The latest on the trial of a Baltimore police officer who is charged with manslaughter in the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who was injured in the back of a police transport van (all times local).
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Wood added he has never seen colleagues seat belt prisoners, despite it being department policy. He suffered a spinal injury, but Porter has testified that he saw no sign of this.
Porter is on trial facing manslaughter, assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment charges stemming from Gray’s death on April 19, a week after he was injured in the transport wagon.
When Porter checked on Gray, during the van’s fourth stop, the man was in the same position.
Three character witnesses testifying in the manslaughter trial of Baltimore police officer William Porter say he is an honest, truthful and peaceful man.
WARREN ALPERSTEIN: Officer Porter’s testimony came across very well for the defense.
On Thursday, the second day of defense testimony, police officers told jurors that although the policy says all detainees should be buckled into seat belts, officers working the streets of Baltimore rarely adhere to those rules.
Earlier Friday, Capt. Justin Reynolds, testifying as an expert in police training and policies, said Porter did nothing wrong on the day Gray was hurt. He also said Gray could use his legs and support his own weight.
“I don’t think it was a survivable injury”, he said. He testified Thursday that he saw Gray in the back of the van with his head and back up.
City Police Chief Tim Longo was asked by a defense attorney whether Porter could have done more for Gray before he died last April.
What Porter did was “objectively reasonable”, he said. While Porter said he never belted suspects, the officer also previously said he didn’t strap Gray in because his gun would have been too close to the suspect.
Longo testified those, too, were reasonable decisions because Gray did not exhibit any injuries and because protocol dictates that the van’s driver, not Porter, should have been held accountable for the prisoner’s safety.
Instead, Gray was taken to a police station, where he arrived unconscious and with a broken neck.
Washington, D.C., neurosurgeon Matthew Ammerman was an expert witness Thursday at Officer William Porter’s trial. Gray was given a ride in a van. Ammerman said Gray’s injuries were so severe he likely wouldn’t have survived even with immediate medical attention.
Medical witnesses disagreed about where along the route the injury occurred, and whether it would have instantly rendered Gray unable to speak. One banner read, “Jobs and Education, Not Police Terror” and “Black Lives Matter”.
The defense could wrap up its case today.
Porter testified he spoke to Gray at two of the stops made by a van that carried Gray in handcuffs and shackles.
Di Maio also said that he believed Gray’s death should’ve been deemed accidental, despite Dr. Carol Allan, the assistant state medical examiner, testifying Monday that she classified Gray’s death as a homicide because of the delay in getting him medical attention.
Under cross examination, Wood said he had learned from veteran officers that prisoners needed to wear seat belts. Officer Porter testified that of 150 arrests he’s taken part in, none of the detainees have been seat belted. In the document, Gray told a detective he couldn’t sit up straight in a chair because, “I hurt my back”.
“It is the responsibility of the wagon driver to get the prisoner from point A to point B”, he told the jury.
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