Pre-trial hearings begin Tuesday in the trial of Baltimore police Lt. Brian Rice, the highest ranking officer charged in connection with the death of Freddie Gray.
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Rice, who is white, is charged with involuntary manslaughter, assault, reckless endangerment and two counts of official misconduct.
Gray’s neck was broken after officers left him handcuffed and shackled but unrestrained by a seat belt inside a metal transport compartment in Goodson’s van.
Williams on Tuesday also denied a defense motion to dismiss the case altogether.
Rice is one of five officers suing Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby and Baltimore City Sheriff Major Sam Cogen for wrongful arrest and prosecution.
Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams in his decisions said he chose to acquit the officers because the state produced no evidence, facts or viable witnesses to support their claims that the officers were criminally reckless and negligent when they failed to buckle Gray into a seat belt or call for a medic after Gray indicated that he wanted to go to a hospital. Yet Goodson was also acquitted of all charges, including the most serious charge levied against any of the officers, second-degree depraved heart murder.
In asking for the indictment to be dismissed, the defense cited notes from the lead police investigator in the case, which they said raised questions about the grand jury process.
The prosecution suffered a setback at the hearing on Tuesday when the judge ruled that they had committed another discovery violation and that any evidence of Lt. Rice’s training since becoming a police officer could not be presented at trial.
From the outset the Gray case has been fraught with emotion, of great let-down for Gray’s family and their legion of supporters and great relief for the officers who’ve been cleared in his death. The next two officers let Williams alone decide their fates, and he acquitted both. It is unclear if Lt. Rice’s higher rank will be the difference between an acquittal and a guilty verdict.
The City of Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office did not immediately reply to Complex’s request for comment.
“The reality we have here – you, your office, whoever, didn’t do what you’re supposed to”, Williams told the prosecution.
Their ranking officer was Rice, a 17-year Baltimore Police veteran before Gray’s death, now suspended without pay. The officers have said that while resisting arrest, Gray was so violent that they could not restrain him without risking officer safety and that the ride to the police station was not a “rough ride”.
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His death a week after being arrested triggered rioting in which almost 400 buildings were damaged or destroyed in the majority black city of 620,000 people. He is free on $350,000 bail.
