An attorney for former Minneapolis police officer J. Alexander Kueng says a judge's restrictions limiting public access at and around his coming trial violate his client's constitutional rights.
In a list of objections filed Friday, Thomas Plunkett challenged Judge Peter Cahill's directive to bar any members of the public from watching the proceedings from inside the courtroom, calling this a "closure of the courtroom" that violates "Kueng's right to an open trial under the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution."
Plunkett also objected to Cahill's order that no one shall be permitted on the 18th floor of the courthouse, where the trial is taking place, without approved credentials or identification.
Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are each charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter in George Floyd's death. Leading up to their trial, set to begin next month, Cahill has issued unusually tight restrictions on courtroom access for the high-profile proceedings.
Last month, against the objections of prosecutors and a media coalition, Cahill ruled the trial won't be livestreamed because the threat of COVID-19 has diminished since last year, when he allowed the audio and visual broadcasting of Derek Chauvin's trial.
