Va. police chief: Porter’s treatment of Freddie Gray was ‘reasonable’
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Version 0 of 1. BALTIMORE — Current and former city police officers came to the defense of William G. Porter on Thursday, testifying that the Baltimore officer did what any officer would have done the day Freddie Gray suffered a fatal injury inside a police wagon. Prosecutors have charged Porter with involuntary manslaughter for failing to secure Gray inside the van after his arrest in April and not providing him with medical care. A former Baltimore police colonel, along with two rank-and-file officers, told jurors that Porter’s actions were sound. Timothy J. Longo, who left the Baltimore Police Department after 18 years with the rank of colonel and is now Charlottesville’s police chief, said that he had studied the situation and concluded that Porter’s decisions were “objectively reasonable under the evidence he confronted at the time.” The testimony of Longo and the other officers came during the second week of the trial of Porter, the first of six officers to come before a jury in connection with Gray’s death. Prosecutors have said that Gray fell and hit his head in the police wagon after he was picked up to be taken to central booking and that the blow damaged his spine. [Complete coverage of the Freddie Gray case] Porter testified Wednesday that when he helped Gray from the floor of the van to a bench midway through his trip, he did not think to put a seat belt on the prisoner because it was simply never done. He did not call a medic for Gray, he said, because the 25-year-old never gave a reason for needing one. All police rules are subject to an officer’s discretion, Longo testified, including policies in Baltimore requiring that all prisoners be seat-belted and that a medic be provided whenever requested. Longo, who has announced his plans to retire, testified as a paid consultant for the defense. Until a few days before Gray’s April 12 injury, the seat belt rule included an exception for officer safety. Porter had testified that buckling Gray onto the bench would have put the holstered weapon on his right hip dangerously close to the prisoner. Prosecutors pointed out that Porter had testified to lifting Gray up from behind without incident, putting his weapon close to Gray’s shackled hands. But Longo said that “his level of danger could change instantaneously.” Two of Porter’s fellow patrolmen from Baltimore’s Western District, Officers Mark Gladhill and Matthew Wood, also testified. Both said that at the time of Gray’s arrest they had never seen a prisoner in a wagon wearing a seat belt. They also said they were unaware of an April 9 order mandating seat belt use in all situations, because it was sent through an email system they rarely checked. “I had never seen anybody seat-belted in a wagon” before Gray’s death, Gladhill testified. Likewise, Gladhill said he would fulfill a prisoner’s request for a medic immediately only “if there’s a clear injury,” even though police policy mandates calling help for anyone who asks for it. Longo said any good officer would “exercise judgment . . . and common sense” when it comes to asking for medical help. “He saw no obvious signs of injury,” Longo said of Porter, relying on the officer’s own account. “He saw no sign of respiratory distress.” Gladhill and Wood interacted briefly with the group of officers transporting Gray on April 12. Gladhill said that he saw Gray inside the van after Porter had checked on his well-being and that the prisoner was supporting his own head and neck. Wood said he saw Sgt. April White appearing to speak with Gray shortly thereafter. That bolsters the defense argument that Gray was not injured until very late in his ride, just before he was found unconscious inside the van at the Western District police station. Prosecutors counter that Gray was harmed earlier and was left to languish in the van by Porter and others. Medical experts have offered conflicting views on precisely when Gray was hurt and what effects he would have suffered immediately after that injury. The officers’ testimony dovetailed with that of a neurosurgeon who told jurors Thursday that Gray’s spinal cord injury would have been so catastrophic that paralysis would have begun within “milliseconds.” Matthew Ammerman said one of Gray’s neck bones was fractured, a second slid over another and pinched his spinal cord, and an artery was severed. “He could not say he was short of breath because he would not be able to speak,” Ammerman said. “With these types of injuries, even with the best medical care, the outcome is usually death.” Gray’s pupils were dilated and unresponsive when a medic reached him, Ammerman said, a sign of an almost certainly fatal injury. His testimony conflicted with that of Baltimore’s medical examiner and a neurosurgeon who previously testified for the prosecution. Both testified that Gray could have retained limited upper body movement and breathing ability for some time after his injury. Medical examiner Carol H. Allan, who performed Gray’s autopsy, explained noises heard in the van late in Gray’s trip as a possible seizure. “It would be impossible to have a seizure with this type of injury,” Ammerman testified, because of the swelling that occurred and liquid that collected along his upper spinal column. However, Ammerman acknowledged that the initial fracture, “if treated quickly, could be survivable.” Under cross-examination, Longo conceded that Porter might have done more for Gray. “I guess he could have gotten on the radio and called for a medic,” Longo conceded. “I guess he could have done that.” Steve Hendrix contributed to this report. |