Lane after sentencing: "I gotta register as a predatory offender? What the f*** is that?"
MINNEAPOLIS -- A former Minneapolis police officer who pleaded guilty to a state charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd was sentenced Wednesday to three years.
Thomas Lane pleaded guilty back in May. Judge Peter Cahill sentenced Lane to 36 months Wednesday morning. But there was one piece of information that was caught on the video feed that appeared to take all parties by surprise, and appears to have been uttered in error.
At the end of Thomas Lane's sentencing, the ex-officer could be heard chastising his attorney, Earl Gray, over a requirement to register as a predatory offender.
"I gotta register as a predatory offender? What the f*** is that?" Lane said.
"I don't know. I'll look into it," Gray said. "I don't understand that either."
"That's what Chauvin has to do, so if I have a minimal role why the f*** do I gotta do that? Jesus Christ," Lane said.
"I'll look it up. I don't know," Gray said. Shortly after, the court notified Lane and Gray that the virtual hearing was still live.
"I wish I would have known that two minutes ago," Lane said.
However, the Minnesota Attorney General's Office's John Stiles said that Lane will not have to register as a predatory offender.
Wednesday's sentencing hearing was held remotely. Lane appeared via video from the Federal Correctional Institution Englewood, the low-security federal prison camp in Littleton, Colorado. The entire sentencing took around eight minutes.
The other officers with Lane that day -- J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao -- are scheduled to go on trial next month in their state case. Derek Chauvin is serving more than 20 years for the murder of George Floyd and for violating his civil rights.
