Most senior Officer in Minnedishu PD says that it is lethal force to put your knee on someone's neck. They have never been trained to do this with someone handcuffed behind their back while in the prone position.
He further states that simply being handcuffed with your hands behind your back makes it hard to breathe, and being in the prone position would make it even harder to breathe. For this reason once someone is handcuffed with their hands behind their back you get their chest off the ground. (GF's chest was on the ground the whole time) He said you usually get them on their side or sitting.
This came before the break at 10:45 local time, probably after 10:15.
He further states that of the 5 levels of force, once you have someone handcuffed behind their back you immediately drop to the lowest level of force and threat, the perp can't really hurt you, while they can still kick you can get out of the way.
Cross-examination should be interesting!
He also establishes that the Officer who handcuffs a perp immediately becomes responsible for their well being. I point out that if Chauvin didn't handcuff GF, this adds a wrinkle to the case.
At no point did either paramedic clarify that GF's chest had not been on the ground, nor that he was on his side as opposed to prone.
If you can find any video to support your idea here that would help the defense immensely.
I never saw even a brief moment similar to what you're suggesting, beginning from when Chauvin pinned him.
-- https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/04/chauvin-trial-day-4-wrap-up-another-poor-day-for-prosecution-advantage-defense/
Video footage is below that, I'll let you watch through to see where the defence asked and received that response.
Nice write-up! The driver had said something about being on the left side previously to investigators, but didn't remember seeing that in trial. The person who did the actual work on GF didn't say anything about that. I don't see anything like that on any video. Neither has "the recovery position" been defined in trial yet.
That neither counsel pressed this issue is interesting, as important as it might be to the whole thing. It suggests to me that there's nothing definitive, which might help the defense? (Sewing doubt)