Minneapolis will pay $600,000 to settle with woman who says ex-Officer Chauvin knelt on her neck

MINNEAPOLIS — The city of Minneapolis has agreed to pay $600,000 to settle a lawsuit by a woman who alleged that ex-Officer Derek Chauvin hauled her from her minivan and pinned her to the ground with his knee in January 2020, just as he did four months later when he killed George Floyd.

Patty Day, formerly employed by the Public Works Department, claimed in a lawsuit filed last May that she was the victim of excessive force and a wrongful arrest. She acknowledged that she was drunk on the evening of Jan. 17, 2020, and depressed over her impending divorce and other difficulties when she got stuck in the snow for several hours.

Chauvin and his partner that night, Officer Ellen Jensen, eventually arrived on the scene. The lawsuit alleged that the officers “violently yanked” Day from her vehicle and threw her to the pavement, causing several injuries.

“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 alleged. A drunken driving charge was later dropped after a judge ruled that the officers lacked probable cause to arrest her and suppressed the blood alcohol test evidence.

The Minneapolis City Council unanimously approved the $600,000 settlement Thursday. Council member LaTrisha Vetaw told her colleagues that $175,000 will go to Day while her attorneys will get $425,000.

The city has now paid over $36 million to settle police misconduct cases involving Chauvin, including $27 million to the Floyd family.

“While no settlement can undo what Patty endured, we are grateful to have reached an agreement that holds the officers accountable for their actions,” Day’s attorney, Katie Bennett, said in a statement. “This case is yet another example of the critical need for justice and reform in policing.”

Chauvin, who is white, remains incarcerated at a federal prison in Texas for his conviction in state court of murdering Floyd and a federal conviction for violating Floyd’s civil rights. The Black man’s murder sparked a national reckoning with racial injustice.