Prosecutors launched their opening arguments in the third trial against a Baltimore Police officer in the case of Freddie Gray’s death.
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Prosecutor Michael Schatzow said Goodson bounced Gray around in the van by driving unsafely in retaliation for yelling and kicking the inside of the van.
Of the six officers charged in the case, Goodson, 46, faces the most serious charges: second-degree depraved-heart murder, manslaughter, second-degree assault, vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent manslaughter, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment.
Goodson, the site notes, who is free on $350,000 bail, is the only officer facing the second-degree murder charge as he was the driver of the police van Gray was in when he was fatally injured.
Gray’s injures left him comatose in University of Maryland hospital, where he died on April 19, setting in motion protests and rioting in Baltimore and stoking a USA debate on police treatment of minorities. “I’m telling you that this [evidence] needs to be considered”, Judge Williams told prosecutors. The judge sternly admonished prosecutors and said it was the third such time they have been found committing a discovery violation.
The trial of one officer in Gray’s death ended in a hung jury and Williams issued an acquittal in a second one. Williams ruled that the charges will not be dropped, but scolded the prosecution in the process.
Williams gave the state until Monday to turn over the evidence, the withholding of which he said was “prejudicial”, WBAL reported.
The judge in the trial of an officer charged in the death of a 25-year-old black man whose neck was broken in the back of a police van blasted prosecutors on Thursday for withholding information from the defense. The murder charge alone carries a maximum penalty of 30 years. Williams is hearing Goodson’s case in a bench trial. Gray was thrown against the rear compartment, the prosecutor said.
But Graham said Goodson had driven cautiously and Gray was injured because he thrashed around and stood up in the back of the van.
Dead: Freddie Gray (left), 25, was arrested for fleeing police unprovoked in a high-crime area.
Prosecutors, however, contend that at some point, Goodson sped through a stop sign and made a hard right turn onto a street, swinging the van around so fast it went into the lane of oncoming traffic.
Allen had already been interviewed by police and by a television station when he spoke with prosecutors. Graham said Gray had faked an injury and caused a scene during his arrest, and officers were wary of getting too close to him inside the cramped quarters of the van. Goodson is the only officer present at each of the stops.
The van driver, Officer Caesar Goodson, is on trial facing second-degree murder, manslaughter and other charges stemming from Freddie Gray’s death.
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Goodson waived his right to a jury trial and instead will leave his fate up to Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams. Last month, the second officer brought to trial was acquitted.
