(Reuters) – The former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd pleaded not guilty on Thursday to violating a teenager’s civil rights by using a neck restraint similar to the one that killed Floyd, a Black man whose death galvanized a national protest movement against racism.

The case involves a white former officer, Derek Chauvin. He is accused of hitting a 14-year-old Black boy with a flashlight, and then holding a knee to his neck, while he was lying down, handcuffed, and refusing to resist arrest.

Chauvin is currently in federal prison and has been sentenced to 22 years and 1/2 for Floyd’s murder. The video connection was via video from the state prison.

Chauvin said, “Not guilty your honor,” when Hildy Bowbeer asked him for his plea.

Local media reports that the incident with the 14 year-old happened while Chauvin was responding at home to a domestic violence emergency in which the teenager was being accused of assaulting his mother.

Chauvin, 45, along with three other ex-police officers from Minneapolis, who was involved in Floyd’s May 2020 fatal arrest, pleaded not guilty to federal civil rights violation charges.

The video bystander of Chauvin kneeling down on Floyd’s neck during his arrest caused outrage worldwide and set off the biggest protest movement in American history.

Chauvin had been helping Floyd to be detained on suspicion of using fake $20 bills.

Chauvin was a cooperating officer in Floyd’s arrest on suspicion of using a fake $20 bill. A state jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death in June.

The verdict https://www.reuters.com/world/us/jurors-resume-deliberations-derek-chauvin-murder-trial-2021-04-20 was widely seen as a landmark rebuke of the disproportionate use of police force against Black Americans.

In March 2022, the three remaining former officers who are charged with aiding or abetting Floyd’s murder will go to trial for state charges.