A judge on Monday found Lt. Brian Rice not guilty on all charges in the death of Gray, a 25-year-old African American man who died after being injured while in police custody last April.
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Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke kicked off his speech at the Republican National Convention Monday night by praising acquittal of Lt. Brian Rice of the Baltimore Police Department on charges surrounding the death of Freddie Gray.
Gray died from spinal injuries after being shackled without a seat belt in a police van, and his death led to several days of riots in the largest city in Maryland in April 2015.
Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams handed down his verdict on Monday after a bench trial, also acquitting Rice of reckless endangerment and misconduct in office.
He is the fourth of six officers charged to go on trial for the death.
Two officers, Edward Nero and Caesar Goodson Jr. Prosecutors have yet to secure a conviction.
In a statement, Rawlings-Blake said Rice would still face a departmental review.
The acquittal of Rice at a bench trial comes after two weekends of resurgent protests throughout the United States following the killings of Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana by police officers.
Rice, wearing a gray suit and a blue dress shirt, shook hands with his lawyers after the verdict.
The Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police president Gene Ryan is asking for City State Attorney Marilyn Mosby to stop the prosecution of the other three officers awaiting their day in court.
Williams said a “mistake” or an “error in judgment” by Rice was not enough to prove the crimes alleged.
Judge Williams said Monday that prosecution had failed to prove Rice had acted in a grossly negligent or corrupt manner. Of the six officers charged in the racially charged case, three are white and three are black. [Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images]Judge Williams is the same judge who acquitted two other Baltimore police officers over the death of Freddie Gray.
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“The police departments are now on notice that the legal community stands ready to prosecute in these types of cases”, he said. Rice’s case attempted to determine if not putting a seat belt on Gray constituted a crime, and the judge ruled it did not, according to the New York Times. Prosecutors dismissed an additional misconduct charge against the officer last Thursday when his trial began; Williams subsequently dropped a second-degree assault charge halfway through the arraignment. He said Rice pulled him by his arms, left him face down on the floor and then climbed or slid over him to get out. This includes crowd, which defense says became “hostile” and “angry” upon seeing Gray’s arrest. Goodson, the van driver, faced the most serious charges in the case. The officers have said that while resisting arrest, Gray was so violent that they could not restrain him without risking officer safety and that the ride to the police station was not a “rough ride”.
