Star Tribune
Derek Chauvin’s mother chastises prison officials for keeping family in dark about son’s stabbing
The mother of federal inmate Derek Chauvin and one of his attorneys are chastising prison officials for keeping them in the dark about last week’s stabbing by a fellow inmate that left the ex-Minneapolis police officer in serious condition.
The 47-year-old Chauvin has been imprisoned at the federal prison in Tucson, Ariz., for killing George Floyd while on duty in 2020. Chauvin was attacked on Friday at the medium-security facility.
Gregory Erickson, who is Chauvin’s civil attorney, said that Chauvin’s father has been contacted by a Bureau of Prisons official confirming the stabbing but has received “no concrete information on how this was allowed to happen, any detail regarding Mr. Chauvin’s injuries or details about his condition other than he is stable.”
Erickson added that Chauvin’s family members have also been denied information about his client’s location or condition, leaving them unable to visit him or consult with him on his medical needs.
The attorney also pointed out that he and the family have reached out repeatedly directly to the Tucson prison in vain for details on the attack. As of Tuesday morning, federal prosecutors in Arizona have yet to announce any charges against the inmate suspected of stabbing Chauvin.
Carolyn Pawlenty, Chauvin’s mother, expressed her outrage on social media Monday that she has not heard from prison officials in Arizona or from the Bureau of Prisons since her son was attacked.
“I have major concerns and questions!” Pawlenty wrote. “I want the respect of being notified!! I am heartbroken!! I am his mom!!!!!!!”
“I view this lack of communication with his attorneys and family members as completely outrageous,” Erickson said. “It appears to be indicative of a poorly run facility and indicates how Derek’s assault was allowed to happen.”
Erickson added, “I would like you all to imagine how you would feel if this was your son, brother, or father who was stabbed and forced to suffer alone, his location concealed from you. This is completely unacceptable. If this is standard procedure, the procedure must be changed.”
In a brief phone call Tuesday, Erickson said Chauvin’s parents “are just upset and disgusted with how everything has transpired in terms of transparency.”
A spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons, which like the FBI is under the Justice Department, has declined to answer questions or provide additional details about the attack other than confirming that an assault on an inmate occurred and that employees performed ”life-saving measures” before the inmate was taken to a hospital for further treatment and evaluation.
The agency spokesman also declined to respond to the allegations leveled by Chauvin’s attorney about inmate safety or the lack of information for Chauvin’s family.
Chauvin is the latest high-profile inmate to be attacked at a federal prison. In July, convicted sex offender and former Michigan State University doctor Larry Nassar was stabbed repeatedly at a facility in Florida.
In 2018, former Boston mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger was killed shortly after being transferred to a federal prison in West Virginia. A Justice Department report late last year excoriated the prison’s management for Bulger’s death.
A series of Associated Press reports in 2022 found that the federal Bureau of Prisons has long been plagued by staffing shortages, chronic violence, inmate deaths and sexual abuse of prisoners by staff.
Chauvin has been serving a 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights and a 22 ½-year state sentence for second-degree murder. He’s due to be released from prison in 2038, according to Bureau of Prison records.
Floyd, who was Black, died in May 2020 while pinned under the knee of Chauvin, who is white, at the corner of Chicago Avenue and 38th Street in south Minneapolis. Floyd’s death ignited days of protests and at times deadly riots.
The assault came one week after the premiere of Alpha News’ documentary, “The Fall of Minneapolis,” which questions the prevailing media narrative of Floyd’s murder. The film includes interviews with Chauvin and ex-officer J. Alexander Kueng, who was also convicted in Floyd’s death.
“At the end of the day, the whole trial including sentencing was a sham,” Chauvin told Alpha News during a phone interview from prison.
“He had a fair trial and the whole world saw it,” Ellison said in response to that.
This story contains material from the Associated Press. Star Tribune staff writers Liz Sawyer and Rochelle Olson contributed to this report.
Many residents in the apartments next to the proposed nightclub are visiting workers such as travel nurses or farm laborers, he said. “It makes no sense to have a nightclub that has concerts next to a place where people need to rest to work in the community,” Zuleger said.
