The City of Minneapolis will pay $600,000 to a woman who alleged that former policeman Derek Chauvin pinned her to the ground with his knee in January 2020, just months before he used the same maneuver on George Floyd.
The city council last Thursday agreed to settle with Patty Day, a former employee of the Public Works Department, who filed a lawsuit last year claiming that officers employed excessive force and wrongfully arrested her.
In her suit, Day acknowledged she was driving drunk on the evening of Jan. 17, 2020, when she got stuck in the snow for several hours. Chauvin and fellow Officer Ellen Jensen arrived on the scene where they then “violently yanked Patty from her vehicle and, without justification, threw her to the ground in the middle of a street,” according to the complaint.
During the altercation, the suit stated, Day fractured her tooth, injured her arm and shoulder, and endured other significant injuries before the officers handcuffed her.
“Chauvin then assumed his signature pose, pressing his knee into the subdued and handcuffed Patty’s back — just as he would later do to snuff the life out of George Floyd — and remaining that way well after Patty was controlled,” the complaint continued.
Day sued the city for wants over $9 million for her injuries — including a broken tooth, a deep cut that left a scar on her hand, persistent arm and shoulder pain and psychological issues including anxiety, depression and flashbacks.
“Chauvin is the most infamous police officer in Minnesota (if not United States) history,” the complaint said. “This exacerbates Patty’s emotional suffering and increases the frequency of her flashbacks, as Chauvin’s name is repeatedly in the news.”
The suit accused Chauvin and Jensen of covering for each other in the aftermath, alleging the two filed reports that omitted Day’s injuries and Chauvin pinning Day to the ground with his knee.
As such, the suit continues, there was no evidence of either officer facing discipline. But If Chauvin had been disciplined for Day’s arrest or even other instances of excessive force, the suit says, “history could have been stopped from repeating itself with George Floyd.”
Day was charged with drunken driving, but the city attorney’s office dropped the changes – in part because of the incident with Chauvin and Jensen, but also because a judge ruled there was no probable cause to arrest Day, according to the suit.
Day will receive $175,000 in the settlement while her attorneys will receive $425,000.
