Schatzow acknowledged Thursday that he had communicated with the clean team on multiple occasions, but dismissed any suggestion that the hearing would not have gone well for the state or that it impacted the decision to drop the charges.
Advertisement
Since Gray’s death, police have adopted several reforms, including a revised use-of-force policy and a body-camera program that will require all field officers to be equipped while on the streets. As intuitive as it feels to look to the courts to establish the difference between good law enforcement and bad, the fact that every case is tried on its own merits-and can not justly be decided with an eye toward the broader social implications of the outcome-means that police prosecutions should not be freighted with all the expectations we often bring to them.
“There was a reluctance and an obvious bias that consistently exemplified not by the entire Baltimore Police Department but by individuals… at every stage of investigation, which became blatantly apparent in the subsequent trials”, she said.
Mosby said without the help of an independent investigating agency and a say in whether the cases go before a judge or a jury, no matter how many times she tried these cases, the result would still be the same. She alleged that lead detectives were slow to provide information and failed to execute search warrants for key text messages. She also accused investigators of creating notes to contradict the medical examiner’s conclusion that Gray’s death was a homicide.
“We’ve all borne witness to an inherent bias that is a direct result of when police police themselves”, she said.
A week later Gray died; a medical examiner determined that his death was a homicide.
But Gray’s stepfather, Richard Shipley, who stood at Mosby’s side during her remarks, thanked her office for handling the case to “the best of their ability”. He rejected Mosby’s accusations that officers involved in the investigation were biased.
She did not say if she would pursue felony charges.
“As a chief prosecutor elected by the citizens of Baltimore, I must dismal likelihood of conviction at this point, the judicial economy in proceeding further, and the divisive impact that continuing this prosecution could potentially have on our community”, Mosby said.
Though disappointed, Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP, said the pressure brought through criminal charges attracted new attention to systemic problems long ignored. “It is the Baltimore City attorney’s office that has denied justice to the Gray family and denied justice to these officers”. Goodson was accused of giving Gray a “rough ride” which isn’t so unlikely, considering that within days of the death that sparked mass protests a Minnesota news outlet found a sign saying, “Enjoy your ride, cuz we sure will” in the back of a Baltimore PD paddywagon. “That justice wasn’t served for Freddie Gray’s family or for the police, and in the end we don’t know exactly what happened to Freddie Gray”.
Serving this week as secretary at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said in a statement the Baltimore Police Department will still complete an administrative review of each officer involved. “It gets it right”. Bottom row from left: William G. Porter (hung jury, then charges dropped), Brian W. Rice (acquitted) and Alicia D. White (charges dropped).
Attorneys and other advocates for the officers have defended the pursuit of Gray, a frequent target of arrests who ran from a high-crime area when he saw an officer.
Prosecutors suffered significant setbacks in almost every trial presented before Circuit Judge Barry Williams. After the state failed to present any evidence to support that theory, prosecutors all but abandoned the notion.
Advertisement
He also talked about the knife in Gray’s possession and the questions of whether it was legal or illegal and, therefore, whether Gray’s arrest was legal or illegal. Police said it was an illegal switchblade; prosecutors said in announcing charges against the officers that it was legal and made his arrest improper. He was handcuffed and shackled when he was injured.
