The wife of the white police officer who was seen kneeling on George Floyd’s neck during a fatal forgery arrest had previously been charged herself for writing a bad check, DailyMail.com can disclose.
Police were called to Cup Foods convenience store in Minneapolis on Monday night after a cashier claimed Floyd had used a fake $20 bill.
During the arrest, officer Derek Chauvin was filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck for an agonizing eight minutes while he pleaded that he couldn’t breathe, later dying.
On Friday afternoon, Chauvin was arrested and taken into police custody.
DailyMail.com has learned Chauvin’s wife Kellie, a former Mrs. Minnesota America winner, was charged with writing a bad $42 check in February 2005.
And despite multiple letters sent to her home about the bad check, she hadn’t paid the owed money by July of that year, leading to a criminal complaint being filed against her.
Kellie, who at the time was married to her late ex-husband Kujay Xiong, eventually paid the money and the case was dismissed.
Chauvin was arrested after Minneapolis descended into chaos on Thursday night as outraged locals took to the streets to protest Floyd’s death and to demand Chauvin’s arrest, as well as the three other officers involved.
Kellie Chauvin, the wife of the white police officer who was seen kneeling on George Floyd’s neck during a fatal forgery arrest, previously had been charged herself for writing a bad check, DailyMail.com can disclose. She was voted Mrs. Minnesota in 2018
Police were called to Cup Foods convenience store in Minneapolis on Monday night after a cashier claimed Floyd had used a fake $20 bill. During the arrest, officer Derek Chauvin was filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck for an agonizing eight minutes while he pleaded that he couldn’t breathe, going unconscious and later dying. On Friday afternoon, Chauvin was arrested and taken into police custody
DailyMail.com has learned Chauvin’s wife Kellie was charged with writing a bad $42 check in February 2005. And despite multiple letters sent to her home about the bad check, she hadn’t paid the owed money by July of that year, leading to a criminal complaint being filed against her in Wisconsin
Kellie, who at the time was married to her late ex-husband Kujay Xiong, eventually paid the money and the case was dismissed
The revelation comes as Minneapolis descended into chaos on Thursday as locals took to the streets to protest Floyd’s death and demand for Chauvin and the three other officers involved in Floyd’s arrest to be charged over his death. The Minneapolis Third Police Precinct went up in flames overnight, when rioters broke in and set fire to the building (pictured)
Kellie had raved about her husband in an interview from 2018, telling the Pioneer Press: ‘Under all that uniform, he’s just a softie.’
Kellie gave the interview as part of a press push for her bid for beauty contest Mrs. Minnesota America 2018.
She won the contest in October that year and went to Las Vegas in 2019 to compete for the national round of the beauty pageant.
Chauvin met his future wife when he brought a suspect in for a health check before an arrest, returning to the hospital shortly after their initial meeting to ask her out.
Kellie had worked as a radiologist at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, which is the same hospital where Floyd was pronounced dead.
She told the outlet: ‘He’s such a gentleman. He still opens the door for me, still puts my coat on for me. After my divorce, I had a list of must-haves if I were ever to be in a relationship, and he fit all of them.’
The former radiologist, who now works as a realtor with Re/Max Results, told the paper she fled Laos with her family as a child and came to America as a refugee.
She said she had two children, including a son, George Xiong, with her first husband, who is now dead. The realtor married Chauvin around 2010.
Despite reportedly having a short fuse, Kellie had raved about her husband in an interview from 2018, telling the Pioneer Press: ‘Under all that uniform, he’s just a softie’
The outcry reached Chauvin’s front door, as angry protesters drew in chalk on the road and sidewalk outside the couple’s $260,000 home in Oakdale: ‘A murderer lives here’ and ‘Murderer’
Protesters wrote ‘A murderer lives here’ on the ground outside Chauvin’s home
On Thursday evening it was revealed Floyd had actually worked with Chauvin as security guards at the El Nuevo Rodeo club, the cub owner confirmed.
‘Chauvin was our off-duty police for almost the entirety of the 17 years that we were open,’ Maya Santamaria told KSTP-TV.
Santamaria said that she is not sure if the two men knew each other since there were some two dozen security guards, including off-duty officers, working at her club on any given night.
But she revealed there were occasions when they would have been working at the same event.
‘They were working together at the same time, it’s just that Chauvin worked outside and the security guards were inside.’
According to Santamaria, Chauvin had a tendency to flash his temper and overreact to situations.
‘He sometimes had a real short fuse and he seemed afraid,’ she said.
‘When there was an altercation he always resorted to pulling out his mace and pepper spraying everybody right away, even if I felt it was unwarranted.’
The outcry has now reached his front door, as angry protesters drew in chalk on the road and sidewalk outside the couple’s $260,000 home in Oakdale: ‘A murderer lives here’.
On Thursday evening it was revealed Floyd had actually worked with Chauvin as security guards at the El Nuevo Rodeo club, the cub owner confirmed. ‘Chauvin was our off-duty police for almost the entirety of the 17 years that we were open,’ Maya Santamaria (pictured)
Santamaria said that she is not sure if the two men knew each other since there were some two dozen security guards, including off-duty officers, working at her club on any given night. But she revealed there were occasions when they would have been working at the same event. ‘They were working together at the same time, it’s just that Chauvin worked outside and the security guards were inside.’ Pictured: The El Nuevo Rodeo club
Minneapolis, Minnesota: People gather outside the police department building with their fists in the air as they watched it burn down
The Minneapolis Third Police Precinct went up in flames overnight, when rioters broke in and set fire to the building, roaming through its corridors with baseball bats, axes and torches.
Just hours before, prosecutors had warned there is ‘evidence that does not support criminal charges’ in the case of the four cops accused of killing Floyd, sparking fears that they will continue to walk free.
A total of 500 National Guard soldiers were deployed to the streets of Minneapolis and neighboring St. Paul and Mayor Jacob Frey declared a state of emergency as rioting continued into the early hours.
Trump escalated the situation over Twitter, threatening to ‘assume control’ of Minneapolis, warning ‘thugs’ in the city that ‘when the looting starts the shooting starts,’ as demonstrators set fire to a police precinct and protests erupted across the States.
The president’s incendiary tweet is now hidden by a warning that it violated Twitter’s rules about glorifying violence – but the message can be bypassed and the tweet remains live.