Disgraced former police officer Derek Chauvin pleaded guilty Friday to tax evasion in Minnesota and admitted he hid thousands of dollars from the state.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of tax evasion in a Minnesota court before Washington County Judge Sheridan Hawley.
The former Minneapolis police officer already behind bars was found guilty of the May 25, 2020, murder of George Floyd, a killing that was captured on video and sparked a flurry of civil rights protests across the US Had given.
Chauvin and her ex-husband, Kelly Mae Chauvin, who also goes by the names Kelly Thao and Kelly Jeong, were charged in the tax case shortly after Floyd’s murder.
Authorities said he was accused of allegedly failing to pay taxes on $464,433 of combined income from 2014 through 2014, including $95,000 he earned from working as an off-duty security officer Was.
She was a real estate agent at the time and also operated a photography business. Together they owed the state $37,868, officials said, including unpaid taxes, interest and fees.
Chauvin’s ex-wife, who now lives in Wisconsin, pleaded guilty on February 24 to two counts of aiding and abetting in failing to file taxes. Her plea agreement called for three years’ probation and restitution of $37,868, with no more than 45 days of community service. Hawley said he would be sentenced on May 12.
The tax investigation began in June 2020, when the Minnesota Department of Revenue received information about suspicious filings by Derek Chauvin. The agency launched a review and then an investigation.
The investigation found that Chauvins did not file state tax returns for 2016, 2017 or 2018, and did not report all of his income for 2014 and 2015. Or so of his income in those years, the complaints said.
Chauvin, 46, is the white police officer seen in the video kneeling on the neck of Floyd, who is black, for 9 1/2 minutes in the early summer of 2020, as the victim said he couldn’t breathe. was unable to move and eventually went limp.
Nearly a year later, a Minneapolis jury convicted Chauvin of second- and third-degree murder, as well as second-degree manslaughter. He is now serving 22 1/2 years on that state sentence.
Chauvin appeared remotely on Friday from a federal prison in Arizona, where he is serving a 21-year sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights.
Antonio Planas Contribution,
