Of the six officers charged in the racially charged case, three are white and three are black.
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All officers involved in the Gray case have pleaded not guilty, the Baltimore Sun reports.
Rice was the fourth of six officers to stand trial in the case.
Prosecutors in Baltimore have taken yet another devastating blow in the Freddie Gray case, as Circuit Judge Barry Williams acquitted Lt. Brian Rice of all charges in connection with Gray’s death.
The scrutiny isn’t over for Rice.
“I’m disgusted, as usual, and they’re sending a daily message all across the world that our lives don’t matter, and that’s sad”, said Tawanda Jones said outside the courthouse.
Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby vowed to bring justice to an aggrieved citizenry when she announced the charges previous year. Williams added that the court “cannot be swayed by sympathy, prejudice or public opinion”.
Prosecutors, he said, failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Rice acted with gross negligence, putting Gray’s life at risk.
However, Williams ruled that because Rice didn’t drive the van, prosecutors had no evidence.
“The state did not prove the defendant was aware of the new policy”, the judge said in court.
Baltimore police have arrested about 20 people during a protest after participants blocked lanes on an interstate in the city. The recent deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile have renewed focus on the movement.
Rice, wearing a gray suit and a blue dress shirt, shook hands with his lawyers after the verdict.
“He should certainly be held responsible and held accountable for what happened to Freddie Gray”, another protester demanded. Rice was the officer who handcuffed Gray to the floor of the police van while onlookers watched. Goodson, the van driver, faced the most serious charges in the case.
Two officers filed motions to dismiss their cases last month. She said Rice will still face administrative review, despite the outcome of the trial. Prosecutors say the officers were criminally negligent when they failed to buckle Gray into a seat belt or provide medical attention after he indicated that he wanted to go to a hospital.
The testimony was key to the defense’s theory that Gray didn’t need help at the van’s earlier stops. Chief deputy state attorney Michael Schatzow argued it was. The trial for Officer William G. Porter ended with a hung jury in December.
The focus of the case was on whether or not Rice should have put a seat belt on Gray when he placed him in the back of the transport vehicle.
The defense painted a different story surrounding the “inventory of information” available to Rice at the time, which prompted his “split-second decision”.
“The floor was deemed a better position”, he said, because more force would have had to be used to get Gray onto a bench. Porter is scheduled to be retried in September. A grand jury indicted the officers on all of the original charges except false arrest and illegal imprisonment.
“Though they may have been ordered by Mosby to do what they did, that is no defense”.
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Goodson, Nero and Officer Garrett Miller were in court for the verdict.
