thank you your with the early start. so sergeant jodi's take it from the los angeles police department steps down from the witness stand. after being examined and cross-examined as an expert on the use of force he simply said no force should be used once the person is handcuffed and prone on the ground about it that adding body weight would only increase the likelihood of death. the defense on cross-examination. tried to point to the fact that george ford was resisting arrest before he was on the ground. next witness on the stand. let's start with you giving your full name spelling each of your days james j m e s writers are in y.

e r s o n there's a crime. and it's also your current occupation i'm currently a senior special agent with them in sort of bureau of criminal apprehension so just in general what does a senior special agent do what is your job you know so i'm currently assigned to the newly formed use of force investigation group we conduct criminal investigations into use of force incidents are you in a sense to peace officer yes or obviously you're not wearing what we typically think of as forms that. when you work do you have a uniform. generally no general in plain clothes. and you mentioned. well when did you 1st become licensed as a peace officer i started my law enforcement career in 2007. hand so let's run through your educational work experience for your job as a as

a peace officer. first of all did you obtain it like a 4 year undergraduate degree they did can you describe or tell the jury what that . bachelors of science in criminology from the university of tampa what your did you achieve that in 2006. and after that did you go to work in the field of law enforcement i did were you 1st hired to work force i started my career at that your city police department the n.y.p.d. and so did you do some training then to be an n.y.p.d. officer i did in my p.t. has a 6 month training academy that i. successfully completed and is that when you then obtained your license to be a peace officer yes and that was about what year proximately 2000. and when you became well let me ask you how many years you worked for the n.y.p.d. approximately 40. and can you describe for the jurors in what capacity you worked

as a peace officer in new york city so as a police officer initially assigned to the 32nd precinct harlem new york my initial duties were as an impact officer interacting with the community addressing kind of quality of life issues i was then transferred to task force task force officer from there i was inside there i was assigned to address quality of life issues as well as by the crime issues narcotics and. so all the time spent on the streets assumption. at some point did you leave the new york city police are dead and what was the next job that you took in march 4th i was hired as a special agent with the drug enforcement administration or the d.a. what year was that approximate as a lot of and what were your duties as a dea agent primarily to address

a large scale long term investigations into narcotics into what narcotics drugs and. you had to do some training for that job i assume correct and how long was the training for that proximately 4 and a half months at quantico virginia and what kind of well after during the training were you assigned to a specific location i was and where we were side initially to an unfortunate group in new york city and that i was transferred down to no gallus arizona where my primary sponsibility was investigating cartel activity. and when you say cartel we're talking drug cartels prior's and at some point then you leave the d.n.a. yes what year was that around 2013 why to move back to minnesota and when you moved. back to minnesota have you been here before yes this is one fall

so when you went to the new york city police department that was. a change of location for it was just so our 2013 you said you came back to minnesota right and did you find work you know related law enforcement field yes or describe for the jurors please. i want to corporate investigations focused on insurance white collar based out of work and during that time period did you complete some more education i did yes or intel in terms what that was received by a masters in the business administration fossil enhanced or. what year was that probably just 14. and some point did you leave that corporate investigative work as there were to go from there i went to the metro transit police department that's here in the newsroom many apples and. how long did you work there very short cut were to go from there i was hired by the status of special agent so is that part of

the state government correct what agency is that department of commerce when you were at the department of commerce are you a licensed peace officer yes or. my probably a lot of people don't know that they're licensed peace officers and department right. what kinds of investigations that you do at the department primarily white collar investigations. and at some point did you leave the department of commerce that. and where did you go after that the bureau for my branch and what are you hired by the bureau of criminal apprehension 2900. and that's where you are today stowe. so initially licensed in 2007 did you maintain your license as a peace officer during that entire time. know it went well about 2000 middle of 2013 to 2016 that. that's when you were working. from 2000 the militant 13th are

to about 1016 was not enough when you're doing a corporate work correct. peace officer you are required to going educational credits cracked down all that throughout your career the exception of a 2 year period. when you were hired at the b.c.s. in 2018. what were you hired to do was hired within the metro homicide unit so we investigated. major homicides as well as officer involved instance. when you're tired of the b.c.s. are you required to show some through some training specific to working for the b.b.c. yes or you describe for the jurors the kind of training that had to do when you started. their training which involved with writing search warrants are report writing as well as some tactics. interview interrogation is all.

