The transcript of a deposition in a workplace retaliation and discrimination lawsuit has revived debunked claims that George Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose, not from police restraint.
Floyd, 46, died in Minneapolis in May 2020 after a white police officer pinned his knee against Floyd’s neck for several minutes. Floyd was Black; his death became a flashpoint in the national discussion over police brutality and inspired widespread racial justice demonstrations. The officer was convicted of second-degree murder.
But now an Oct. 27 Instagram video falsely claims that a former Hennepin County, Minnesota, prosecutor’s August deposition in an unrelated case shows Floyd didn’t die from a homicide.
“So, it actually turns out, … that (officer) Derek Chauvin didn’t kill George Floyd,” the man in the video said. “It was either China or Mexico, because new court documents reveal that George Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose and not from asphyxiation or strangulation.”
The man in the video cited a 2022 lawsuit filed by Amy Sweasy Tamburino, who goes by Sweasy professionally. The case accuses Hennepin County of violating settlement terms in a prior retaliation and discrimination case.
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This claim is unsubstantiated. Fentanyl was found in Floyd’s system, but two autopsies concluded that Floyd died by homicide, not a fentanyl overdose.
At Chauvin’s trial in April 2021, Hennepin County Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker testified that Floyd’s other conditions, including heart disease and drug use, were “contributing causes,” but “not direct causes” of Floyd’s death.
“I would still classify it as a homicide today,” he said.
Where do the claims originate?
The video clip is a truncated segment of an Oct. 24 episode of the “PBD Podcast,” which features actor and comedian Vincent Oshana.
In the episode, Oshana referred to a portion of Sweasy’s Aug. 21 deposition related to her November 2022 discrimination lawsuit.
“During her deposition, she discussed a conversation she had after George Floyd’s death when the Hennepin County Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker spoke about the autopsy,” Oshana said in the episode, before he appeared to read a few quotes and paraphrased statements from the deposition.
Using Minnesota Court Records Online, PolitiFact found the 313-page rough-draft transcript of Sweasy’s deposition and the parts of Sweasy’s testimony that Oshana referred to. That transcript includes neither the words “fentanyl” nor “overdose.”
Sweasy said in her deposition that she called Baker on the Tuesday after Memorial Day — which would have been May 26, 2020, the day after George Floyd was killed — “to ask him if he would perform the autopsy on Mr. Floyd.”
Baker did the autopsy, Sweasy said, and then called her later that Tuesday. This was Sweasy’s recollection of the conversation, according to the deposition transcript:
“He told me that there were no medical findings that showed any injury to the vital structures of Mr. Floyd’s neck. There were no medical indications of asphyxia or strangulation.
“He said to me, ‘Amy, what happens when the actual evidence doesn’t match up with the public narrative that everyone’s already decided on?’ And then he said, ‘This is the kind of case that ends careers.’”
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s preliminary findings, which were cited in the criminal complaint charging Chauvin, echoed the language Sweasy recounted, but did not conclude that Floyd died of an overdose.
“The autopsy revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation,” read the complaint, which said the full autopsy report was pending. “Mr. Floyd had underlying health conditions including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease. The combined efforts of Mr. Floyd being restrained by the police, his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death.”
Carolyn Marinan, a Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office spokesperson, said Baker “cannot comment on statements made by other people in their depositions. He stands by the autopsy report and his televised testimony, both of which are publicly available,” she said.
Expert testimony and autopsy reports rebut overdose claims
Two autopsy reports — Baker’s and one Floyd’s family ordered — concluded Floyd’s death was a homicide. Neither autopsy said a fentanyl overdose caused his death.
The two doctors who conducted a private, independent autopsy for Floyd’s family found that Floyd died of asphyxia, or oxygen deprivation, and ruled his death a homicide.
Baker’s June 2020 autopsy report said Floyd’s death was a homicide, but cited a different cause: “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.”
Floyd “experienced a cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by law enforcement officer(s),” the report said. It listed arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease, fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use as “other significant conditions” in the autopsy findings.
Baker testified during Chauvin’s April 2021 trial that his opinion of what caused Floyd’s death “remains unchanged.”
One court exhibit included notes about a conversation in which Baker told prosecutors that the fentanyl found in Floyd’s system was higher than what would be expected for a chronic pain patient.
“If he were found dead at home alone and no other apparent causes, this could be acceptable to call an OD,” the exhibit read. Then, according to the notes, Baker said: “I am not saying this killed him.”
Baker repeated this during Chauvin’s trial: “Had Mr. Floyd been home, alone in his locked residence with no evidence of trauma, and the only autopsy finding was that fentanyl level, then yes I would certify his death as due to fentanyl toxicity.”
But “interpretation of drug concentrations is very context dependent,” Baker said, before reiterating that he ruled the death a homicide.
During Chauvin’s trial, other experts who testified said Floyd died of asphyxia or a lack of oxygen and rebutted claims that Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose.
In April 2021, a jury found Chauvin guilty of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison.
Our ruling
An Instagram video claimed that “new court documents reveal that George Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose.”
Fentanyl was found in Floyd’s system, but two autopsy reports found that Floyd’s death was a homicide, not a fentanyl overdose. A deposition transcript revealed no new information that would prove Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose.
We rate this claim False.
PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
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