Defense expert in Derek Chauvin trial faces Maryland lawsuit
April 17, 2021
Updated: April 18, 2021 2:06 a.m.
In this image from video, Dr. David Fowler, a retired forensic pathologist and former chief medical examiner for the state of Maryland testifies as Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill presides, Wednesday, April 14, 2021, in the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn. Chauvin is charged in the May 25, 2020 death of George Floyd. (Court TV via AP, Pool)AP
BALTIMORE (AP) — The former chief medical examiner for Maryland who testified on behalf of the officer accused of killing George Floyd is a defendant in a federal lawsuit over the death of a man who died under circumstances similar to Floyd.
Dr. David Fowler was chief medical examiner in Maryland for 17 years before retiring in 2019.
He served as a key defense witness for Officer Derek Chauvin. Fowler testified that he would have ruled Floyd's cause of death as “undetermined” rather than homicide. He also testified that Floyd's heart disease contributed to his death, contradicting prosecution experts who cited asphyxiation as a result of Chauvin's knee being pressed into Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes.
The case bears similarities to that of 19-year-old Anton Black, who died in 2018 while in police custody on Maryland's Eastern Shore. A federal lawsuit filed in Baltimore alleges that officers with the Greensboro police department and nearby agencies kept their weight on Black for several minutes even after he was prone and handcuffed.
The lawsuit alleges that the officers' actions caused Black to die of asphyxiation. It alleges that Fowler and the medical examiner who conducted Black's autopsy intentionally covered up for police by ignoring evidence of asphyxiation and playing up other factors that supported the police narrative.
More:
https://www.chron.com/news/article/Defense-expert-in-George-Floyd-trial-faces-16109087.php
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