George Floyd Trial: Damning Testimony Provided by Police Use-of-Force Trainer

On Tuesday, court proceedings in the Derek Chauvin trial resumed with the questioning of the Minneapolis police department’s (MPD) use of force trainer, Lieutenant Johnny Mercil. 

Preceding Lieutenant Mercil, the prosecution called the MPD’s crisis intervention training coordinator, Sergeant Ker Yang, to the stand. Yang’s initial testimony largely consisted of a discussion of MPD policy, particularly focusing on crisis intervention tactics. On cross-examination by Mr Chauvin’s defence attorney, Eric Nelson, Yang conceded that the MPD’s ‘critical decision-making model’ (CDMM) was used in the training of officers. Being a “rapid, very dynamic model,” Kang agreed that the CDMM defined a crisis as “having a trajectory” that could “increase in its severity over time” as the situation escalated. Ultimately, Kang confirmed that an officer’s decisions, made in light of the CDMM, were contingent on the information available to the officer at the time of an arrest. Yang confirmed that the MPD’s crisis intervention policies were employed to “entrust officers to make decisions based on all of the information that he or she perceives,” including the practicability and safety of the scene of an arrest, concluding that the officer will apply “his or her sensory perception” to the CDMM. Kang stated:

“In terms of the CDMM, an officer is analysing multiple factors - medical aid, threats from citizens or observers, whether people are recording, what they’re seeing, what they’re hearing - it all is premised on whether it is safe and feasible to do something.” 

Following Yang’s dismissal, MPD use-of-force trainer, Lieutenant Johnny Mercil, took the stand. Mirroring their approach to other witnesses, the prosecution instructed Lt. Mercil to give the jury information about himself including outlining his extensive experience as a police officer. Mercil explained that he had frontline experience answering emergency calls and had been part of the community response team tackling prostitution, gang activity, and drug dealing. Lt. Mercil was then assigned to the training division, becoming qualified as an instructor.

To gain his qualification, Lt. Mercil explained that he undertook multiple “different courses” designed to train officers in the use of force. Lt. Mercil also revealed that he had begun training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu upon his arrival to the department, later introducing jiu-jitsu as part of the forces “ground defence initiative.” Prosecutor Schleiter directed Lt. Mercil to elaborate on his defensive tactics background, asking, “Were you interested in Brazilian jiu-jitsu before becoming a police officer?” Lt. Mercil replied:

“I was in martial arts through college and then I got interested in [jiu-jitsu] through some of the other use of force instructors. I fell in love with the art form and really what its implications and uses are for law enforcement specifically.” 

Schleiter then asked Lt. Mercil to “provide a very high-level overview of what Brazilian jiu-jitsu is.” In response, Lt. Mercil explained: 

“It’s a form of martial art that focuses on leverage and body control. It de-emphasises strikes and, in true Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, there aren’t strikes - there’s no punching or kicking. It’s using your body weight - kind of like wrestling and joint lock manipulation, [including] neck restraints and pain compliance, as well as physical body control, to get people to comply. Pain compliance is using a technique that causes the person you’re using it against to have pain so they comply with whatever it is you’re asking them to do.” 

In typical form, Schleiter proceeded to go into detail when discussing topics such as Minneapolis police department policy and training. Lt. Mercil affirmed that as a certified use of force instructor he was required to become knowledgeable in all the relevant departmental policies and procedures, as well as state law. Schleiter then exhibited the MPD’s ‘use-of-force continuum’ - a guide designed to help officers to make decisions on the use of force in the context of the suspect’s level of resistance. Lt. Mercil confirmed that subjects can “get hurt” during the use of force, confirming that officers are instructed to “use the least amount of force possible in order to meet their objectives.” Schleiter placed particular emphasis on policies relating to officers not subjecting an arrestee to “any more restraint than is necessary for arrest and detention,” and exhibited a picture of officer Chauvin with his knee on top of George Floyd which Lt. Mercil confirmed was a “use of force.” 

Schleiter proceeded to ask Lt. Mercil more general questions, probing the MPD’s policies while outlining the “frailty” of subjects and the vulnerabilities of the neck and the head. Schleiter then directed Lt. Mercil to outline the MPD’s training and use of neck restraints, the witness stating: 

“[The MPD] go over the techniques and definitions of neck restraints and we go through different repetitions of a neck restraint to get the officers comfortable in doing it. A neck restraint is constricting the sides of a person’s neck, and they refer to it as a vascular neck restraint - you’re slowing the blood flow to and from the brain with the attempt to gain control of a subject. [In the MPD policy] the two levels [of neck restraint] are conscious neck restraint - meaning you’d grab somebody up and they’re still conscious - you can gain compliance of many people with that. Then there’s unconscious [neck restraints], which is applying pressure until the person who is not complying becomes unconscious and, therefore, compliant.” 

