The defense in the trial of Baltimore police officer William G. Porter on Thursday relied on medical and criminal justice experts to try to show that nothing the officer did during Freddie Gray’s chaotic arrest in April was outside the bounds of normal policing or could have cost Gray his life.
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Dr. Vincent Di Maio, a forensic pathologist and former chief medical examiner in San Antonio, said Gray’s injury was “so violent, it’s so high-energy”, that it would have immediately caused Gray to lose control of his body and his diaphragm, which is critical for breathing and speaking.
When asked why he didn’t buckle Gray into a seat belt, Porter said the wagon is “pretty tight”. His testimony was the first direct account of the events surrounding an arrest gone-wrong that became a flashpoint in the national debate over civilian fatalities involving police.
When the prosecution reminded Porter that he initially said he heard yelling, Porter said forcefully: “You can yell “I can’t breathe”.
Longo told jurors that all officers must use their discretion when determining how to interpret a policy or procedure, such as the Baltimore department’s requirement that detainees be buckled in.
On the stand, Porter, described a desperate scene at the Western District police station after Gray was found unconscious with mucus around his mouth and nose. A medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. He’s also black like Freddie Gray. Ammerman said paralysis would have begun in “milliseconds” and Gray would not have been able to breathe or move his arms and legs.
Gray’s neck was broken April 12, when he was in the back of a police transport van that made six stops over a 45-minute ride that covered just a handful of city blocks. He told jurors he didn’t call a medic because when he saw Gray, Gray wasn’t injured.
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).
Novak said that of the arrests during his two-and-a-half-years as a Baltimore police officer, prisoners are seat belted only 10 percent of the time and typically when they’re being transported in patrol cars, not vans.
The officer seemed to suggest one of his colleagues was more responsible for Gray’s care, and he talked at length about his own upbringing in the same area that Gray called home.
During cross-examination, prosecutor Michael Schatzow asked Porter about a discrepancy between his testimony and that of an internal affairs investigator, and Porter said the investigator had misunderstood him.
He joined the force in 2012, he said, because he sensed a growing distrust between the community and police, and he wanted to “give people a different perspective”.
“Freddie Gray wasn’t injured at stop four or five, it’s that simple”, Porter said. Longo, who has announced his plans to retire, testified for the defense as a paid consultant.
But Di Maio acknowledged that “if he was being restrained by a seat belt”, Gray would not have been injured. But he was referring to the very first stop of the van, he said, where Gray asked for an inhaler. Gray responded that he did. He says he did not see Gray when he was first placed in the van or see whether he was seat-belted.
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. Porter wasn’t driving the van.
Di Maio testified that the injury happened later.
Novak’s testimony came in the trial of Officer William Porter, one of six officers charged in Gray’s death.
“Such restraints do not remove an officer’s judgment and common sense”, Longo said. Porter said if Gray had told him he couldn’t breathe at the fourth stop, he would have immediately called for a medic. What did Porter say about that interaction?
Under cross-examination by Schatzow, Longo acknowledged that Porter could have done more for Gray. “I guess he could have done that”.
“Are you sorry Freddie Gray died?” one of his lawyers asked.
When did Gray break neck?
Porter, who was calm and relaxed while answering questions from his attorney, Gary Proctor, said he did not call for medical help because Gray did not tell him why he needed a medic.
Prosecutors pressed Porter on each of those points while he was on the stand.
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“I believe that, unfortunately, with these types of spinal cord injuries, the result is death”, the neurosurgeon said. Defense attorneys have suggested that the van driver was responsible for Grays safety and indicated the officer may have thought Gray was faking an injury to avoid going to jail. “He wouldn’t give me a complaint of injury”.
