Now, the lieutenant faces felony charges as the latest officer on trial in connection with Freddie Gray’s death and arrest.
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Lt. Rice’s trial begins Thursday and the cases are happening very close together.
Gray suffered a severe spinal injury while in Baltimore Police custody in 2015 and died a week later. Per the Baltimore Sun, prosecutors have cited training to supports its claim that the cops involved in Gray’s arrest acted against what they were taught. We also have a slightly different set of circumstances, ‘ he said. A grand jury indicted the officers on all of the original charges except false arrest and illegal imprisonment.
Rice has since pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, two counts of misconduct in office and reckless endangerment, the publication reports.
Rice is now free on $350,000 bail.
Gray’s neck was broken after cops did not put the shackled Gray, 25, in a seat belt in a metal transport compartment.
Williams found Officer Edward Nero not guilty in May on all four misdemeanor charges for his role in the events leading up to the death of Gray.
Schatzow told Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams that Rice “wasn’t an inexperienced officer” and was well aware of his duty to make sure he or other officers belted Gray in to ensure his safety.
In 2012, police confiscated Rice’s official and personal firearms after fellow Baltimore police officer Karen McAleer, the mother of Rice’s child, requested a welfare check.
Rice also helped Nero load Gray into the arrest van. Nero, 30, had been charged with second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and two counts of misconduct in office. Williams said the prosecutors’ allegations were “legally” sufficient at this stage, and that he was not making a “factual” finding.
Williams ruled that neither side would be able to use the material. “You’ve said it’s been hard for you to get the documents from the police department”.
The defense attorneys argue the script was written by assistant state’s attorney Janice Bledsoe.
But, “it doesn’t mean that was the slam dunk evidence that would be sufficient to prove the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt”, said Jaros. Considering that the evidence against Rice is the same as that offered by the prosecution in the other cases, and will be heard by the same judge, the verdict will not likely favor the prosecution.
Rice was patrolling area around a public housing complex and ordered police to chase Gray when he fled police.
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Of course, whether those trials will ever take place depends – at least in part – on Mosby wiggling out of her own charges and avoiding being disbarred. And given the testimony from the previous trials regarding Gray’s actions in the van that day and the timeline of events, Marilyn Mosby may be in for her fourth straight loss in what is turning into an epic fail of legendary proportions.
