation of jury misconduct. After questioning he was satisfied there was none.
First witness was Dr. Bradford W. Langenfeld who was licensed in the summer of 2020, thus after the murder of George Floyd. He was a resident when he received the body of the already dead Mr. Floyd. He worked 30 minutes on attempting to resuscitate before calling the time of death. He was an excellent witness. Calm, precise, explained in both medical and layman’s terms and was unflappable under cross examination.
Next was the much anticipated star witness, Chief Mederia Arradondo. Massive bona fides. Testified that in no way was a knee on a person’s neck that long MPD policy or training. In no way you leave a prone handcuffed behind the back in that position more than seconds, you roll them asap on their sides. The defense’s insulting him by pointing out he was long off the beat and held a position of “grandeur” didn’t flummox him — it only tarred Nelson, the defense attorney. Brilliant witness.
Last was MPD training expert Katie Blackwell (last name same as the lead prosecutor but not related). Again, lengthy and impressive bona fides. Besides law enforcement, she served in Iraq. She was excellent in answering questions about restraint techniques. When asked about Chauvin’s knee on the neck she said: "I don't know what kind of improvised position that is. So that's not what we train." Zing. Very short useless cross examination.
I will be in and out as we are having a new fridge delivered this afternoon. Thankfully there are plenty of excellent commenters who have been following.
Here’s hoping I didn’t make any mistakes in the above content.