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Fact check: Teenaged George Floyd did not appear on the Judge Judy show

The claim: An old video clip shows a teenaged George Floyd appearing on the Judge Judy show

In the wake of George Floyd's death, many across the country have been protesting against police brutality in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. And while Floyd's death, among those of many other Black men and women, has brought the conversation about racial injustice and inequity to the national forefront, it has also led some on social media to make insinuations about Floyd's past.

A recent video shared on Facebook claims a teenaged Floyd appeared on the reality court show "Judge Judy." The nearly 4-minute video shows a young Black man accused of carjacking, refusing to pay the damages and showing no remorse for his actions. And older man standing beside the younger one is first addressed as "Mr. Floyd" by Judy Sheindlin, the on-screen judge, and later the younger man is captioned as "George Floyd IV" as the video progresses.

"George Floyd on Judge Judy at age 16," a Facebook user wrote in a post accompanying the video. "You will be astounded by this video."

While many in the comments were quick to point out the unlikelihood the young man was a teenaged Floyd, one commentator sarcastically wrote "An upstanding citizen" echoing a sentiment shared by some, like conservative commentator Candace Owen, that Floyd has been unworthy of national attention due to his past arrests for drugs, theft and aggravated assault.

USA TODAY is awaiting comment from the poster. While that post is no longer available on Facebook, other users have also shared the video, including here and here.

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Not the same George Floyd

While a George Floyd did appear on the Judge Judy show in an episode confirmed to have aired in 2010 by CBS, the 17-year-old who appears in the video would be 27 years old today; George Floyd was 46 when he died on May 25.

And while they do share similar names, their full names are different. The young man in the video is captioned as George Floyd IV, whereas the man who died in Minneapolis police custody was George Perry Floyd Jr.

Cards and flowers accumulate at a makeshift memorial for George Floyd near the spot where he died while in police custody in Minneapolis.
Cards and flowers accumulate at a makeshift memorial for George Floyd near the spot where he died while in police custody in Minneapolis.

The men also look nothing alike. Pictures of Floyd in high school, published by the Los Angeles and New York Times show the dissimilarity.

The young man in the video was also featured in an NBC Chicago story dating back to December 2009, which confirmed the alleged carjacking, additional charges of "aggravated battery to a peace officer and aggravated fleeing" and the young man's age. The teen was listed as a resident of a South Chicago address.

Floyd was born in North Carolina but moved to Houston, Texas, at age two with his mother, a single parent. He would remain in Houston, living in the city's historically Black neighborhood The Third Ward, leaving briefly for two years while attending South Florida Community College followed by one year at Texas A&M University in Kingsville, Texas. Between 1997 and 2005, Floyd was arrested multiple times on drug and theft charges, spending many months in jail. In 2007, he was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon and in 2009 was sentenced to five years in prison. Floyd was paroled in January 2013 and in 2014, left Houston to start a new life in Minneapolis, where he died. He is not known to have lived in or traveled to Chicago.

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Our ruling: False

We rate the claim that a teenaged George Floyd appeared in an episode of the Judge Judy show FALSE because it was not supported by our research. While both men share similar names, their full names are different. The young man in the video would be 27 today, whereas George Floyd was 46 when he died in Minneapolis police custody in May. The men do not look alike, and the younger man's arrest is also confirmed in an NBC Chicago story dating to December 2009. Floyd grew up and spent most of his adult life in Houston, Texas. He spent five years in jail for aggravated robbery, which coincides with the airing of the Judge Judy episode. He was released from jail in 2013 and moved to Minneapolis in 2014 where he would later die. He is not known to have lived in or traveled to Chicago.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Teenaged George Floyd did not appear on Judge Judy show