There will be no trial by jury for the highest-ranking Baltimore police officer charged in the death of a young black man whose neck was broken inside a police van.
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Police Lt. Brian Rice on Tuesday chose to follow the footsteps of fellow officers Caesar Goodson and Edward Nero, who also elected to have bench trials.
Rice faces manslaughter, assault, reckless endangerment and two counts of misconduct in office in the death of Freddie Gray.
Prosecutors have yet to secure a conviction in any of the cases that went to trial.
“We received a written request from the SAO (State’s Attorney’s Office) on June 18, 2016 in reference to training documents related to Lt. Brian Rice.The BPD immediately began to collect those documents, even paying overtime, to provide to the SAO.”, the statement read. Among possible course of action, the state could have moved up the chain of command by contacting supervisors or filing for subpoenas, Williams said. Because prosecutors failed to turn 4,000 pages of documents related to the field training of Lt. Brian Rice, Judge Barry Williams ruled the material inadmissible this morning at a hearing for the 46-year-old officer this morning in circuit court.
University of Maryland law professor Doug Colbert, who has followed the case closely, said he expects prosecutors in Rice’s trial to focus on what a “reasonable officer” would have done differently in Rice’s position.
Last December, the trial of Officer William Porter ended with a hung jury.
Williams said prosecutors should have pushed city officials or sought intervention from the courts. The judge has yet to rule on motions to dismiss the cases against the other two, Sgt. Alicia White and Officer Garrett Miller.
The State’s Attorney’s Office, and in particular Marilyn Mosby, have faced criticism for proceeding with the case against the officers at all, and in particular for rushing to prosecute and not going through a grand jury.
But Williams also found that Goodson was not criminally responsible for failing to seat belt Gray. Rice picked this option, just as his colleagues, Officers Edward Nero and Caesar Goodson Jr.
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Judge Barry Williams has ordered prosecutors they can not use 4,000 pages of training documents related to Lt. Brian Rice’s in-service training that occurred while he was a police officer. The prosecution alleges that Freddie Gray became hurt due to the officers giving him a “rough ride” and not properly buckling him into the back of the police van. He was the highest ranking officer on the ground during the chase and Gray’s arrest. Two other officers are awaiting their trials.
