His lawyer said the officer suspected Gray was faking an injury to avoid going to jail, when he complained he couldn’t breathe.
Advertisement
The trial of Porter, 26, who is black, is expected to shed light on how Gray suffered a severe spinal injury after his arrest, some of which was captured on bystander video.
Former assistant state’s attorney Warren Alperstein weighed in Wednesday on the opening statements and witness list in the trial of Officer William Porter.
“There was no reason not to put him in a seat belt, unless you simply didn’t care”, Schatzow said. Porter then had the vehicle stop and he went to the back and helped sit Gray on the bench, but did not buckle him in as police training mandates.
Instead of calling for help, prosecutor Michael Schatzow said Mr Porter placed Gray upright without a seatbelt.
Evidence will show that Porter “criminally neglected” his duty to keep Gray safe, the prosecutor said.
Schatzow said Gray’s injury occurred in a section of the spinal cord where the nerves control the chest and the diaphragm.
The jury is made up of three white women, five black women, one white man and three black men.
Two other officers are black and the three additional officers are white. Concerns also have been raised over the impartiality of a trial where media has played a large part in the character assassination of the deceased victim and of protesters who began a city-wide uprising after his death in police custody.
The first of six officers charged in a police custody death that sparked riots in Baltimore went on trial Wednesday as a prosecutor focused on what the patrolman failed to do: Push a button to call for a medic who might have saved Freddie Gray’s life.
Porter pleaded not guilty to the charges of manslaughter, second-degree assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment. Many fear that an acquittal could prompt more protests and unrest or that a conviction could send shock waves through the city’s troubled police department.
Porter, the first of the six Baltimore Police Department officers to be tried for their alleged roles in Gray’s death, listened to a litany of allegations from Schatzow describing Gray’s fateful ride in police transport, including how Gray was never placed in a seatbelt.
The defense attorney told jurors that a man who shared the transport van with Gray from the fifth stop to the final stop at the Western District station house told investigators that Gray was flailing in the van, attempting to injure himself. He was unresponsive on arrival at the station, and was taken to a hospital where he died a week later, on April 19. Judge Barry Williams has said he expects a verdict by December 17.
Jury selection has resumed for a third day in the trial for a Baltimore police officer facing manslaughter and other charges in the death of Freddie Gray.
Marilyn Mosby, who took office in January, announced charges against the officers in May, using language so forceful that defense attorneys argued she should recuse herself from the case. Williams asked jurors who had been called back Wednesday whether they had anything to report that might affect their ability to be fair and impartial. The driver asked him to check on Gray. They said he was able to lift his neck from laying on his stomach and bear weight on two feet, but that he couldn’t do these things after the six van stops.
Advertisement
Porter’s attorneys have previously indicated Porter will likely take the stand.
