Minneapolis Settles With Woman Who Says Derek Chauvin Knelt on Her Back

The city of Minneapolis has agreed to pay $600,000 to settle a lawsuit by a woman who accused Derek Chauvin, a former police officer, of kneeling on her back, four months before he killed George Floyd using a similar restraint.

The settlement, unanimously approved by the Minneapolis City Council on Thursday, is the latest in a series of agreements the city has reached to resolve cases involving allegations of excessive force used by Mr. Chauvin in the years before Mr. Floyd was murdered.

The lawsuit brought by the woman, Patricia Day, was filed in federal court in May. In it, she claimed that during a traffic stop in January 2020, Mr. Chauvin and another officer hauled out of her minivan and threw her to the ground.

Mr. Chauvin then pressed his knee into her back while she was handcuffed and not resisting, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit described the kneeling maneuver, which Mr. Chauvin would later use on Mr. Floyd by kneeling on his neck, as the former officer’s “signature pose” and “calling card.”

The officers were responding to a 911 call saying that Ms. Day was intoxicated and was attempting to drive off, a characterization that she disputes.

Ms. Day, who worked for the city’s Public Works Department at the time of her arrest, was charged with two gross misdemeanor counts of driving while intoxicated. The city later dropped the charges for lack of evidence.

Ms. Day said in an interview with The Minnesota Star Tribune after the lawsuit was filed that she had been coping with a divorce at the time of her arrest. She acknowledged that she had been drinking that day, but she said her behavior did not warrant the use of force.

“The look in his eye was so evil,” she told the newspaper. “I feared for my life. I didn’t know if I was going to survive this. It all escalated so quickly.”

In a legal document filed in response to her complaint, Mr. Chauvin denied kneeling on Ms. Day and stated that he had acted “in the scope of his duties with a good faith belief his conduct was lawful.”

Ms. Day’s lawyer, Katie Bennett, said in an interview that Mr. Chauvin had a history of preying on vulnerable people, a pattern that had gone unpunished by the city.

“The city of Minneapolis created this monster that is Derek Chauvin, and he kept repeating the same actions over and over without any accountability,” Ms. Bennett said.

She said the settlement would help her client begin moving forward with her life.

The settlement also covers the claims against the other officer involved in the traffic stop, Ellen Jensen. The lawsuit claims that Ms. Jensen used unlawful force while removing Ms. Day from her vehicle and failed to intervene when Mr. Chauvin knelt on her.

Lawyers for the city, Mr. Chauvin and Ms. Jensen did not respond to requests on Sunday for comment. Neither did representatives of the mayor or the police chief.

Mr. Chauvin was convicted of murdering Mr. Floyd and is serving a state sentence of 22 and one-half years in prison, and a concurrent 21-year sentence for violating Mr. Floyd’s civil rights. Mr. Chauvin, who is white, knelt on Mr. Floyd, who was Black, for nine and a half minutes while Mr. Floyd was handcuffed. The killing in May 2020, captured on video, sparked nationwide protests against police violence and racism.

A review by the Justice Department found that Minneapolis police regularly used deadly force without justification and discriminated against Black and Native American people and that Mr. Chauvin had used excessive force in other incidents before killing Mr. Floyd.

The law firm representing Ms. Day, who is white, has obtained two other settlements from the city related to Mr. Chauvin’s conduct. In April 2023, the city paid nearly $9 million to settle cases brought by John Pope, who was 14 at the time of his arrest, and Zoya Code, both of whom are Black. Both accused Mr. Chauvin of kneeling on their necks.

Jae Yates, an organizer with the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice, an advocacy group focused on addressing police violence, said of the settlement in Ms. Day’s case, “I feel vindicated that people are finally seeing what the community saw all along.”