Officer Caesar Goodson opted Monday for a bench trial in his case on charges connected to the in-custody death of Freddie Gray.
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The third of six officers accused in the death of Freddie Gray is about to go on trial. As was his motion to have the second-degree assault charge dropped because he never physically touched Gray. Goodson was the driver of the van.
Goodson’s attorneys counter that their client acted as any reasonable officer would that April day a year ago and that “the failure of a police officer to seatbelt [a] detainee can not alone constitute a criminally reckless omission”. Goodson is charged with second-degree depraved-heart murder, involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, two counts of manslaughter by vehicle and misconduct. However, Porter may still be called as a witness in Goodson’s trial.
Judge Williams this morning rejected a defense motion to dismiss the charges, after Goodson’s attorneys argued that delays in the trial violated Goodson’s constitutional right to a speedy trial. Gray died one week later. His death prompted protests and rioting in Baltimore, and his name became a rallying cry in the national conversation about the treatment of black men by police officers in America.
Gray was arrested in West Baltimore after making eye contact with a bicycle officer and running away.
According to the Associated Press, bystanders claimed Gray was screaming and kicking once he was in the police van and handcuffed.
Last month Williams acquitted Officer Edward Nero, who faced misdemeanor charges in the Gray case and also chose a judge trial. They then placed him on the floor of the van, head-first and on his belly. He was bundled into a police transport van while shackled and was not seat-belted.
The van made six stops in total during the trip from the site of his arrest to the Western District station house. At one point, Goodson stopped the van to check on Gray without any other officers there.
“I think that the state is going to have to rely on Officer Goodson’s failure to use the seat belt to restrain Freddie Gray”. Instead, Goodson made another stop to pick up a second prisoner.
Legal experts believe this adds significance to the fact the judge granted a defense motion to block an unrecorded statement Porter made to an investigator over the phone that Gray said “I can’t breathe”.
“It is certainly reasonable to believe that before a vehicle pulls off, the officer who is charged with transporting a detainee may have the duty to make sure that the person being transported is properly secured and, if not, seek help from other officers if there is a need to do so”, Williams said in announcing Nero’s verdict.
On Monday, Williams said that while Porter’s alleged comment was admissible at his trial because he was a direct party to that case, it was not admissible at Goodson’s trial because Porter is merely a witness.
Prosecutors may also present the testimony of Dontae Allen, who was arrested the same day as Gray, and was loaded into another section of the van.
Goodson has requested a jury trial.
Motions are expected to be heard today and jury selection could start as soon as tomorrow.
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Prosecutors have yet to get a conviction in this case. “This will be critical, between pretrial publicity, preconceived notions about law enforcement and people and crime and what an officer’s job is”.
