“It could have far-reaching effects in so many other cases when you have the government trying to compel people to testify”.
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Porter’s attorneys say if he is forced to testify and refuses, he risks going to jail for contempt. If he testifies, any inconsistent statements could lead to a perjury charge, they say.
Sergeant Alicia White is one of six Baltimore, Maryland police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray. But for prosecutors to make their case, they must be able to to prove that Goodson willfully disregarded Gray’s life and deliberately allowed him to die, a charge called “second-degree depraved-heart murder”. Judge Williams rejected the defense attorney’s motions to move the trial to another jurisdiction and remove Baltimore’s State Attorney Marilyn Mosby from the case, but granted a motion to give the six officers separate and consecutive trials.
Baltimore City Circuit Court Barry Williams ordered the delay in the trial of Officer Caesar Goodson Jr.
Gray died in April, a week after his neck was broken during a van ride.
Officer Caesar Goodson Jr. was driving the van in which Gray was transported last April in Baltimore.
Goodson, they say, bears the most responsibility because as the van driver, Gray was technically in his custody.
In his own trial, Porter testified that he told Goodson that Gray needed to be taken to the hospital when he arrived to check out the prisoner. The defense attorneys argued during the hearing that prosecutors had employed, “a new legal theory or area of testimony at the proverbial eleventh hour”, reported NBC. Now the Maryland Court of Special Appeals will wade in to decide whether Williams can legally compel Porter’s testimony.
The appeals court ruled that Porter did not have to testify until the issue was sorted out.
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“I think there is some chance that the state may have to choose between prosecuting Porter and prosecuting Goodson”, he said. Under these circumstances Porter naturally decided that he would assert his 5th Amendment right to decline to testify on the grounds that his testimony might incriminate him for purposes of both future state and federal prosecution. Based on the hung jury and the need for Porter to testify in the van driver’s case, the state offered what is known as use and derivative immunity for Porter to testify. There is no time frame for a decision, she said. He has not spoken with investigators or made any public comments.
