An affidavit filed in U.S. District Court by a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent states that Owens sold an informant a rifle Monday, the same day Officer Edward Nero was acquitted in the arrest of a black man who died after being injured in police custody.
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The suit also reads that Mosby and Cogen “breached their duty to Plaintiffs by bringing unsupported criminal charges then publicly publishing same”, and that Mosby’s statements were made “for the goal of quelling the riots rather than prosecuting police officers who had committed crimes”. Gray died April 19, 2015, and his death was immediately characterized as the murder of another innocent black man by police.
The judge said his decision was influenced by a slew of witnesses who testified that Nero wasn’t trained properly, and didn’t understand the rules that applied to him.
“It was based on the way the case was charged, unfortunately, the case just wasn’t there”, said Sheryl Wood of The Wood Law Firm, who has been reporting on the case of the six officers charged in Gray’s death from the time the indictments were pursued by Mosby. So reading into what the judge said in this ruling in the officer Nero case. Mosby announced charges against six Baltimore officers. Porter, who is Black, continues to face the same charges as Nero with an additional charge of involuntary manslaughter.
Mosby, noticeably absent from the hearing, pushed hard for charges of reckless endangerment, two counts of misconduct in office and a controversial second-degree assault charge that alleged Nero failed to follow legal protocol before placing Gray in handcuffs.
A senior NYPD source said he was stunned to hear Bratton going after Mosby over her prosecution.
Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the Baltimore chapter of the NAACP, said officers’ failure to see that Gray was buckled in “speaks to a lack of training”.
Porter, whose first trial in December ended in a hung jury, is scheduled to be tried again starting September 6.
Samuel Cogan. Mosby conducted an investigation into Gray’s death independent of police with the help of Cogan.
Nero, 30, waived his right to a jury trial, choosing instead to let Circuit Judge Barry Williams decide his fate.
And on Monday, Judge Williams acquitted Officer Edward Nero in front of a packed courtroom.
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Even assuming police lacked probable cause to justify Gray’s arrest, that would constitute a mistake that would be remedied by quashing the arrest and dismissing any charges resulting from the arrest, not filing criminal charges against the arresting officers. Prosecutors allege that they ignored Gray’s injuries and failed to secure him in a seat belt. “They usually investigate more thoroughly, and so I think that the loss of some of these cases may be in fact the fact that it was not investigated thoroughly”.
