MINNEAPOLIS — Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is in prison for murdering George Floyd, logged a not-guilty plea Friday along with his ex-wife to tax evasion charges in Washington County District Court.
Judge Sheridan Hawley entered the pleas on their behalf after each waived a pretrial hearing in two brief remote sessions. Chauvin appeared from Oak Park Heights Correctional facility, where he is serving a 22 1/2-year sentence for Floyd's murder. He wore a white T-shirt and sat behind a clear partition while an unseen case worker sat across from him.
The former cop and his ex-wife Kellie Chauvin are next set to appear in court at 1 p.m. on Jan. 21 for another pretrial hearing. Neither Chauvin spoke beyond responding affirmatively to Hawley's questions about agreeing to waive the hearing. The two court sessions lasted just a few minutes each.
The Chauvins lived in Oakdale before his arrest and conviction in the May 25, 2020, murder of Floyd outside Cup Foods in Minneapolis.
The tax charges were filed by Washington County Attorney Pete Orput in July 2020, shortly after Chauvin shot to global infamy because of a bystander video of him kneeling on Floyd's neck as Floyd lay prone on the street, pleading for his life and saying he couldn't breathe.
The former spouses face nine felony tax evasion charges alleging that they underreported $464,433 in joint income from 2014 to 2019. The complaint alleges that $96,000 of Derek Chauvin's unreported income came from off-duty security jobs. With interest, late fees and fraud penalties, the complaint alleges they owe $37,868.
At the time he filed the charges, Orput said he had been sending the Chauvins letters about tax and income discrepancies since 2019 with no response. The prosecutor said the Minnesota Department of Revenue contacted his office about the tax issues in June of 2020.
Among other things, prosecutors say the Chauvins bought a new BMW X5 in January 2018 for $100,230 from a Minnetonka dealership and registered the SUV in Florida, where the couple owned a condo.
The Chauvins paid $4,664 in Florida state taxes on the vehicle even though, according to prosecutors, the BMW was serviced 11 times in Minnetonka and never in Florida. Had they registered the car in Minnesota, the taxes would have been $5,053.
Kellie Chauvin filed for divorce two days after Chauvin was charged in Floyd's murder. The divorce was approved in February by a Washington County judge, who redacted the settlement citing harassment and financial fraud allegations against the Chauvins.
