MINNEAPOLIS _ A coalition of local and national media companies is challenging a judge's gag order that prohibits attorneys and several others from discussing the cases against four former police officers charged in the killing of George Floyd.
The group, which includes the Star Tribune, Minnesota Public Radio, the Associated Press, local TV stations and The New York Times Co., among others, filed a motion Friday asking that the gag order be modified and limited in its reach.
"The Court's Order in these cases threatens to prevent the press and the public from obtaining meaningful information related to these highly newsworthy prosecutions from a wide _ and overly broad _ range of interested parties," said the motion by coalition attorneys Leita Walker and Emmy Parsons.
Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill issued the order last week, a day after some of the former officers' attorneys spoke to the media about their cases.
"The court finds that continuing pretrial publicity in this case by the attorneys involved will increase the risk of tainting a potential jury pool and will impair all parties' right to a fair trial," Cahill wrote, adding that it covers "all parties, attorneys, their employees, agents or independent contractors working on their behalf."
The matter quickly snowballed into accusations of constitutional violations against the judge and calls to arrest and sanction Attorney General Keith Ellison, who is leading the prosecution, for allegedly violating the order.
The media coalition's motion argued that the order was too broad and overreached in its application.
It could be interpreted to impact "thousands" of people, the order said, adding that it violates the First Amendment.
Cahill did not list by name or occupation which "agents" or other parties were covered in his order. A local legal scholar and a veteran defense attorney said they believed it would apply to several city and state officials.
On Monday, the attorneys for all four former Minneapolis officers _ Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao _ filed separate motions asking that the order be vacated.
Their motions argued that the order violated constitutional rights to due process, free speech and a fair trial, and that it unfairly penalized the defense after prosecutors and public officials had spent weeks criticizing the former officers' actions.
Later that same day, Ellison issued a news release announcing that he had appointed four veteran attorneys as special assistant attorneys general on the Floyd case and listed their professional accomplishments.
Cahill had warned at a June hearing that remarks from public officials, attorneys and others were threatening to prompt the court to move the trial or trials to another county because of the possibility of biasing potential jurors.
Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Prosecutors said he knelt on Floyd's neck for nearly 8 minutes, but Kueng's body-worn camera video, shown to the media and public Wednesday, appeared to show that it lasted about 9 minutes and 30 seconds.
Kueng, Lane and Thao are charged with aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.
Police were investigating allegations that Floyd had used a fake $20 bill at a local convenience store. They held him down as he lay handcuffed, stomach-down in the street, complaining several times that he couldn't breathe and warning them that he was going to die.
Bystanders also called for the officers to stop; one bystander recorded and publicly shared video of the incident.
