The 30-year-old officer faces misdemeanour charges of reckless endangerment and misconduct in office. Six officers including Nero face charges stemming from his arrest, injury and death.
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Gray, 25, died one week later.
Williams said he was satisfied that Nero understood the implications of his choice and that it is hard to reverse that decision. If the jury can’t reach a unanimous verdict, his client could face another trial.
After Porter’s trial ended in December, prosecutors and defense attorneys wrangled for months over whether the officers would have to testify at one another’s trials. Early indications are that he will choose a bench trial.
“This case”, the state said in motions last fall, “involves the risk to a prisoner created by transporting him in a police vehicle resembling a steel cage without a seatbelt – while his hands and legs are physically restrained from movement”. The judge also said attorneys cant talk about Grays troubled past and he put strict limits on how much each side can talk about Grays injuries.
Porter and another officer, Garrett Miller, are expected to be called as prosecution witnesses against Nero. At the time, Baltimore City was under a state of emergency following riots that followed Gray’s funeral.
Judge Williams approved a motion by the defense to prevent prosecutors from mentioning the knife. The lack of such experts at Nero’s trial will set it apart from Porter’s trial.
The state contends that it wasn’t, that the knife police found Gray carrying was legal. Reporters will not be allowed to take pictures or video of the inspection.
Judge Williams ruled on a third-party motion filed by several media outlets that sought to increase access to court documents during the trial. Maryland Court of Appeals heard the oral arguments in five cases related to the arrest and death of Freddie Gray.
Edward Nero was one of three bicycle cops involved in Mr Gray’s initial arrest in April 2015.
Gray’s death in police custody on April 19, from a severe spinal cord injury which many believe was caused by a deliberately “rough ride”, led to an enormous uprising throughout the city, leaving the community squaring off with a heavily militarized police force, as well as the National Guard.
In a pre-trial hearing, Judge Barry Williams granted a request by Nero’s lawyers to waive his right to a jury and have Williams decide his fate in a bench trial.
Prosecutors argue the arrest was not legal.
Williams also ruled that cell phone videos of Gray’s arrest can be admitted into evidence but without the sound.
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And, with all the defendants granted separate trials, it has been possible to see specifically what each officer is charged with. The trial is scheduled to begin Wednesday, though prosecutors have asked to push it back to Thursday.