He has said that the company also partners with addiction centers and women’s shelters to house Willmar’s most vulnerable residents, and some of these tenants would be too close for comfort to the new nightclub.
Instead of a nightclub, the site should be used for a Somali community center where children from the nearby apartments can play, Zuleger said. Willmar, a city of about 21,000 people, is about 24% Hispanic and 11% Black, with 16% of the city born overseas, double the average rate in the rest of Minnesota. About 43% of the company’s tenants are Somali, and Zuleger called them his “best-paying renters.”
But Doug Fenstra, the real estate agent helping sell the property at 951 High Av., said he had never heard about the possibility of a Somali community center before Zuleger brought up the idea at an October planning commission meeting.
On Wednesday, the planning commission deliberated whether a nightclub would fit the character of the neighborhood. They noted that there was already a brewery in the area.
They passed a motion granting the conditional-use permit.
“DHS and our state and federal partners have seen evidence that kickbacks are happening in Minnesota,” Inspector General Kulani Moti said in a statement. “That’s why we brought an anti-kickback proposal to the Minnesota Legislature last session. We will continue to work with the Legislature next session on ways to strengthen the integrity of our public programs.”
Nuway Alliance, one of the state’s largest nonprofit substance use disorder treatment providers, pays up to $700 a month for someone’s housing while they are in intensive outpatient treatment, the organization’s website states. The site lists dozens of sober housing programs clients can choose from.
Nuway leaders said they got an inquiry from the government about two and a half years ago indicating they are conducting a civil investigation into the housing model.
But officials with the nonprofit said in an email they believe what they are doing is legal and clients need it. More than 600 people are using their assistance to stay in recovery residences, Nuway officials stated. They said having a safe, supportive place to stay is particularly important for the vulnerable people they serve, more than half of whom reported being homeless in the six months before they started treatment.
Health plans knew about, approved and even lauded their program, Nuway leaders said, noting that health insurer UCare even gave it an award.
“The state of Minnesota has been fully aware of our program for a decade,” the organization said. “Since payors are fully aware of, and support the program, we struggle to see how anyone could argue it is improper, let alone fraudulent.”
Mounds View, the first Minnesota city to require homeowners to discharge racist language buried in deeds before they sell their homes, is celebrating a milestone: at least 100 homeowners have completed the process.
Officials say discharging the language is a symbolic step, but an important one.
“How could we call ourselves an inclusive community with the words ‘This home shall not be sold to a non-white person’ buried in the deeds?” Mayor Zach Lindstrom said at the state of the city address Monday.
Racially restrictive covenants, found in deeds around the Twin Cities and Minnesota, were legally enforceable tools of racial segregation for the first half of the 20th century. They barred homes’ sale to, and sometimes even occupancy by, anyone who wasn’t white until 1948, when they became unenforceable. Mapping Prejudice, a University of Minnesota research project uncovering these covenants, has found more than 33,000 of them in Minnesota, including more than 500 in Mounds View.
Many local cities have partnered with Just Deeds, a coalition that helps cities and their residents learn about and discharge covenants. In 2019, the Legislature passed a law allowing homeowners to add language to their deeds that discharges racist covenants but doesn’t erase them from the record. Earlier this year, Mounds View was the first to pass an ordinance requiring it. The city is also helping residents navigate the process.
Just because these covenants are no longer enforceable doesn’t mean they haven’t had long-lasting consequences, Kirsten Delegard, Mapping Prejudice project director, said at a Mounds View City Council meeting this summer: Minneapolis homes with racial covenants are worth 15% more than those without, she said. And neighborhoods with covenants remain the whitest parts of the Twin Cities.
Mounds View residents Rene and Steven Johnson were troubled to learn from Mapping Prejudice that their house, and many homes in their neighborhood, had racially restrictive covenants on them. It took some effort, including a trip to the Ramsey County Recorder’s Office, to find the document, which not only contained race restrictions but barred unmarried couples from owning the home.
The couple got their covenant discharged, and educated the city about the process, Rene Johnson said. That helped lead to the ordinance requiring covenants to be discharged before sale.
