Black jailers were barred from guarding white ex-cop Derek Chauvin after arrest, complaint says

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Eight minority corrections officers have filed discrimination charges alleging that they were barred from guarding white former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin after he was booked for murder in George Floyd’s death.

Chauvin, 44, is charged with second-degree murder in Floyd’s May 25 death, which has sparked protests and violence across the U.S. as activists demand sweeping changes in policing. Video of Floyd’s arrest, which stemmed from his alleged use of a counterfeit $20 bill, shows that Chauvin kneeled on the Black man’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds as Floyd and bystanders begged him to stop.

Floyd, 46, ultimately died. Three other former officers are charged with aiding and abetting Chauvin’s actions.

The Ramsey County jailers filed a complaint Friday with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights alleging that they were banned from the jail’s fifth floor, where Chauvin was to be housed in isolation following his May 29 arrest. The Minneapolis Star Tribune, which obtained a copy of the complaint, reported that the jailers said they were removed because of their race.

“I understood that the decision to segregate us had been made because we could not be trusted to carry out our work responsibilities professionally around the high-profile inmate – solely because of the color of our skin,” wrote one acting sergeant, who is Black. “I am not aware of a similar situation where white officers were segregated from an inmate.”

According to the complaint, a Black acting sergeant began a routine pat-down of Chauvin but was stopped by Steve Lydon, superintendent of the jail. The sergeant, who has more than a decade of experience at the jail, was replaced with a white officer, the Star Tribune reported.

Another sergeant told the officers that Lydon ordered all minority officers from the fifth floor and that they were to have no contact with Chauvin. White colleagues were moved in to fulfill the officers’ duties.

That afternoon, the minority officers gathered on the third floor, to which they had been reassigned. Some were angry and others were crying, the newspaper reported. Some contemplated quitting their jobs in protest.

Those who complained were told to take the issue up with Lydon.

All eight jailers wrote in statements that when they met with Lydon, he admitted banning them from Chauvin’s floor but denied it was due to their race. Though he defended the decision, he reversed the order within 45 minutes, according to the Star Tribune.

Bonnie Smith, the attorney representing the guards, disputed Lydon’s claim that he reversed his decision so quickly. According to the Post, Smith said her clients’ shifts had been reassigned in the 48 hours or so that Chauvin spent in the Ramsey County facility before being transferred.

Smith said Lydon’s decision, however short-lived, left an impact on her clients’ morale.

“I think they deserve to have employment decisions made based on performance and behavior,” Smith said. “Their main goal is to make sure this never happens again.”

Compounding the employees’ anger is surveillance footage, reportedly seen by multiple jail employees, in which a white lieutenant was given special access to Chauvin’s cell on May 30. According to The Washington Post, one corrections officer, who described herself in her statement as a mixed-race woman, wrote that the female lieutenant sat on Chauvin’s bunk and allowed him to use her cellphone.

The incident was a serious policy violation, the Post reported. Sheriff’s Office officials have declined to comment on the incident.

Chauvin was moved May 31 to the Hennepin County Jail. He was later transferred again, this time to the Oak Park Heights maximum security prison.

Lydon later told his superiors that he made the controversial call to “protect and support” the minority employees in question due to the racial tensions caused by Floyd’s death, the Star Tribune reported. He said he learned with about 10 minutes’ notice that Chauvin would be arriving at the jail.

“Out of care and concern, and without the comfort of time, I made a decision to limit exposure to employees of color to a murder suspect who could potentially aggravate those feelings,” Lydon said in a statement given during an internal investigation.

Lydon admitted he made a bad judgment call.

“I realized that I had erred in judgment and issued an apology to the affected employees,” Lydon said in a statement, according to the newspaper.

Lydon has since been demoted from his position as superintendent.

The apparent admissions by Lydon come in stark contrast to previous statements Ramsey County officials made regarding who was guarding Chauvin. Reuters reported that Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office officials said June 5 that there was “no truth to the report.”

Chauvin “was treated according to procedure” and Black corrections officers were “assigned to guard him as part of the regular routine,” authorities said in statements to the news agency.

Smith told NBC News that the affected jail employees were “humiliated and debased” by Lydon’s order, which they took to mean they were not trusted to do their job.

“My clients came to work that day fully prepared to do their work,” Smith said. “They are highly trained, experienced professionals in dangerous and volatile situations and were just as well equipped as their white counterparts to perform their work duties on May 29. The fact that they weren’t allowed to do so has devastated them.”

Smith told the network her clients never asked Lydon to protect them from exposure to Chauvin and that his “care and concern” rang hollow.

“If he is really trying to protect my clients from racial trauma, he shouldn’t be segregating them on the basis of color,” she said. “He’s isn’t preventing racial trauma. He is creating it.”

Cox Media Group