Williams said that was a moot point considering the outcome of the Court of Special Appeals ruling on Porter’s testimony.
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The trial of the Baltimore police officer who drove the van in which Freddie Gray was mortally wounded was postponed by the Maryland appeals court just as jury selection was ready to get underway Monday. Goodson, whose trial is set to begin Monday, is facing murder charges, for his role as driver in the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray.
The Maryland Court of Special Appeals on Friday issued a stay on a Baltimore city judge’s order compelling Porter to testify.
Goodson was with Freddie Gray for every second of his 45-minute trip from the site of his arrest to the Western District police station, where Gray arrived critically injured and unresponsive. He died days later.
Goodson is also charged with manslaughter, second degree assault, manslaughter auto or boat, criminally negligent manslaughter, misconduct in office, and reckless endangerment.
Carrie Williams, arguing for the state, wrote that “the state is precluded from using Porter’s immunized testimony to prove any charge of perjury that allegedly occurred prior to Porter’s testimony in Goodson’s trial”.
New dates for a Goodson trial are dependent upon the resolution of Porter’s appeal. Porter’s case ended with a hung jury last month, and he is scheduled for retrial in June.
Most expected an unconvicted Porter couldn’t be forced to testify against his fellow officers since he could still invoke the Fifth Amendment.
Gray’s death in April exposed the deep divide between the public and the police in Baltimore, and became a national symbol of the Black Lives Matter movement. Judge Williams rejected the defense attorney’s motions to move the trial to another jurisdiction and remove Baltimore’s State Attorney Marilyn Mosby from the case, but granted a motion to give the six officers separate and consecutive trials. A family attorney says Gray’s spine was “80 percent severed at his neck” from fatal injuries in police custody in April.
But Officer Porter testified during his trial that he told the driver of the van, Officer Goodson, to take Gray to the hospital. Any detail can help the prosecution know what question to ask or what facts to gather to present a case. The order did not preclude the Goodson’s trial from moving forward, but only meant that Porter could not testify – at least for the moment.
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Alperstein said a decision would affect not only Goodson’s trial but also the trial of Sgt. Alicia White, scheduled for February 8.
