The trial for an officer facing charges stemming from the arrest and death of Freddie Gray after being injured in a police van continues with defense witness testimony.
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Porter’s manslaughter trial ended in a hung jury in December. He faces assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment charges.
During Nero’s trial Monday, Officer Garrett Miller testified that he detained Gray himself. Schatzow asked. Miller said he did not, although he did say that by the second stop, Gray was “banging around” in the back of the van, making it visibly shake. He said procedures demonstrated by the prosecution last week applied to cruisers not vans, and that based on his knowledge of Nero’s actions at Gray’s arrest and the van’s next stop, those actions were reasonable.
Prosecutors have called an officer facing charges in the arrest and subsequent death of Freddie Gray to testify at his colleague’s trial.
McGowan said the injury could have happened in one of two ways: Gray could have slid forward on the floor and slammed his head into the front of the van, or he could have stood up, lost his balance, and fallen head first into the van.
Gray, 25, died April 19, 2015 – a week after his arrest – from spinal injuries that prosecutors say he suffered in the van. Prosecutors rested their case against Nero after calling more than a dozen witnesses.
The department’s longstanding seat belt policy, which gave officers discretion as to when to belt prisoners in their custody, was updated just days before Gray’s arrest to remove the discretionary language from the general order.
On Tuesday, the defense called to the stand three officers involved in training Nero.
Prosecutor Michael Schatzow told the court that Nero shackled Gray’s legs and, with the help of another officer, loaded Gray into the van.
Marc Zayon, Nero’s attorney, has sought to paint a different picture – portraying Nero as a young officer with little training who only played a secondary role in Gray’s arrest.
On Tuesday, defense attorneys sought to convince Judge Barry G. Williams that Nero acted as any officer would under the circumstances.
Miller said in court Monday that he alone arrested Gray.
Gray died April 19 of a year ago, a week after his neck was broken in the back of a police transport van while he was handcuffed and secured in leg irons, but not buckled into a seat belt.
Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, left, arrives at Maryland Court of Appeals on Thursday, March 3, 2016, in Annapolis, for oral arguments in five cases related to the arrest and death of Freddie Gray.
Nero told investigators that he touched Gray only twice: once when he helped the man, who’d already been handcuffed, sit up and look for an inhaler.
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Nero opted for a bench trial, so the judge will ultimately decide on his guilt or innocence. Williams denied the request. He testified that the responsibility for securing Gray in the van lay with the driver, officer Caesar Goodson Jr.