in do you also have to spend some time at the medical examiner's office. describe that for the jury if you or i recently completed the forensic pathology program at the lanza county medical examiner's office where i was present with the medical examiners conducting autopsies. and are you currently working on an additional educational goal yes or tell injures what that is i'm currently a 30 year doctoral student mary's university minnesota office on education and leadership. you have told us that you work for the bureau of criminal apprehension as are commonly referred to as the b.c.s. correct correct you describe for the juries what is the b.c. . so this is a state law enforcement agency we are under the umbrella of department of public safety. delineated to the 4 divisions investigated vision that i'm

a part of we have the information service is a laboratory as well as a training section and we provide services to law enforcement agencies as well as the community and so your jurisdiction is generally where the state of minnesota. in may 25th of 2020. what were your duties as a special agent. i've currently the case asian on the investigator for this investigation so i was notified of the incident fairly quickly and you mentioned earlier about currently having a different assignments. here's point of the jury's how your assignment has changed from may 25th of last year to today so i'm back now i was in the metro homicide unit which investigated both homicide as well as officer involved incidents there's a newly formed force investigations unit that i'm now part of that solely focuses

on investigations involving use of force. you mentioned earlier in the term case agent current what does that mean his agent is another term for the lead investigator on a particular case. obviously you're here today to testify about the incidents that led to the death of george ford last year correct correct and you were the case agent for that case yes sir. and when you are the cases agent are you responsible for knowing the course of the investigation involved in all aspects of the investigation some witnesses are. in that runs from beginning to end yes or. so to bring you back to may 25 2020. you've got called out regarding this incident you just describe for the jurors are you get that initial call and what you do response. so my supervisor

call me approximately 945 and fill in for me there's been an incident that occurred in the confines of minneapolis and all the minneapolis police department i was determined that myself it phil and agent scott mueller would all of report to city hall we met at city hall we have a city hall and that was determined that it might fill what had to be the chicago the scene and myself and scott mueller would head into one that may have. so did you understand since you while you as speciations are being called to this incident we knew that some form of critic lesson had occurred but at that point we didn't have a huge amount of information and when you use the term critical incident in this context or mean to you at that time an incident involving a police officer and potentially

a civilian. that that could have caused harm so on may 25th of 2020. was to be ca. responding to calls of critical incidents within the city of minneapolis yes and so have you developed that is the p.c.a. a process for responding to those calls yes we have critical incident protocols. and when you arrived with the other agents at city hall that's. where the administrative offices of the police department are correct correct. and so that at some point. the. decision is made for my fil to go to the scene at 30th. and you an agent nearer than wait around or say at city hall correct correct. and when you were out of there

did you. recall a rethink about what was known so far. and did you learn who the involved officers were you did a search and what were those officers that you learned at that time were all. officer. came off their plane and tough. and yet in the course of well i guess i should ask this very good you got an issue the critical incident protocols for this incident and then yes and as part of that taking photographs of each office. mr and word those officers there at city hall that evening yes i should ask you i guess you said you know she got a call about my 45 pm correct your call about what time it was that your arrived city hall. approximately 3040 minutes later. and.

we put this up just for the witness please show you exhibit 379. you recognize that or yes or your exact or yes or when was that photograph well this is a period representation of what you saw when you took that. yes or your it off or exhibit 270 and if there are 270 days received the rest of publishing your own. and did you recall approximately when this was taken. shortly after i arrived at city hall. and through subsequent investigation that you're done did you learn the proximate weights of the defendants around the site or yes or what was that word possibly $140.00 pounds or $140.00 pounds. and.

as a police officer since what approximate 2007 right you sir are you familiar with what i call of duty belt equipment that is were yes are you just described for the jurors in general what is present on history. the firearm handcuffs mace usually there is i radio holder and a radio associated with that as well and multiple nations magazine is what. amazing is to hold the bullets for. and any body armor that he is currently wearing yes usually has a vest on based on your experience as a peace officer be able to estimate the price no weight of the equipment that the defendant is wearing. presently 30 to 40 pounds.

