BALTIMORE Officer William Porter was poised and calm as he testified in his own defense Wednesday, telling jurors that he didnt call an ambulance for Freddie Gray because the man was alert, appeared uninjured and didnt complain of any pain or wounds in the back of a police van.
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The trial comes as police agencies across the nation grapple with how to convince the public that the legal system can provide justice when its own are accused of wrongdoing.
As for why he didn’t buckle Gray into a seat belt, Porter told the jury that the wagon is “pretty tight” and said that of his 200 arrests involving the transport van, he has never belted in a prisoner. Because of that, he said Gray could not have suffered his injury before the fourth stop – where he spoke with Porter – and must have suffered it between the fifth stop and the last, where Gray was discovered unconscious.
Porter seemed to cast another officer charged in the case – Goodson – as bearing more responsibility for handling Gray. Prosecutors say Porter failed to call for a medic after Gray said he needed one and the officer didn’t buckle Gray into a seat belt when he was riding in the back of a police wagon. But after a meeting with city officials and community leaders, she says everyone agrees that unrest like that seen in the spring is unacceptable.
Longo said Goodson was ultimately responsible to make sure Gray was belted in because Gray was in his custody. Schatzow noted Porter’s earlier remarks regarding a “stop snitching” culture among Baltimore’s criminal element and asked if a similar culture exists in the police department.
During the recess for lunch, Porter walked the halls of the courtroom, looking nearly cheerful, but his demeanor had changed dramatically by the end of cross examination, when he sat at one point holding his head in his hand, while officer Zachary Novak, the only officer involved in the incidents of the day who was not charged, testified. “I never, ever had a physical copy of the general orders”, he said.
He also said he relied on his police academy training to not put Gray in a seatbelt; Porter said that would have exposed his gun to Gray, putting himself in danger.
Porter had pled not guilty to manslaughter and other charges stemming from 12 April, when Gray suffered from what proved to be a fatal spinal cord injury after being arrested that morning near the Gilmor Homes housing projects in the West Baltimore neighborhood of Sandtown-Winchester.
On the stand, Porter said the only time he heard a man say he couldn’t breathe that day was when Gray was initially arrested. Porter, who joined the police force in 2012, faces charges of involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, and misconduct in office. He told jurors he didn’t call a medic because when he saw Gray, Gray wasn’t injured.
A prosecutor is questioning Officer William Porter about apparent inconsistencies in his statements about the death of Freddie Gray.
“Completely impossible”, Schatzow asked. “He just asked me to help him on the bench and I helped him on the bench”. The fourth stop is crucial in Porters case because prosecutors say Gray was already injured by the time he arrived there, and Porters failure to call a medic to the scene contributed the Grays death.
Ammerman’s testimony was contrary to the state’s expert witnesses, including the assistant medical examiner who conducted Gray’s autopsy.
“It was just an accident”, Di Maio testified.
Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams denied a defense motion to dismiss the case.
But Di Maio acknowledged that “if he was being restrained by a seat belt”, Gray would not have been injured.
“Freddie Gray and I weren’t friends, but we had a mutual respect”, Porter said.
During cross-examination, prosecutor Michael Schatzow asked Porter about a discrepancy between his testimony and that of Det. Porter said he suggested to Goodson that Gray be taken to the hospital. Porter wasn’t driving the van.
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“When she said tell me what happened”, Porter testified, “I started at the beginning”. “Knowing him from the neighborhood and calling his name, being on the hospital detail and seeing everything they’d done to him”.
