Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted in the 2020 killing of George Floyd, pleaded guilty to two tax evasion counts, admitting that he didn’t file Minnesota income taxes for two years due to “financial concerns.” Chauvin appeared in a Minnesota court via Zoom from a federal prison in Tucson, Az., where he is serving his sentences on a state murder conviction for killing Floyd and on a federal count of violating Floyd’s civil rights, the Associated Press reports. When Washington County Judge Sheridan Hawley asked why he didn’t file his Minnesota tax returns, Chauvin said, “The true reason is some financial concerns at the time ... I had to find significant funds from family to pay a previous year’s return and, frankly, I’ve been playing catch up ever since.”
Chauvin was sentenced to 13 months in prison on the tax charges, but he has already been incarcerated for longer than that and was given credit for time served. Floyd died May 25, 2020, after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against the Black man’s neck for more than nine minutes. Floyd, who was handcuffed, repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe. After Floyd’s killing, Chauvin and his then-wife were charged with multiple counts for allegedly underreporting their income to the state of Minnesota by $464,433 from 2014 to 2019. His ex-wife, Kellie May Chauvin, pleaded guilty Feb. 24 to two counts of aiding and abetting their failure to file tax returns for 2016 and 2017. She will be sentenced May 12. Kellie Chauvin filed for divorce shortly after Floyd’s death, and a judge approved the divorce last February.