Derek Chauvin pleads not guilty to federal charges alleging he violated teen's civil rights

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal charges alleging he violated a teenager’s civil rights in a separate case that involved a similar restraint to the one he used on George Floyd.

Earlier this year, Chauvin was indicted on federal civil rights charges for an incident in September 2017 where he and two other officers responded to a domestic call in which a 14-year-old boy was accused of assaulting his mother.

The two-count indictment alleges Chauvin held his knee on the boy's neck and upper back while the teenager was face down on the ground, handcuffed and not resisting. Prosecutors say body camera video, which has not been made public, shows Chauvin striking the boy in the head with a flashlight. 

Chauvin is accused of using much more violent and forceful treatment than he described in his police report, in which he wrote that the 240-pound teenager resisted arrest and that he "used body weight to pin [him] to the floor."

Thursday morning, Chauvin appeared via videoconference from the state’s maximum security prison in Oak Park Heights where he is serving a 22 1/2-year sentence for Floyd's May 2020 murder.  

Chauvin, along with three other ex-Minneapolis police officers, is also facing separate federal civil rights charges in connection with Floyd’s murder. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges.