As Raw Story reported earlier Wednesday, the state’s attorney’s office announcement is unsurprising since most legal experts thought the prosecutor’s best case against the officers involved in Gray’s April 2015 death hinged on Officer Cesar Goodson, the driver of the van in which Gray was fatally injured, and who failed to make sure the 25-year-old African-American man was secured before starting the drive to the police station.
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Prosecutors believed a conviction for officers Garret Miller, William Porter, and Sergeant Alicia White was unlikely after three previous acquittals in the case under Circuit Judge Barry G. Williams, who was likely to hear the remaining trials. A mistrial was declared for a fourth officer when a jury deadlocked. Daniel Alonso, a former chief assistant district attorney in NY, agreed that Mosby’s decision to prosecute the officers was risky.
Gray’s death became a symbol of the black community’s mistrust of police and triggered days of protests and riots in Baltimore.
At a news conference held before a mural in Gray’s neighborhood memorialising him, a combative Mosby said individual police officers had tried to thwart her investigation. Defense attorneys, however, said the state could not supply ample evidence to prove the officers’ guilt.
“We could try this case 100 times and cases just like it, and we would end up with the same result”, she said.
On Wednesday, Mosby was back in front of the cameras where she made extraordinary shocking allegations against the Baltimore Police Department, again.
Gray’s family received a $6.4 million settlement from the city.
“Here, the failure to seat-belt may have been a mistake or it may have been bad judgement”, Williams said, “but without showing more than has been presented to the court concerning the failure to seat-belt and the surrounding circumstances, the state has failed to meet its burden to show that the actions of the defendant rose above mere civil negligence”.
Gene Ryan, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3 in Baltimore, called Mosby’s comments “outrageous and uncalled for and simply untrue” in a statement on Wednesday afternoon.
“The Baltimore city police, they did the investigation and they said it was an accident”, he said. She said she thinks the anger will build and build in the community again because police aren’t being held accountable. Mosby, a black woman, said she wasn’t confident about winning convictions against the rest.
“I have no respect for corrupt cops”, he said, “but in this case with the six officers, they are not corrupt. They did not have malice in their hearts”.
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The city’s top prosecutor was righteous in her rage Wednesday as she stood behind a lectern perched at the intersection where Freddie Gray was arrested in April 2015. Michelle Dickens, 55, comforted Gray’s mother, a distraught Gloria Darden, who was surrounded by friends and neighbors after Mosby spoke. This is nothing more than a desperate attempt to save her career in public service and it should not come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. Mosby also said officers created videos to “disprove the state’s case”. “We know we’re not happy, but let’s not get angry”. The officers still face administrative reviews over Gray’s death. These officers are free to return to their lives (pending the investigations being conducted by Montgomery County and Howard County police and other internal investigations going forward).