we can take that. and while you're there at city hall did you endeavor to collect some other items of evidence or for the investigation yes or and what other items did you acquire. put in a critical critical incident protocols acquiring the officers involved uniformed as well as their equipment including their fire and did you also acquire some videos yes or and may 25th of 2020 were you aware that we saw officers wear bike yes or did you acquire the body cam videos for the for all the officers. in news describe for the jurors how that process is to. the minneapolis police public crime lab retained the actual physical body one camera downloads it and provides it then to be to me and so you wired those for

cambodia's yes or course the investigation your records and other videos as well yes. with regard to body cam videos of the form volved officers you have watched all of those have you yes or. no those have a timestamp on them correct dubious or and in your review of a appear to be consistent with each other in their timestamps yes or while you were at city hall did you collect some other data about the incident yes unregulated i can't report. can you describe for the jury what is a cad report said a record is a transcription of all the radio traffic associated with a specific incident. any other data moment you acquired them milestone video what is that most home video is a feel city of video that is positioned at street level. at various places

throughout the city and so you will learn that there was a mass phone video of the location of this incident yes and your team that yes have any information with an eye on color or that traffic yes i also retain the audi you file for 911 call. while you were there at some point did you learn about. a facebook your hero yes yes or how did you learn about the. deputy chief air force notified me of a video that surfaced on facebook and real to watch that video that's a yes or a yes or i was shown the video actually there after your call if you watched the whole thing or parts of it i believe it was a portion of the video. and throughout your investigation of this case you come to learn who was the person making that really your only done illustration . so after your duties at city hall

you. proceed to the scene there. and when you arrived at the scene where there are other. individuals there as or who i was there still i met with agent mike film and crime scene team need because he enters. your call it time a cause that you arrived at the same. process me 23 the morning of the twice 6. and you mentioned the crime scene team can you just describe in general or for other jurors what what you mean by the crime scene. present teams members of our b.c. laboratory who go out and frankly collect evidence in support of criminal history genes. so they gave us a good. yeah they would take like to process crimes at the scene. and who

was the. wrong answers for how many members are there of the crime scene team typically typically $2.00 to $3.00 and a special operations agent who is solely assigned to take video and photographs and so there is a team leader credit and who is that for the ski. these kids he enters. when you arrived at the scene did you learn about some vehicles at the scene that were involved. yes or. describe them a blue collar mercedes benz and minneapolis police waqar 320 and when you say the mercedes benz do you know what style of your call that was actually mean you know that's get out i guess and so those 2 vehicles did you see the math as yes

do you recall where they were located. i believe they're on the south side of british 38. and. with regard to the squad car me up a squad car. did you. learn anything about contents of the vehicle yes what the jeweler i learned that. $220.00 bills were in a manila envelope in the trunk area of the vehicle as well as a lot of other items that relate to this incident so what did you do with regard to i seize those of this that and look at the scene so you are seizing it you took it with your credit and did you open up the envelope and see what its contents were initially yes and. so you mentioned. 20 dollar bills for a threat and you know if i could show the witness only please exhibit one night

here. so quick side in the courtroom in minneapolis right now as the judge confers with the attorneys of course this would usually be done face to face but given there are coded restrictions they put the headphones on keep their masks on stay behind their perspectives and then. we can be no 115. and there's a break. we do have sort of loose timings every day on when breaks are expected but

it is of course the decision of the judge in the end as to when to be the appropriate time to take a break depending on how long a witness has been on the stand the witness we've seen on the stand just now james reston who is a special agent with the minneapolis police department again speaking to the issue of use of force that has been the push today on day 8 of the derrick chauvin trial the use of force was that too much using experts opinion in the earlier case of a police officer not from minneapolis but who was brought in as an expert witness so let's go through some of that with alan fischer our correspondent reporting from minneapolis today. rewind a bit 1st of all the testimony along testimony that we had from sergeant jody steger from the los angeles police department adding weight initially certainly to the prosecution argument that this was quite simply a use of force which is not in the book.

