J. Alexander Kueng, 29, of Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting in manslaughter on October 24, 2022. Prosecutors and his defense attorney Thomas C. Plunkett, 57, of Saint Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota agreed to recommend a sentence of 42 months in prison.
As part of Kueng’s plea agreement, a second charge of aiding and abetting in second-degree unintentional murder will be dismissed against him. A sentencing date for him has yet to be set.
Judge Peter Cahill ordered a pre-sentencing investigation. Kueng told the judge that he understood the agreement and that nobody had threatened him to accept it.
In 2018, Kueng graduated from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis with a bachelor’s degree in sociology of law and criminology. He joined the Minneapolis Police Department as a cadet in February 2019 and was hired as a police officer in December 2019.
Kueng is one of the four Minneapolis Police Department officers involved in the fatal arrest of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2022. The others were Derek Michael Chauvin, 46, Thomas Lane, 39, and Tou Thao, 34.
On May 26, 2020, the Minneapolis Police Department terminated Kueng, Chauvin, Thao and Lane. On February 24, 2022, 12 jurors found Kueng, Lane and Thao guilty of depriving Floyd of his civil rights by showing deliberate indifference to Floyd’s medical needs as Chauvin knelt on Floyd on May 25, 2020 and Kueng and Lane were found guilty of failing to intervene to stop Chauvin.
On July 27, 2022, Senior U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson sentenced Kueng to 3 years in prison and said he would be incarcerated either in Duluth, Minnesota or South Dakota, USA to allow him to be near family. Kueng is John Dennis Kueng and Joni L. Kueng‘s son.
CONAN Daily 