Chauvin Facing More Civil Rights Violations for Choke Hold on Black Teen
The encounter was used as evidence of Chauvin’s repeated history of using neck, head or upper body restraints beyond what was necessary under the circumstances.
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Derek Chauvin is scheduled to be arraigned for allegedly violating the civil rights of a then-14-year-old boy in 2017 in a separate case that involved a restraint similar to the one used on George Floyd, reports NPR. This indictment alleges Chauvin deprived the teenager, who is Black, of his right to be free of unreasonable force when he held the teen by the throat, hit him in the head with a flashlight and held his knee on the boy’s neck and upper back while he was prone, handcuffed and not resisting.
According to a police report from that 2017 encounter, Chauvin wrote that the teen resisted arrest and after the teen, whom he described as 6-foot-2 and about 240 pounds, was handcuffed, Chauvin “used body weight to pin” him to the floor. The boy was bleeding from the ear and needed two stitches. That encounter was one of several mentioned in state court filings that prosecutors said showed Chauvin had used neck or head and upper body restraints seven times prior to Floyd’s death dating back to 2014, including four times state prosecutors said he went too far and held the restraints “beyond the point when such force was needed under the circumstances.”
