Judge drops last charges against officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray. Michelle Dickens, 55, comforted Gray’s mother, a distraught Gloria Darden, who was surrounded by friends and neighbors after Mosby spoke.
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Officers acted reasonably in arresting Gray, and the medical examiner concluded that Gray would not have been injured if he had remained where he was placed – prone on the floor.
A defiant Mosby held a news conference shortly after the announcement, saying there was “a reluctance” and “an obvious bias” among some officers investigating the case.
Marvin Cheatham, 66, president of the Matthew Henson Neighborhood Association, near Gray’s neighborhood, said he thought Mosby had no other choice than to drop the remaining cases.
“I’m anti-police brutality. And I need not remind you that the only loss – and the greatest loss – in all of this was that of Freddie Gray’s life”, Mosby told reporters Wednesday after prosecutors announced they were dropping charges. He added that comments about police from Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby were outrageous.
Porter had been scheduled to be retried in September, and White had been scheduled to be tried in October.
Activist Sharon Black, an organizer for the Peoples Power Assembly, which has been holding rallies and protests in Baltimore, said that she believed the anger will build in the community again because police were not being held accountable. I hope they sue the city and the state attorney’s office.
At a news conference in West Baltimore, near where Gray was arrested, Baltimore State’s Atty.
Angel Selah (left) and local artist PFK Boom gather to remember Freddie Gray and all victims of police violence during a rally outside city hall in Baltimore, Maryland, US, July 27, 2016.
“The state’s attorney charged everybody together because it looks a lot stronger” as a single narrative to explain what happened to Gray, Mann said.
Last week, LDF and a citywide coalition of advocates sent a letter to Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Police Commissioner Kevin Davis urging them to reform the city’s new contract with the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police.
While Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has not yet addressed the news and her Republican counterpart, Donald Trump, has called on Mosby to “prosecute herself”, Green Party nominee Dr. Jill Stein expressed solidarity with those pursuing justice for Gray. “It gets it right”, he said. He reiterated the defense argument in all of the cases that the officers were justified in their actions.
At the trial for Lt. Brian Rice, the judge prevented prosecutors from using Rice’s training records as evidence. While it was initially unclear how he sustained his injuries, several eyewitnesses said that the officers involved used unnecessary force against Gray during the arrest, although this was denied by them. After the state failed to present any evidence to support that theory, prosecutors all but abandoned the notion.
In some cases, charges depended on prosecutors arguing that there was no probable cause to arrest Gray in the first place – an unusual strategy, as NPR’s Jennifer Ludden has reported.
“I have decided not to proceed on the case against Officer Garrett Miller, Sgt. Alicia White or relitigate the case against William Porter”, Mosby said. He was handcuffed and shackled when he was hurt.
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In many ways, the lack of convictions in the Baltimore cases is not surprising. At the time, the tense city was still under a curfew. She posed for magazine photos, sat for TV interviews and appeared onstage at a Prince concert held in Gray’s honor.
