Three Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights sat by and “chose to do nothing” as Floyd pleaded for air and then went silent, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday at the start of closing arguments in their trial.Prosecutor Manda Sertich singled out each former officer — Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane — as the state wrapped up its monthlong case.All three are charged with depriving Floyd of his right to medical care as Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes. Lane held the 46-year-old Black man’s feet, Kueng knelt on his back and Thao held back bystanders.Kueng and Thao are also charged with failing to intervene to stop Chauvin during the May 25, 2020, killing that triggered protests worldwide and a reexamination of racism and policing.“Make no mistake, this is a crime.” Sertich told jurors.Chauvin pleaded guilty in the federal case in December, months after he was convicted of state murder and manslaughter charges.Closing arguments in the current trial were expected to take most of Tuesday before the case goes to the jury, which appears to be mostly white.The trial was wrapping up just as another major civil rights trial in Georgia resulted in the conviction of three white men on hate crimes charges in the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was chased and shot in February 2020.In the Minnesota trial, prosecutors have argued that the officers violated their training by not rolling Floyd onto his side or giving him CPR. They said at the start of the trial that the officers stood by as Chauvin slowly killed Floyd in front of them.They presented weeks of testimony and evidence about the officers’ training, arguing that they knew they had a duty to intervene to stop Chauvin and render medical aid. Prosecutors have argued that Floyd’s condition was so serious that even bystanders without basic medical training could see he needed help.Defense attorneys argued that the Minneapolis Police Department’s training was inadequate. They also attacked a police culture that they said teaches officers to defer to their seniors, saying that Chauvin called all the shots at the scene. Lane and Kueng, who were both rookies, argued that they deferred to Chauvin.Lane testified that he asked twice if Floyd should be rolled over but was rebuffed, and that he held his position because an ambulance was on the way.Kueng testified that Chauvin was his former training officer and that he had considerable sway over his career. He said he trusted Chauvin’s advice.Thao testified that he was watching the bystanders and he trusted that the officers behind him were caring for Floyd.At the start of the monthlong trial, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson selected 18 jurors, including six alternates. Fifteen people now remain — 12 who will deliberate and three alternates. The court did not release demographic information, but the jury appeared largely white, with one woman who appeared to be of Asian descent, among the 12 expected to deliberate.Lane, who is white, Kueng, who is Black, and Thao, who is Hmong American, also face a separate trial in June on state charges alleging that they aided and abetted murder and manslaughter.

The fate of Ghislaine Maxwell is now squarely in the hands of a jury.The jury received the case in Maxwell's sex-trafficking trial just before 5 p.m. Monday, after prosecutors and Maxwell's defense attorneys delivered closing arguments.Maxwell's trial speeded to a finish with a prosecutor labeling her a dangerous and sophisticated predator who recruited and groomed teenage girls to be sexually abused by financier Jeffrey Epstein while a defense attorney told jurors during closing arguments that Maxwell is an "innocent woman."Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Moe said Epstein could not have preyed on teenage girls for more than a decade without the help of the British socialite, who she described as the "lady of the house" as Epstein abused girls at a New York mansion, a Florida estate and a New Mexico ranch."Ghislaine Maxwell was dangerous," Moe told jurors, saying Maxwell accepted over $30 million from Epstein over the years. "Maxwell and Epstein committed horrifying crimes."Defense lawyer Laura Menninger said prosecutors had failed to prove any charges beyond a reasonable doubt."Ghislaine Maxwell is an innocent woman, wrongfully accused of crimes she did not commit," Menninger said.That portrayal conflicted with Moe's depiction of Maxwell as a "sophisticated predator who knew exactly what she was doing. She ran the same playbook again and again and again.""She manipulated her victims and groomed them. She caused deep and lasting harm to young girls. It is time to hold her accountable," Moe said.The summations came at the start of the fourth week of a trial that was originally projected to last six weeks. With a coronavirus outbreak in New York worsening by the day and a holiday weekend ahead, Judge Alison J. Nathan urged lawyers to keep their closings tight so the jury could begin deliberating as early as Monday.Menninger's closing revisited a theme defense attorneys pressed at the trial's start: that Maxwell was made a scapegoat after Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan federal jail cell in August 2019 as he awaited a sex trafficking trial."Ghislaine Maxwell is not Jeffrey Epstein," Menninger said.Maxwell, 59, was supported in court by four siblings who sat next to one another in the first row of spectators.Maxwell has been jailed without bail since her arrest in July 2020. The judge has denied her bail repeatedly, despite her lawyer's arguments that the pledge of her $22.5 million estate and a willingness to be watched 24 hours a day by armed guards would guarantee her appearance in court.The closings came after two dozen prosecution witnesses testified, including four women who say they were abused by Epstein with the help of Maxwell when they were teenagers.Moe faced the jury as Maxwell, in a white sweater, sat behind her at the defense table and wrote notes, occasionally turning the pages of a notebook. Later, Maxwell turned in her chair toward the jury, sometimes pulling down her black mask to sip from a water bottle.The prosecutor told jurors that Maxwell was a "posh, smiling age-appropriate woman" who provided cover for Epstein's "creepy" behavior.She asked them to ignore the testimony of a psychology professor who testified for the defense, saying the testimony that memories can fade over time and be influenced by what people hear, see or read was a "total distraction.""These women know what happened to their own bodies," she said. "Your common sense tells you that being molested is something you never forget, ever."But Menninger defended the testimony of the memory expert, citing instances in which Maxwell's accusers never mentioned the defendant's name when they first spoke of the abuse they endured from Epstein.She said the testimony from accusers was manipulated by civil lawyers representing them as they pursued millions of dollars in payouts from a special fund set up after Epstein's suicide to compensate his victims.Menninger said the women suddenly "recovered memories that Ghislaine was there."

Prosecutors inched closer on Friday to concluding their case at the R. Kelly sex-trafficking trial, calling two final witnesses to try to further cement allegations he groomed young victims for unwanted sex in episodes dating to the 1990s.One witness was a former assistant for the R&B singer who echoed testimony of other ex-employees describing his mercurial behavior and the control he exerted on everyone around him.The other was an expert witness on abusive relationships who is to return to the witness stand for cross-examination on Monday before the government rests.The expert, psychologist Dawn Hughes, testified about studies showing that many abusers systematically isolate, demean, subjugate and spy on their victims as means of control — all tactics allegedly used by Kelly. Generally speaking, it isn't unusual for powerful people like Kelly to be surrounded by underlings who "knew about it and didn't do anything,” Hughes said.Prosecutors played recordings for the jury Wednesday they say back up allegations the R&B singer abused women and girls.In court papers, prosecutors have described tapes of a profane Kelly threatening violence against victims during recorded rants in 2008.Jurors listened to the recording using headphones. There was no audio for the press and public — already restricted by the judge to an overflow courtroom as a coronavirus precaution — making it impossible to know exactly what the panel was seeing or hearing, or how it was reacting to it.A video feed to the overflow courtroom showed Kelly not wearing the headphones that would have allowed him to listen.The defense was expected to begin putting on its case later Monday, with closing arguments possible before the end of the week at a New York City trial that began on Aug. 18.The 54-year-old defendant, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, has pleaded not guilty to racketeering charges accusing him of running a Chicago-based enterprise of managers, bodyguards and other employees who helped him recruit and transport his victims. That alleged travel violated the Mann Act, which makes it illegal to transport anyone across state lines for the purpose of sexual exploitation.The Grammy-winning artist has vehemently denied the charges, claiming that the women were groupies who wanted to take advantage of his fame and fortune until the #MeToo movement turned them against him.