“The comments made today about our officers by Ms. Mosby were outrageous and uncalled for and simply not true”, said Gene Ryan, president of Baltimore’s police union.
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Persecutors representing the officers said that officers didn’t have anything to do with Gray’s death and that the previous year has been a “nightmare” for the officers.
Having dropped the charges, prosecutors avoid taking the stand.
The announcement closes the books on the the April 19, 2015 death of Freddie Carlos Gray, Jr., 25, who had been in a coma after being arrested by Baltimore Police the week before following a “rough ride” in a prisoner van.
“I have no respect for corrupt cops”, he said, “but in this case with the six officers, they are not corrupt”. “We are very proud of the prosecutors who handled the case and did their best to their ability. There was a reluctance and bias that was consistently exemplified”. Prosecutors said the officers put handcuffs on his wrists and shackles on his legs, preventing him from grabbing anywhere to avoid hitting against the metal walls of the vehicle during the trip. She said the charges she brought were not an indictment of the entire Baltimore Police Department, but she also broadly condemned the actions and testimony of some officers involved in Gray’s arrest or in the department’s investigation of the incident – alleging “consistent bias” at “every stage”.
Mosby said the prosecutors do not believe Gray killed himself – his neck was snapped while in the back of the van and he died from his injuries a week later: “We stand by the medical examiner’s determination that Freddie Gray’s death was a homicide”.
A judge had already acquitted three other officers, including the van driver – considered by prosecutors to be the most responsible for the injuries – and another officer who was the highest-ranking of the group.
“The state’s attorney charged everybody together because it looks a lot stronger” as a single narrative to explain what happened to Gray, Mann said. Others, however, said there wasn’t enough evidence to convict the officers.
Last year, Gray’s family received a $6.4 million settlement from the city.
Baltimore has been notorious for people dying while in police custody over the past four years.
On Wednesday, the state’s attorney, Marilyn J. Mosby fiercely defended the prosecutions.
“I think she ought to prosecute herself”, he said. Protests and demonstrations took place across the nation in the days after Gray’s death.
Despite murder, assault, manslaughter and endangerment charges, three officers were acquitted by a judge.
The defense attorneys for Miller were alleging there had been conversations between the old and new prosecution teams, and lawyers from each team were subpoenaed to testify at the pre-trial hearing for Miller scheduled for Wednesday. “The process of these trials has helped rather than hurt the cause of repairing the rift between the police and the community”, the newspaper wrote in an unsigned editorial. “It’s an arduous task that requires dedication”. 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). “It would have been just another person dying and the police would continue to engage in the same practices”.
“A trial is not about answering broad questions – a trial is focused on whether the state can prove beyond a reasonable doubt the guilt of the defendant who is charged”, Schatzow said. The officers’ further erred when they chose not to call for a medic after Gray indicated he wanted to go a hospital, according to the prosecution.
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“Had the prosecutor slowed it down and done her due diligence in this case, that could have made a huge difference in terms of the outcome of this case”, she said.
