She took the stand Thursday for Caesar Goodson, the Baltimore police officer who is accused of causing Gray’s injury while driving the 25-year-old to the police station.
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Tensions between police and prosecutors surfaced Thursday in the trial of a Baltimore officer charged with murdering a prisoner, as a prosecutor said he tried to have the lead detective removed from the case past year because he believed she was “sabotaging the investigation” by holding back information.
Donta Allen, who rode in the van with Gray on April 12, 2015, closed out Thursday’s testimony, clad in handcuffs and leg chains while slouching in the witness stand.
“I don’t know nothing”, Allen, who is imprisoned for a probation violation, told defence lawyer Matthew Fraling. He told police at the time that he heard Gray banging his head while riding in the van.
Malone was in court for much of the day Thursday watching the proceedings.
The defense has argued that Gray was violent and that is the reason Goodson did not put him in a seat belt. Under questioning by prosecutors, the recollections came more freely. Schatzow disclosed the detail during his cross-examination about Detective Dawnyell Taylor’s notes on her meetings with an assistant medical examiner in April 2015 about Gray’s cause of death.
Taylor said she was never removed, but agreed to stop having communications with the State’s Attorney’s Office.
There was an extended discussion of why she hadn’t turned over to the prosecution her notes that referenced Allan’s comments about Gray’s death being an accident. “I had an open mind, and after reading the medical records and performing the autopsy, that’s when I said, this is not an accident”, Allan testified last week. “The word “accident” never crossed my lips”. He testified that he met twice with Allan and that they discussed Gray’s manner of death.
Gray’s death triggered rioting and protests and stoked a debate on police treatment of minorities. He also suggested Taylor didn’t like him because he had asked her to be removed from the investigation because he felt she was “sabotaging” it.
Schatzow also noted there was friction between Taylor and prosecutor Bledsoe during the investigation, when Bledsoe sought information from the detective.
University of Baltimore Law Professor David Jarros said Allan’s credibility will be undermined by Taylor’s testimony if the judge believes it. After prosecutor Michael Schatzow told Taylor that he thought she had attempted to “sabotage” the case and that prosecutor Janice Bledsoe had questioned her “integrity”, Taylor responded that she questioned Bledsoe’s integrity.
On cross examination, Schatzow immediately asked Taylor about her falling out with Bledsoe during the investigation.
Officer Caesar Goodson has arrived at Courthouse East for the seventh day of his second degree murder trial.
Goodson is charged with second-degree “depraved heart” murder. He also is charged with manslaughter, assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment charges. Prosecutors have yet to win a conviction.
Goodson, 46, is the third officer to go on trial. He is among six officers who were charged in the Gray case; last month, one of those officers was acquitted.
Bauer said while she wrote the lesson plan, she could not recall teaching the course on September 8, 2013, when prosecutors say Officer Goodson took the class.
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Goodson opted to have his case heard by a judge rather than a jury.
