Amy Sweasy, a top prosecutor in Hennepin County, filed a lawsuit against her former boss, Mike Freeman, alleging sex discrimination and retaliation. As a part of this legal endeavor, a treasure trove of documents and testimonies has come to light, providing an unfiltered view into the internal workings and pressures that shaped the high-profile case against Chauvin and his fellow officers. The state settled the sex discrimination claim, agreeing to pay $190,000 to Sweasy, who resigned in April 2021.
Patrick Lofton, Senior Assistant County Attorney who worked on police use-of-force cases with Sweasy, explicitly detailed the pressure prosecutors were under to file charges. “The city was burning down,” he stated, underlining the urgency of the moment, Alpha News reported.
Although Lofton expressed that he believed there was “probable cause to charge Mr. Chauvin with third-degree murder,” he felt that the external pressure was “insane.” Lofton, along with Sweasy, withdrew from the officers’ cases in June 2020, capturing his reservations in a letter to Freeman: “I wanted it in writing, and I wanted to make sure it was documented that I wasn’t going to let that situation, what was going on in the world, affect my judgment because I have to sleep at night no matter what.”
Among the documents and testimonies, Sweasy discussed a crucial conversation she had with Hennepin County Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker the day after Floyd’s death.
Dr. Baker reportedly said that there were “no medical findings that showed any injury to the vital structures of Mr. Floyd’s neck. There were no medical indications of asphyxia or strangulation.”