DEREK CHAUVIN was likely never going to walk out of the courthouse a free man.

That's because Justice Department officials devised an insurance plan on the day ex-Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin's murder trial culminated: if the 12-member jury returned a not guilty on April 20 on the three murder and manslaughter counts, they would have swooped in and file police brutality charges, according to a Minneapolis Star-Tribune report.

Fearing widespread panic if Chauvin were to beat the state's criminal charges or the case abruptly ended in a mistrial, the back-office plan was hatched to bring forward a federal case, the publication detailed, citing sources who were privy to the particulars.

Federal prosecutors were prepared to file a criminal complaint and instantly rearrest Chauvin on police brutality violations.

The next step would have been to gather a grand jury to secure an indictment, the sources told the Star-Tribune.

But the failsafe measures proved to be unnecessary.

Just under 11 hours of deliberation, the jury found Chauvin guilty on all three murder and manslaughter counts.

And he was ushered out of the courtroom, cuffed behind his back to the city’s most secure lockup, dodging any potential unrest that could have spread nationwide as emotions were at a tinderbox level to bring a potential sequel to last summer's mix of unrelenting protest and riots.

Now that a guilty verdict has been secured, Chauvin is slated to be sentenced on June 25 – nine days later than originally scheduled.

Federal prosecutors are reportedly moving forward to present evidence to a grand jury to indict the now-convicted Chauvin and his three fellow ex-police officers – J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao – accused of taking part in ending George Floyd’s life and charge them with civil rights violations.

Kueng, Lane and Thao all would face charges related to Floyd murder.

But Chauvin is looking at another case beyond Floyd, where he was found guilty for pinning his knee to the 46-year-old man’s neck on May 25, 2020 for 9 ½ minutes.

Chauvin allegedly used “unreasonable force” to arrest a 14-year-old boy in 2017.

The boy was allegedly struck twice by Chauvin’s flashlight and then the cop is accused of holding the boy's throat, before he "applied a neck restraint, causing the child to lose consciousness and go to the ground", according to court papers.

The cop then allegedly knelt on him for 17 minutes.

“[Chauvin] placed his knee on the child's neck with so much force that the child began to cry out in pain and tell Chauvin he could not breathe,” the papers say.

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