Patty Day, who accused former police officer Derek Chauvin of using excessive force just months before he killed George Floyd in 2020, has reached a settlement with the City of Minneapolis worth $600,000.
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Day’s federal lawsuit claims that during an arrest in January 2020, Chauvin pinned his knee into her back, handcuffed her, and violently removed her from her car. Day admitted to drinking that day and trying to drive to pick up her child, but she immediately pulled over when she realized she was too drunk. Hours passed while she stayed in the parked van with the engine running before worried neighbors called the police.
Chauvin and another officer arrived at the scene, forcibly pulled her from the vehicle, and threw her face-down onto the snowy pavement, PEOPLE reported. The impact fractured Day’s tooth and injured her arm before she was handcuffed and restrained. In her complaint, Day described Chauvin’s knee-on-the-back maneuver as his “calling card,” likening him to a “serial predator.” More than a year later, a judge dismissed the charge against Day, ruling that the officers lacked probable cause for her arrest.
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Four months later, Chauvin was captured by a bystander kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for almost nine months as Floyd continued to say he couldn’t breathe. The video launched protests against police brutality and systemic racism on a global scale.
Chauvin is serving a 22-year sentence for Floyd’s murder, and in 2021, the City of Minneapolis also agreed to a $27 million wrongful death settlement with Floyd’s family.