and that's the key takeaway from the that he said that the force that don't show the news to restrain your george floyd for the defense this shouldn't have needed someone to be held in that position was not only excessive it was lethal and that's very important because that's the case that the prosecution are trying to me that although there may be an argument that george floyd needed to be restrained for a period of time at some point it went beyond just restraining and it became a lethal use of force just looking through some of the other evidence that he gave he was asked if he perceived the crowds to be a threat remember that something that was mentioned in the opening statement by the defense that the police particularly showing could actually give his full attention to george floyd because he was concerned about a growing crowd and we had to mute some of the language that. had been used by the crowd but mr steiger didn't see that as an immediate threat sent lee that there

were words exchanged but he didn't see them as a real problem they were concerned about george floyd he said and they were taking pictures they went. from his previous experience in a position where they were throwing stones or rocks at the police no one was trying to advance towards the police they were simply making comment and being quite abusive towards the police and some of the language the use of that is going to be important as well. he came mr steiger came under some questioning about his expertise and why he would be called in and as an expert witness given that he's based in los angeles he asked whether or not he's given this sort of evidence before he is experienced in the use of force and los angeles he wants with the inspector general's office but there is just that question from the defense as you would expect them to do one of the key points that the defense tried to raise was a loop if george floyd was unconscious if he came around he may get violent is not

something that the officers should take care of and he was he wasn't going to give on that point his view was that you should go by the suspects actions not what they might possibly do so if you have a suspect who is under your control then there's not a great deal more that you can do and you can start taking the body weight off the body and moving and that's going to become important because we're hearing a lot from the defense the derek short had his weight on his shoulders on george floyd sort of between the shoulder blades is not something that that the police do and yes it is something the police do but they're talking about the weight being there for an extended period of time and that the whole idea of it being on the back between the shoulders rather than the neck is because we will hear from the medical examiner who carried out the autopsy who talked about neck compressions being there so that is going to be important but the is this whole idea of body weight being placed on. troy they were just here during the evidence that

a police officer carries somewhere in the region of $20.00 to $30.00 pounds which is what 16 to 7 to 20 kilograms of extra weight as well as their own body weight pushing down and that leads to what's called positional asphyxia because a person is restricted they can't move to breathe properly and that could stop their breathing which of course is what happened to george floyd summary there from alan fischer in minneapolis as we are in the lunch break the direction of an trial day. now european. agencies that is medical agencies and u.k. agencies have been speaking today on the issue of the astra zeneca oxford oxford estrogenic i should say sorry. vaccine recommending some in the u.k. recommending that there should be an alternative used for people under the age of

30 you though talking about a low risk for people getting blood clots from that shot let's have a listen to what we've heard from the european medical agency. and you will find the respective ling's in the invite sent earlier today there is pure shit cases of unusual blood clotting following vaccination with the astra zeneca vaccine should be listed as possible side effects of the vaccine based on the current available evidence specific risk factors such as age gender or previous medical history of charting disorders have not been able to be confirmed as the rarest and bends are seen in all ages and in men and women. yes so that's what the europeans are saying as i said bare happy for all age groups to

still use the vaccine the u.k. taking that different stance saying that under thirty's would be offered an alternative to the astra zeneca vaccine if there is an alternative available experts emphasized the side effects are extremely rare and that people who have received the 1st dose should take their 2nd shot of the 20000000 doses given out to the british public so far. no effective medicine or vaccine is without risk and with that seems more complex than usual because the benefits can be to people other than the individual taking the vaccine well the clinical trials of vaccines allow us to assess relatively common effects very rare effects only detected when a vaccine is used at scale on a large enough number of people and that is why the u.k. has a careful monitoring systems in place and these monitoring systems are now detecting a potential side effect of the covert 900 facts in astra zeneca in an extremely

small number of people. coming up half past the hour al-jazeera these are the headlines an expert witness in the direction of a murder trial has testified that deadly force was used in the arrest of george floyd also angeles police department sergeant and an expert on the use of force jodi steiger was giving evidence for a 2nd day. you have an opinion to a degree reasonable professional certainty the how much force was reasonable for the defendant to use on mr floyd after mr floyd was handcuffed placed in a prone position and not resisting. yes. my opinion was that no 4 should have been used once. he was in that position. as you were.