Earl Gray: Thomas Lane Is A "Man Of Compassion" And "Not A Violent Person".
TEXT: LET'S GET AFTER IT.</s>CUOMO: All right, this is very interesting. We have Earl Gray, Counselor for Thomas Lane, one of the former Minneapolis police officers, on trial now in the murder case of George Floyd. Counselor, thank you for staying through the break. You described - because again, remember, and audience, you should know this, as Counsel, Mr. Gray has seen the body camera footage. We haven't. So, remember that. Counsel says that the body camera footage shows that George Floyd resisted. We had all these different angles of him that show every aspect of this, not in full, but each phase. You never see any kind of resistance. You termed it a "Not a violent type of resistance" but the kind of resistance you shouldn't do that warranted this kind of treatment in your opinion, Counselor.</s>GRAY: Well I would call it a struggle. They were struggling with him. And once they got - got control of him, where my client was on the feet of Mr. Floyd, and Mister - and Officer Kueng was on in the middle, on his waist, and Chauvin was on his shoulder or neck--</s>CUOMO: Neck.</s>GRAY: --no matter what my client - well that's questionable, by the way.</s>CUOMO: How?</s>GRAY: What my client--</s>CUOMO: His knee is right on his neck in the video.</s>GRAY: Questionable because look at the autopsy. There's not any injury to this man's hyoid bone or larynx. He didn't suffer a strangulation or an asphyxiation. But let me finish this.</s>CUOMO: But also, just to be clear.</s>GRAY: Now, my client's--</s>CUOMO: That's not what the autopsy that the family did showed. And the knee is clearly on his neck.</s>GRAY: Yes--</s>CUOMO: And the man is dead. So something happened, Counselor.</s>GRAY: Yes, yes, he had--</s>CUOMO: Continue.</s>GRAY: --methamphetamine - I don't want to talk about the deceased, Mr. Floyd because what I like to tell you is--</s>CUOMO: Yes.</s>GRAY: --while my client's on his feet, he says, let me get it here, while - while Mr. Floyd was moving, Lane's asked "Should we roll him on his side?" And Officer Chauvin said "No. Staying put where we got him." Now, we've got a 20-year officer here, and you got a four-day officer, in my client. He goes on however, my client does, and says, "I am worried about excited delirium or whatever." What's excited delirium? It's a situation where you've taken a lot of drugs, and you get excited, and you might die. That's what he was worried about. And then, Chauvin says to my client again, "That's why we have him on his stomach." Then later, my client again says, "Do you - do you want to roll him on his side?" This is later, right before the ambulance comes. And again, he's not rolled on his side. Now, the question, of course, the public is watching this. My client's at his feet, he doesn't have a real good view of Mr. Chauvin or, excuse me, Mr. Floyd, of what Chauvin is doing. But if all these people say why - why didn't my client intercede? Well if the public is there, and they're so in uproar about this, they didn't intercede either. And my client's down where he can't really see.</s>CUOMO: Well hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Counselor?</s>GRAY: So when the--</s>CUOMO: Counselor? Hold on. Hold on.</s>GRAY: Yes, Chris.</s>CUOMO: Two things. One, you're laying on a man's legs. You've got a fine view of what's going on with that man. The other officer is literally a foot in front of you on his neck. Two, I understand that he has a senior officer telling him what to do.</s>GRAY: No--</s>CUOMO: But there's also a duty to intervene. And if you think the officer is doing something that's dangerous to a civilian, you have a duty to intervene, and he did not intervene.</s>GRAY: Sure.</s>CUOMO: And the idea that the civilians should have rushed in to a policing situation, in the inner City of Minneapolis, against four police officers that have weapons, and are kneeling on the neck of a man, don't you think that's asking a little much of civilians, and a little too little of your client?</s>GRAY: Absolutely. I'm not - I just brought that up. Well what - what you say is, and he's a foot away--</s>CUOMO: Yes, I know.</s>GRAY: --look in the video, he's got his feet. He was holding his feet though. And Mr. Kueng was - Officer Kueng was next, and then Chauvin. You say he had a clear view, he didn't. But what is compelling--</s>CUOMO: He's - I'm saying he's on the man's body, and the guy's screaming, "I want my mother. I'm going to die. They're going to kill me. I can't breathe."</s>GRAY: Sir, he also said "I can't breathe" when he - when they're trying to get him into the squad car. He used that at that time too. So, should the police believe it? I don't know. My client's holding his feet. Well what's telling - what's compelling is when the ambulance comes, my client goes in the ambulance, four days on the Force, goes in the ambulance, and starts his own CPR, pushing down on his chest, which he did for a lengthy period of time, until they got the machine out, attempting to revive Mr. Floyd. He didn't want to see the man die. Nobody would want that.</s>CUOMO: Does your client think that--</s>GRAY: My client--</s>CUOMO: --what Officer Chauvin did was wrong?</s>GRAY: I can't talk about that because that's communication between my client, and myself, which is confidential, as you know, Mr. Cuomo so.</s>CUOMO: Yes. I do. But you're also relaying things that you've learned from your client, in terms of what he was seeing.</s>GRAY: I'm relaying--</s>CUOMO: And what we saw.</s>GRAY: Oh no, I'm relaying things to what I saw in the video. You look at the video, when you get it. My cameras body - body video, and you'll see that.</s>CUOMO: And you don't--</s>GRAY: And I'm not - I'm not a 100 percent as to the accuracy of the - what was that?</s>CUOMO: Nothing. It was your computer making a noise.</s>GRAY: Hello?</s>CUOMO: Don't worry about it.</s>GRAY: Oh, I'm sorry. I think I hit it.</s>CUOMO: Don't worry about it.</s>GRAY: You got me excited, Mr. Cuomo.</s>CUOMO: I'm sorry, Counsel. Look, a lot of people are excited about this. But I got to tell you. Look, we got more we got to discuss. You got another five minutes on you?</s>GRAY: Well sure.</s>CUOMO: This - this matters too much. Let's take another break. I want to give this a full conversation because this matters. There's just too much on the line about what people perceive, and what they should have from their police and what should have been done here. Stay with me.</s>TEXT: CUOMO PRIME TIME.