But defense attorneys offered a starkly different account, insisting that Gray never said he couldn’t breathe in Porter’s presence, that the officer tried to help Gray sit up inside the van and that he twice asked Gray if he needed a medic.
Advertisement
The first of six Baltimore police officers charged in the death of a 25-year-old black man who suffered a spinal injury went on trial Wednesday, seven months after the city erupted in riots over the case. He characterized Porter as a man born and raised in West Baltimore who became a police officer “not to swing a big stick, but to help people”.
Porter was “on trial for what he did, and more important what he didn’t do”, Schatzow added in his 45-minute opening speech to the jurors.
Gray’s neck was broken between the second and fourth stops, which made his breathing increasingly hard, said the prosecutor.
He said the evidence will show that Porter “criminally neglected” his duty to keep Gray safe.
And the defense intends to call Donta Allen, another detainee who was in the van at the same time as Gray.
“Officer Porter didn’t even know there was a rule”, Proctor told the jury: “You can’t hold him accountable for what nobody did”.
Instead of calling a medic, prosecutors say Porter picked Gray up from the floor and placed him in an upright position on the bench, and did not secure him in a seatbelt.
Schatzow framed the officer’s role not as police brutality but as criminal negligence highlighting how Porter dismissed several opportunities to help Gray.
He died of a severed spinal cord, an injury he suffered while in police custody. Gray’s stepfather was also present.
In an interview before the trial started, Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said he looks forward to the outcome of the federal probe and is working to reform the department.
“Both arguments go to the key issue in the case”, said University of Baltimore law professor David Jaros, who watched opening statements in the case on Wednesday. The alternate jury pool is made up of three black men and one white man.
Alperstein worked under former state’s attorney Patricia Jessamy.
Officer Porter has been charged with second-degree assault and manslaughter after Freddie Gray died in police custody in April and his defense attorney took a predictable path as he mapped out the scenario, painting Porter as a well-intentioned fellow and Gray as a insane guy well known to local cops.
A jury was seated in the case earlier Wednesday following a selection process that was relatively brisk, given defense assertions in pretrial proceedings that it would be impossible to seat an impartial panel.
Gray’s death in April triggered rioting, arson and protests in the largely black city and fuelled a national debate over police tactics and relations with minorities. The driver asked him to check on Gray. Legal experts claim an acquittal could set the tone for the other five trials. Only four said they did.
Police Department orders have specified since 1997 that prisoners must be seat-belted, unless doing so would put an officer in danger, Schatzow told the jury.
Porter is accused of failing to render aid to Gray, who was handcuffed and shackled but not buckled into a seatbelt in the back of a police transport van.
Advertisement
Porter will likely take the stand in his own defense.
