Prosecutors say Edward Nero, whose trial in the arrest and subsequent death of Freddie Gray began Thursday in Baltimore, failed in his duty when he and other officers unlawfully arrested Gray, then neglected to buckle the shackled man’s seat belt.
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Nero faces assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment charges stemming from Gray’s arrest.
Nero’s case is more likely to end in a definitive verdict, as he has elected to a bench trial that will be decided by a judge rather than a jury.
Under cross-examination, Ross said Nero was not the officer who handcuffed Gray because he was retrieving police bicycles. After his arrest, other police officers are accused of giving Gray a “rough ride” in a police van that resulted in fatal spinal injuries, which they allegedly ignored until it was too late. His death sparked weeks of demonstrations, riots and looting in Baltimore and amplified the Black Lives Matter movement.
Gray was “passively and actively resisting arrest, banging in the wagon, kicking the wagon”, Zayon said. He told Williams that the department’s general orders say that officers are required to buckle prisoners into seat belts when they’re being transported, and that the language allowing for an officer to use his discretion as to whether to use the belt was eliminated when the policy was updated April 9 of past year.
The Guardian calls that an “unprecedented legal strategy” that “may turn Nero’s case into a referendum on police stops in high crime areas and have wide-ranging implications on how officers can be punished for illegal stops, searches, and detentions”.
On April 9, 2015, officers were notified via email of an amendment to the department’s seat belt policy. Ross also contradicted all police reports regarding the events of April 12, 2015, when he testified that Gray had started running away as police approached before he ever made eye contact with Lt. Brian Rice, who also faces charges in retaliation to the incident.
As in Porter’s trial, prosecutors called police officials to describe agency procedures and rules about transporting detainees, with the defense peppering them with questions about the real-world application of such directives. After the video was shown in court, Sobboh, who is approximately the same size as Gray, testified that it “was pretty tight in there.it was a little uncomfortable”.
Nero’s defense said he did his job to the best of his abilities and that “everything was done correctly”.
An officer’s safety is essential when securing prisoners in the van, Zayon told the court. He asked Long whether it was possible that in some situations some prisoners could not be seat-belted without putting the officer in danger.
Prosecutors say Nero broke the law when he, Miller and Rice detained Gray.
Prosecutors also say Nero acted in a reckless manner when he failed to buckle Gray into a seatbelt. Prosecutors showed a video made by police investigators almost a month after the officers were charged.
“Common sense dictates that officers would simply not make arrests if they were subject to criminal prosecution if it was later determined that probable cause did not exist”, they wrote. Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams indicated that the trial will take about five days. Porter’s trial ended with a hung jury in December; he is scheduled to be re-tried next month.
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The prosecution is expected to wrap up its case on Friday and Nero’s team will launch its defense next week.
