Nero’s decision means Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams will hear the case and that there will be a verdict, unlike Porter’s trial.
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Baltimore police officer will be tried by a judge instead of a jury on charges stemming from the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died in police custody, a Maryland judge ruled on Tuesday. While he was being transported in a police van, Gray fell into a coma and died one week later, setting off protests in Baltimore.
“If they’re going to go back and review my actions like that and then charge me even if I had the right, I’m not going to make the arrest”, Baltimore criminal defense attorney Warren Brown said of the possible concerns police would raise if Nero is convicted.
But Officer Nero’s lawyers argue that when Gray ran from police “unprovoked” in a known drug-trafficking area, Officer Nero and the other officers did nothing illegal by chasing and arresting him.
Williams, a judge since 2005 and a former city prosecutor who also spent years the country trying police misconduct cases for the civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department, also ruled on various other motions.
A folding knife that Gray was carrying at the time of his arrest has become a key element in the investigation of his death and Officer Nero’s trial. Late previous year, the judge declared a mistrial in the case against Officer William Porter after a jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision. Nero’s trial on misdemeanor charges of second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office is expected to last five days.
“The reckless endangerment charge is likely to center on the state’s allegation that Officer Nero should have played a larger role in securing Freddie Gray in that wagon”, he added. But he also denied a request from prosecutors to call medical experts to go “step by step” through those injuries.
Williams did grant a motion to prevent reference to or argument about the disputed legal status of the knife officers found on Gray upon his arrest.
The judge also said he would release transcripts from proceedings from each day, but would not release transcripts of any sidebars or bench conferences until the trial is over. The first trial in the case, of Officer William Porter, ended in December with a hung jury.
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“A judge is not going to be emotionally swayed by some of the public sentiment in the same way you may worry with a jury”, Eldridge said. The Sun has previously reported that Williams asked the jury in Porter’s case not to talk to the media.
