Rice is charged with involuntary manslaughter, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment. Two of Rice’s co-defendants were recently acquitted, and a third is awaiting retrial after a jury deadlocked in his case in December.
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Williams had seemed skeptical of the basis of the charges during closing arguments Thursday, asking Chief Deputy State’s Attorney Michael Schatzow whether the prosecution believed that the failure to seat belt Gray was in itself a crime.
Prosecutors, he said, failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Rice acted with gross negligence, putting Gray’s life at risk.
Tawanda Jones, center, speaks after hearing of a judge’s decision of acquittal on all charges for Lt. Brian Rice, not pictured, one of the six members of the Baltimore Police Department charged in connection to the death of Freddie Gray, outside a courthouse in Baltimore, Monday, July 18, 2016. If anything, those two were even more minimally involved in Gray’s arrest than Nero and Goodson, both of whom were already found not guilty.
Rice, who is white, ordered two officers on bicycle to chase Gray, 25, when the police claimed he fled. The officer helped put Gray, who was shackled and handcuffed, into the police wagon face down on its floor. Goodson, the driver of the van, had faced the most serious counts, including a second-degree murder charge. Lt. Gene Ryan, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3, said that the ruling showed Mosby’s cases against the officers “have no merit, and that continued prosecution of the officers would be a waste of taxpayers’ money”.
After four trials and no convictions, it’s increasingly clear that the evidence against six Baltimore police officers in charged in Gray’s death is too weak to sustain the hopes of citizens desperate for reform. They said that a crowd of angry onlookers had surrounded the van and that officers rushed to leave the scene because they feared for their safety. While being transported to the police station for booking, Gray suffered a spinal cord injury which caused his death one week later. The trial of Officer William Porter, the first to be tried, ended in a mistral when jurors could not reach a verdict. Porter is scheduled to be retried on September 6.
Rice’s acquittal follows a long line of acquittals for police officers and others charged with criminal offenses in high profile killings.
The trial for the fifth officer will begin later this month.
The decision is likely to renew calls by the police union and others for the remaining cases – against Officer Garrett Miller and Sgt. Alicia White – to be dropped.
Warren Alperstein, a prominent lawyer in the city who has been observing the case, said prosecutors have exhausted their theories and need to question whether to move forward.
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So far, Judge Williams has acquitted all three officers’ cases brought before him.
