All six are charged with misconduct, and are now free on bail.
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A judge is holding a hearing on the admissibility of statements made to investigators by Baltimore police officers charged in connection withFreddie Gray’s death.
Police officials in a small, predominantly black Texas college town are defending the decision to use a stun gun on a City Council member when he intervened as officers questioned his friends outside his apartment.
The only one to decline to give a statement, van driver Officer Caesar Goodson, faces the most serious charge: second-degree depraved-heart murder.
White is one of six officers charged in Gray’s death in April.
Like all defendants, officers have the right to remain silent in response to police questioning on matters in which they are involved.
Five of the six officers have asked to have their statements to investigators thrown out because they allegedly were improperly obtained. In court Tuesday, White’s attorneys argued that she felt compelled to answer detectives’ questions because of her department’s standing order requiring officers to provide statements in investigations.
Officer William G. Porter, for example, told police investigators he had warned Goodson that Gray required medical attention, though he also said he wasn’t sure if Gray was faking injuries to avoid going to jail, The Sun reported. Prosecutors said Gray suffered a severe spinal injury while he was unrestrained in the back of a police van; he died a week later.
Lt. Brian Rice, 41, ordered the pursuit of Gray after he made eye contact with law enforcement on North Avenue; Rice was charged with manslaughter, second-degree assault, two counts of misconduct in office and reckless endangerment.
Defense lawyers say the officers provided the statements under duress because they feared that silence would cost them their jobs. However, there are important motions that must be resolved before the officers’ trials, the first of which is scheduled for November 30.
“If the state says they weren’t in custody, that the investigators were only getting a report and finding out what’s going on, [the officers] would have to take the stand and give their state of mind”, Brown said.
Attorneys for Officer William Porter, still have their request, and that is expected to be heard in court this afternoon.
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The hearings Tuesday and Wednesday are scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m.