The Lieutenant asserted that a variety of different neck restraints were taught to MPD officers, with techniques usually consisting of the placing of the arm around the neck to constrict the carotid arteries on both sides. On direction by Schleiter, Lt. Mercil confirmed that the MPD did not train leg restraints of the neck, affirming that a leg neck restraint would require a complex manoeuvre usually seen in professional mixed martial arts.

In reference to the critical decision-making model’s ‘use of force continuum’, Schleiter delved into the details related to the authorisation of neck restraints. In the case of vocal resistance, Lt. Mercil confirmed that neither a “conscious or unconscious” neck restraint would be authorised, adding that a “neck restraint would not even be authorised for some forms of active [physical] resistance.” Schleiter then exhibited a picture of Mr Chauvin’s knee on top of George Floyd, asking Lt. Mercil: “Is this an MPD-trained neck restraint?” Lt. Mercil replied that it was not, but asserted that the action would not be unauthorised.

Later, Schleiter directed Lt. Mercil to elaborate on the prone handcuffing of suspects. 

“With prone handcuffing,” Lt. Mercil stated, “you want to make sure that you isolate an arm. A lot of times we teach the officers to use a knee to control [an arrestee’s] shoulder. Generally, you put one knee on each side of the arm. A lot of times when you’re doing the cuffing, you’d do it with a partner preferably - it makes it a lot easier to control a person.” 

Lt. Mercil confirmed that the use of a knee for an extended period of time “depends on the circumstance,” confirming that an officer could “leave it there for a longer period of time, depending on the resistance”:

“When people are handcuffed in the prone position they can thrash around, writhe around, and they do represent a little bit of a threat. They can kick, bite, or smother things, so control doesn’t end with handcuffing.”

Lt. Mercil was then subject to cross-examination by defence attorney Eric Nelson. Nelson began by directing Lt. Mercil to simply agree or disagree to several questions, with Lt. Mercil conceding that there was “no strict application of every technique that an officer is trained in,” and “officers are trained to be fluid” in their actions. Furthermore, Lt. Mercil acknowledged that “sometimes officers have to do things that are unattractive to other people in terms of the use of force,” agreeing that “being a police officer is a relatively dangerous job.” Lt. Mercil confirmed that he had arrested many suspects over the course of his career with the use of force, asserting that he had experienced initially violent suspects become peaceful before turning violent again. He revealed that arrestees would often fight, argue or make excuses against arrest, concurring that “ultimately one of the things a police officer has to do is try to determine if this person [is] pretending or trying to give me some excuse not to get arrested.” More specifically tied to the George Floyd case, Lt. Mercil acknowledged that he had heard suspects complain that they “couldn’t breathe” as they were arrested, stating that there had been times when he didn’t believe a suspect was having a medical emergency.

Nelson then directed Lt. Mercil to elaborate on the defensive tactics program, which the Lieutenant had been a founding member of. Lt. Mercil stated that the use of pressure and body weight to restrain a suspect was adopted by the MPD because it constituted a “lesser intensity of force” than the prior practice of using strikes - either barehanded, with batons, or weighted gloves - to compel compliance. Lt. Mercil asserted that, when making an arrest, officers are trained to “take into consideration factors such as their partners’ safety and the emotions of a crowd.” Nelson then directed Lt. Mercil to agree or disagree with specific hypotheticals. Lt. Mercil agreed that MPD officers were trained to take into consideration the events leading up to a suspect’s arrest - primarily how the suspect had behaved. Lt. Mercil agreed that factors included in the consideration of the continued use of force would include a suspect’s previously violent behaviour, regardless if they had since become compliant. He also asserted that additional factors a reasonable officer would take into account would include the disparities in size between the officer and the suspect. Notably, the 6’6”, 230-pound George Floyd was substantially larger than the 5’9” 140-pound Derek Chauvin, and was non-compliant before being placed on the ground at his own request. Lt. Mercil also confirmed that officers were specifically trained in the use of force against people who are under the use of controlled substances, agreeing that certain controlled substances can cause a person to “exhibit more strength than they would have” while sober.

The defence then referred to the ground defence program, highlighting joint manipulation and body weight pins involving “an officer’s bodyweight to physically control a suspect.” Nelson exhibited a transcript between the FBI and Lt. Mercil which had been taken after George Floyd’s death. In light of the transcript, Lt. Mercil stated that, in Minneapolis Police department policy, there is a “difference between a chokehold and neck restraint”: 

“A chokehold is considered a lethal or deadly use of force and is defined by the policy as specifically blocking the airway or trachea of the suspect from the front side. It is effectively strangulation.” 

