For four hours, Porter was questioned about the incidents leading up to Gray’s injury and has plead not guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment.
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Gray was a 25-year-old black man who died a week after suffering a spinal injury at some point during a 45-minute ride in the back of the van. Porter testified Wednesday that the only time he heard Gray say he couldn’t breathe was when he was first arrested at Gilmor Homes.
“Absolutely”, said Porter, who had testified that he knew Gray from the West Baltimore neighborhood he patrolled. When he gave his initial statement, he said, he thought he was just a witness – not a suspect.
But “I can’t tell Officer Goodson what to do”, Porter said when asked why he didn’t do more to ensure Gray went to the hospital immediately.
During his time on the stand, Porter expressed extreme remorse for Gray’s death and was adamant that he acted reasonably and responsibly as his position required.
Longo testified those, too, were reasonable decisions because Gray did not exhibit any injuries and because protocol dictates that the van’s driver, not Porter, should have been held accountable for the prisoner’s safety.
“He did not appear to be in any pain he looked exhausted, lethargic”, he said.
Porter also said he was sorry Gray was dead.
Defense attorneys have called a forensic pathologist as their first witness in the manslaughter trial of a Baltimore police officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray.
MCEVERS: So it sounds like this would refute, to the prosecution’s contention, that Freddie Gray had already fallen in this van and broken his neck by this point, right?
Porter is expected to be one of the main witnesses to testify for the defense, though the exact order of the witnesses to be called has not been announced.
Following Porter, Officer Zachary Novak took the stand for the defense.
“Even the most docile detainee presents a risk”, Porter said. The expert today said he thinks Gray was injured just before he was found unconscious in the van and that he would have called it an accident, not a homicide.
Schatzow then asked Porter about the “stop snitching” culture in Baltimore where witnesses to crimes rarely speak up.
He rejected a prosecution claim, based on a police investigator’s interview of Porter, that he had said that Gray had told him that he couldn’t breathe at the fourth stop of the van. He says he used his own muscles when Porter helped to pull him up from the floor onto a bench, so suggesting he was clearly not yet paralyzed by a broken neck. Longo said general orders such as the seat belt policy “don’t create a higher standard in criminal or civil proceedings”. He said he would tell people who threw trash on the street, “You should be proud of where you come from”. Prosecutors allege he “criminally neglected his duty” by failing to secure Gray with a seat belt in the police transport van on April 12 and not calling for medical assistance when Gray requested it. Schatzow, the state’s lead prosecutor, appeared agitated at times during the cross-examination by Porter’s responses.
Who was responsible for Gray’s safety?
But Di Maio acknowledged that “if he was being restrained by a seat belt”, Gray would not have been injured. If jurors believe the state medical examiner’s assessment, they might conclude that Porter could have sought help immediately and saved Gray’s life. Prisoners were never secured with seat belts during field training, and though cadets were instructed to secure prisoners with seat belts, they were not shown how, Porter said.
On cross-examination, though, prosecutors asked Ammerman if Gray was still injured inside the van, and if he was dead because of that injury. But prosecutors say it would have been as easy as pressing a button on his chest for Porter to call for a medic. Porter said Gray was unresponsive “with mucus around his nose and mouth”. The van’s internal video camera was not working, and the detainee who was briefly in the other side of the van could not see Freddie Gray.
“You did not protect Freddie Gray’s life, did you?” As you have reported, they say that’s when Gray asked for help and he couldn’t breathe and said he wanted a medic.
Another defense witness, Washington neurosurgeon Dr. Matthew Ammerman, disputed a medical examiner’s finding that Gray’s injury took place between the van’s second and fourth stops.
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His lawyers have suggested that responsibility for seeking medical aid lay with the van’s driver, Officer Caesar Goodson, and Sergeant Alicia White.
