White, one of six Baltimore city police officers charged in connection with Freddie Gray’s death arrives at a side door, for a court appearance on October 13 in Baltimore.
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Mike Hellgren has details of the crucial decisions to be made.
The judge ruled that White’s statements to investigators are admissible in court.
Days after the riots, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced charges against six officers (listed at the end of the the article). When investigators called her in for the April 17 interview, she was told that it was “no more than a follow-up” and didn’t realize that she was a suspect.
“One might argue, they know their rights, they don’t need to be read their rights” because they are police officers and know the law, Brown said.
The statements are critical for prosecutors, who can pit the varying accounts against each other. (She is accused of failing to seek medical attention for Gray after being advised that he needed it.) If she was truly interrogated improperly, her statements should not be presented to jurors. One of them insists that never happened.
Judge Williams this afternoon, rejected a defense motion filed by the attorney for Officer William Porter, to suppress the statement. The first trial will be Porter’s, scheduled to start on November. 30.
The statements are key pieces of evidence for prosecutors, who had requested that certain officers be tried first as a way of having the testimony of certain defendants used against others in later trials.
Defense attorneys and prosecutors clashed on Tuesday over statements by Baltimore police officers charged in the death of a black man who died from an injury in police custody, an incident that triggered protests and rioting.
“No, ma’am, at that point she was a witness”, Boyd said.
Officer Caesar Goodson, 49, was driving the police van containing Gray; he was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter, second-degree assault, vehicular manslaughter, criminal negligent manslaughter, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment.
Attorneys for Porter and White moved to quash statements their clients made from the time of Gray’s arrest until his death a week later from a severe spinal injury suffered while in the back of a police van.
A second hearing was slated for 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, October 14; however, ABC 2 reports that Judge Williams canceled that hearing.
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White and two of the other officers are black, and the remaining three are white. Lt. Brian W. Rice and Officers Edward M. Nero and Garrett E. Miller agreed Tuesday to withdraw their motions to suppress the statements they provided to internal investigators.
