Cops Barred From Guarding George Floyd’s Killer For Not Being White Just Got Paid

A Minnesota coun­ty approved a $1.5 mil­lion set­tle­ment for eight non­white guards who were banned from inter­act­ing with or even being on the same floor as Derek Chauvin.

The eight non­white cor­rec­tions offi­cers who were banned from inter­act­ing with dis­graced cop Derek Chauvin because of their race have received a $1.455 mil­lion set­tle­ment in a dis­crim­i­na­tion lawsuit.

The Ramsey County Board of Commissioners in Minnesota approved the set­tle­ment Tuesday, accord­ing to the gov­ern­ing body, putting an end to the law­suit filed by the defen­dants, who iden­ti­fy as Black, Hispanic, mixed-race, and Pacific Islander.

“We are deeply sor­ry for the trau­ma you expe­ri­enced and the ongo­ing harm this racist inci­dent caused,” board of com­mis­sion­ers Chair Trista MatasCastillo said in a state­ment. “We rec­og­nize this apol­o­gy will nev­er undo the anguish and dis­tress you’ve gone through as a result.”

The law­suit stems from May 29, 2020, the day Chauvin was final­ly tak­en into cus­tody, four days after mur­der­ing George Floyd in Minneapolis. One of the defen­dants, Devin Sullivan, a Black offi­cer who reg­u­lar­ly processed high-pro­file inmates, said that a supe­ri­or, Superintendent Steve Lydon, stopped him from pat­ting Chauvin down when he arrived at the jail. Lydon told Sullivan he didn’t want the offi­cer “doing any­thing he would not nor­mal­ly do,” and removed Sullivan from his post, replac­ing him with two white officers.

Lydon then ordered that all cor­rec­tions offi­cers of col­or were barred from inter­act­ing with Chauvin, and even pro­hib­it­ed them from going to the 5^th floor, where he was being held, accord­ing to the lawsuit. 

The law­suit also claimed that Chauvin appeared to receive spe­cial treat­ment from the white offi­cers who were allowed to enter his floor in the ear­ly days of his time in jail. Two of the plain­tiffs said they saw cor­rec­tions offi­cers enter­ing Chauvin’s cell on secu­ri­ty cam­eras, com­fort­ing him with pats on the back and even let­ting him use a cellphone.

County lead­ers con­demned Lydon’s actions, call­ing them “racist, heinous, high­ly dis­re­spect­ful, and com­plete­ly out of line.”

At the time, Lydon told local news out­lets that he barred the offi­cers from inter­act­ing with Chauvin because he felt a duty to “pro­tect and sup­port employ­ees who may have been trau­ma­tized” by his actions. Lydon was demot­ed from his posi­tion as super­in­ten­dent after the law­suit was filed. 

“The courage of these eight offi­cers can­not be over­stat­ed,” Lucas Kaster, one of the attor­neys for the cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers, said in a state­ment. “During an unprece­dent­ed time in our com­mu­ni­ty, the offi­cers took the bold action to step for­ward and speak out against the seg­re­ga­tion and racism they experienced.”

To the plain­tiffs, MatasCastillo said, “No one ever should have ques­tioned your abil­i­ty to per­form your job based on the col­or of your skin.”

In addi­tion to announc­ing the set­tle­ment, the board asked that the sheriff’s office to “take cor­rec­tive action” regard­ing Lydon’s con­tin­ued employ­ment, though it stopped short of ask­ing for his termination. 

The Ramsey County Sheriff’s office did not imme­di­ate­ly respond to VICE News’ request for comment.

Chauvin was found guilty of mur­der and sec­ond-degree manslaugh­ter for kneel­ing on Floyd’s neck for more than nine min­utes in front of a Minneapolis con­ve­nience store. Earlier this year he also plead­ed guilty to fed­er­al charges of vio­lat­ing Floyd’s civ­il rights. He’s cur­rent­ly serv­ing his 22-year sen­tence in fed­er­al prison.