In one instance, the prosecutors said, Mr. Chauvin had been arresting a juvenile when he used a neck restraint and pinned him to the floor. Another time, prosecutors said, he restrained
Eric J. Nelson, Mr. Chauvin’s lawyer, declined to comment on the use of restraints, but he had made it clear in recent days that Mr. Chauvin intended to point blame away from himself in the death of Mr. Floyd — and toward two rookie officers who were on the scene and whom he had helped train.
If the other officers, who were the first to interact with Mr. Floyd on the evening he died, had behaved differently, everything might have changed, Mr. Nelson wrote in a motion seeking separate trials for four former police officers who are charged with crimes in the case.
Lawyers for Mr. Chauvin, who was fired from the Police Department, and the other defendants, are seeking to move the trial away from Minneapolis, as well as to split what has been expected to be a single trial into four.
The three other officers on the scene were also fired and charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder, which can carry as serious a punishment as the charge against Mr. Chauvin. From the time charges were announced against the four officers, there had been indications that they would not present a united defense, with the men faulting one another for the death. Some of those tensions were on display in the courtroom on Friday.