Nelson then proceeded to show bodycam and bystander footage of the incident between Mr Floyd and Mr Chauvin. Lt. Mercil stated that at no point in the footage did he see Mr Chauvin use a chokehold against George Floyd and, “in terms of neck restraints,” Lt. Mercil concurred that an effective neck restraint would require “both sides of the neck to be compressed to render a person unconscious.”

Nelson directed Lt. Mercil to elaborate on the technique, asking: “How much pressure has to be applied to both sides of the neck to render a person unconscious, based on your training?” Lt. Mercil replied:

“It depends on the size of the person, the officer’s skill, whether the person is on narcotics or not, whether they are having an adrenaline rush, their heart rate and their general physical health... There is just a lot of factors involved.” 

Nelson then asked: “Generally, do you have to apply a lot of pressure to say, a healthy individual, for a long period of time to render someone unconscious?” Lt. Mercil replied: “No. The amount of pressure is very individual.” Drawing on his own experience, Lt. Mercil then confirmed that the use of a neck restraint on a person under the influence of narcotics would usually result in the person being rendered unconscious more rapidly. Nelson then asked about the effect of adrenaline on speeding up or slowing down the process of becoming unconscious. To this, prosecutor Schleiter objected, angrily requesting for a sidebar which was denied by Judge Peter A. Cahill. Lt. Mercil, who stated:

“The higher your blood rate, respiration and heart rate is, the faster a neck restraint affects somebody. [In my experience], it typically takes under 10 seconds to render someone unconscious.” 

Lt. Mercil proceeded to agree with a number of other conclusions posited by the defence. When asked if he had trained officers to be aware of suspects regaining consciousness and proceeding to fight, Lt. Mercil responded that he had. Lt. Mercil also concurred that he himself had maintained his restraint of other suspects until emergency service providers had arrived at the scene. Nelson again re-emphasized the reality that the officer involved in a use-of-force event must consider not just the suspect, but also the presence of an angry and growing crowd. Lt. Mercil agreed.

Nelson proceeded to show the picture of Mr Chauvin’s restraint of Mr Floyd. Lt. Mercil again confirmed that the usage of the knee was not a trained neck restraint technique but could constitute “bodyweight control.” Here, Lt. Mercil agreed that officers should be mindful of positioning, keeping weight away from the neck and placing it on the shoulder. In response, Nelson demonstrated an image of the paramedic checking Mr Floyd’s pulse, positing that the paramedic would be unable to touch the carotid artery if Mr Chauvin’s knee was constricting Mr Floyd’s carotid artery. Lt. Mercil agreed.

Nelson proceeded to display a number of images, mainly still photographs taken from the bodycam footage of one of the officers. After reviewing a number of the images, Lt. Mercil conceded that the placement of Derek Chauvin’s knee and leg appeared to be “at an angle pointed in towards the squad car” with the “knee placed between the shoulder blades of Mr Floyd.” Thus, Lt. Mercil concurred that Mr Chauvin’s usage of his knee did not appear to be a “neck restraint,” but a “prone hold,” in line with MPD policy. For clarification, Nelson asked: “Are there circumstances like those already discussed where it would be appropriate to maintain the presence of the leg across the shoulder blades and back in order to ensure control of the suspect for as long as ten minutes?” Lt. Mercil answered: “Yes.” 

Ultimately, Lt. Mercil once again agreed that the scene of an arrest with the presence of a crowd “voicing their displeasure” can be “chaotic” for officers, confirming that officers are trained to “consider the totality of the circumstances.” Nelson asked: “Have you ever been trained, or trained others, to say that if a person can talk, they can breathe?” Lt. Mercil replied: “Yes.”  

Prosecutor Schleiter returned for a brief re-direct examination of Lieutenant Mercil, largely covering topics pertaining again to the use of force. Schleiter also exhibited a still image of the crowd who had gathered to watch George Floyd’s arrest, which was subsequently touched upon by defence attorney Nelson when he returned for re-cross examination. In reference to the prosecution’s witness MMA fighter Donald Williams II, Nelson asked: “Looking at this individual, does it appear that the man in blue is holding back [Mr Williams]. In terms of the continuation of the use of force when we’re talking about the involvement of onlookers, the words they use matter.” Directly quoting Williams’ vocalisation’s to the officers, telling them “I’ll slap the f**k out of you,” “you’re a p***y” and “you’re a chump,” Lt. Mercil agreed that the arousal of alarm in a group of officers would be “reasonable.”