Officer Caesar Goodson, left, one of six Baltimore city police officers charged in connection to the death of Freddie Gray, arrives at a courthouse before receiving a verdict in his trial in Baltimore, Thursday, June 23, 2016.
Advertisement
A Maryland judge will issue his verdict on Thursday in the closely watched murder trial of a Baltimore police officer for the death of black detainee Freddie Gray, an incident that triggered rioting and protests. Goodson faced the most serious charges for his role in Gray’s death, including second-degree assault, involuntary manslaughter, manslaughter by vehicles (gross negligence), manslaughter by vehicle (criminal negligence), reckless endangerment and misconduct in office.
Goodson drove the van in which Gray rode before he died.
A top deputy in the sheriff’s office who was assigned to case said in an affidavit this week that he had “no involvement in the investigation whatsoever”, and prosecutors have presented little evidence beyond what police found. Many officers assigned to the task force expressed surprise when Mosby announced an aggressive slate of charges against the officers just a day after they handed over their findings, wondering what she had found that they hadn’t.
You’ll recall that in 2015 Freddie Gray was picked up by Baltimore police for resisting arrest but between the street corner where he was picked up and his arrival at the police station he had somehow suffered a broken neck in the back of the paddy wagon transporting him.
Gray’s death set off Baltimore’s worst protests and riots in decades and stoked a debate on what is known as the USA police brutality against people of color, most particularly African-Americans.
The failure of prosecutors to win convictions against Officers William Porter – whose trial ended in a hung jury – and Edward Nero and Goodson has cast doubt on their ability to get a different result against Rice next month. Her group, which advocates for the working and impoverished, is proposing removal of police from certain communities in Baltimore. Baltimore did agree to pay Gray’s family a $6.4 million civil judgment. Once the trial began, however, policemen appeared to have the upper hand.
Several dozen protesters gathered outside the courthouse, chanting “Justice for Freddie Gray”.
Warren Brown, a Baltimore attorney who observed much of the trial, said the state’s case amounted to “this was a tragedy and so therefore someone should be held responsible, but that’s just not the way it works”.
Cohen called Williams a “balanced, thoughtful” judge who clearly was frustrated by the prosecution’s lack of evidence. But it is the prosecutors who will determine the direction and the tone of the cases going forward.
Goodson, who is black, is the third officer to stand trial in the case.
Prosecutors had slim evidence that Goodson meant to harm Gray, in part because no witnesses or cameras could show what happened inside the van, and Goodson wouldn’t talk to investigators.
“Even when a police officer prevails after a very public trial, the officers often do not have a great sense of victory, Andrew Alperstein, who has represented Baltimore cops in similar high profile cases told me”.
While Baltimore officers’ general orders require them to place seat belts on arrestees, Williams said, officers can choose not to if they believe their own safety would be endangered.
He died a week later from a spinal injury.
Advertisement
The judge said the state had failed to show that Mr Goodson was aware he had injured Mr Gray or that he needed medical care. Williams said there was a point, during the vans fourth stop, when Goodson should have reassessed whether it was possible to put a seat belt on Gray. The prosecutor argued that Goodson’s actions, or failure to act, amount to murder because he had a duty to both seatbelt Gray and to get medical attention for the 25-year-old when he asked for a medic. The other three officers, one black and two white, are scheduled to face trials later this year.
