MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (WAND) – The expertise of a cardiologist who graduated from the University of Illinois, who testified in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the officer accused of killing George Floyd, was “damning”, according to a Decatur criminal defense attorney.
"I think it is a come to Jesus moment and they have some problems and they may shake it up or do something else,” Andrew Wessler, with BRE Law, LLC., said, about the testimony of Dr. Jonathan Rich.
Rich, a graduate of the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, said he believed Floyd would likely still be alive today if the officers had provided first aid. Now a cardiology specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Chicago, Rich said the actions of the now fired officer, Derek Chauvin, led to the death of Floyd.
"Mr. George Floyd died from a cardiopulmonary arrest,’ Rich said. “It was caused by low oxygen levels and those low oxygen levels were induced by the prone restraint and positional asphyxiation that he was subjected to."
Wessler said Rich’s testimony calls into question the defense’s argument Floyd died from drugs and an underlying heart condition.
"An expert like Dr. Rich, and I would agree, he has really done a good job in throwing a wrench in all these other defense theories that they have been trying to get out through these witnesses,” Wessler said.
An attorney for 10-years, Wessler said testimony of people like Dr. Rich is critical to the prosecution case.
"Lawyers aren't witnesses,” he said. “They can't explain these things to the jury. They are not allowed to do that. They have to get it through the witnesses."
On cross examination, the expertise of Dr. Rich was called into question by Chauvin’s defense, something Wessler says could have been a mistake.
"So, the combination, of the drugs, the high blood pressure, the take the paraganglioma out of it, right? The increase in adrenaline from a struggle with officers, all of those things to combine together, even in the absence of prone, restraint could have resulted in death,” the Defense attorney said. Yes or no, sir?" Dr. Rich responded saying “upon my review of the evidence and the facts of the case, I found no evidence to support that."
"They were trying to get Dr. Rich to help them with their theory,” Wessler said. “They were trying to out expert the expert. That is the worst thing you can do. They're not doctors."
Chauvin had entered a plea of not guilty to charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
