In the trial of George Floyd, the coroner testified for the accused ex-police officer Derek Chauvin. Now he is being charged himself in a similar case.
A defence witness in the trial of ex-police officer Derek Chauvin, who was accused of killing George Floyd, has been sued in Maryland, USA. Former chief medical examiner David Fowler testified during the trial that he had left the cause of Floyd’s death open instead of associating it with a homicide. Also, Floyd’s heart disease contributed to his death. In doing so, Fowler contradicted prosecution witnesses who said Floyd suffocated from Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes.

Fowler is now being sued in a case involving a man who died like Floyd. 19-year-old Anton Black was killed in police custody in Maryland in 2018. In a lawsuit in Baltimore, officials are alleged to have been with Black for several minutes, even when he was handcuffed. That’s why Black suffocated. The indictment now accuses Fowler, who was the chief medical examiner in Maryland for 17 years, of deliberately covering up for the police by ignoring evidence of death from suffocation.

The violent death of George Floyd is currently being tried, with former policeman Derek Chauvin charged. He refused to testify in court – “of his own free will,” he said on Thursday when Judge Peter Cahill asked. Under US law, defendants are allowed to refuse to testify in order not to incriminate themselves. Judge Cahill said he would inform the jury that Chauvin had exercised his right, but it should not be used against him. The Minneapolis court case is nearing completion.