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Police Officer in Freddie Gray Case Is Acquitted of All Charges Police Officer in Freddie Gray Case Is Acquitted of All Charges
(about 5 hours later)
BALTIMORE — A police officer was acquitted of all charges on Monday in the arrest of Freddie Gray, a black man who sustained a fatal spinal cord injury while in police custody. The verdict is likely to renew debate over whether anyone will be held responsible for Mr. Gray’s death. BALTIMORE — The acquittal Monday of a police officer charged in the arrest of Freddie Gray, the black man who suffered a fatal spinal cord injury while in police custody last year, immediately renewed questions of whether any of the six police officers charged in the case would be convicted in connection with his death.
The officer, Edward M. Nero, sat with a straight back and stared forward as Circuit Judge Barry G. Williams, who ruled on the case after the officer opted to forgo a jury trial, read his verdict on the charges of second-degree assault, misconduct and of reckless endangerment. Officer Edward M. Nero’s acquittal on four charges for his role in the opening moments of Mr. Gray’s arrest was a second blow to the prosecution’s sweeping case, announced as Baltimore was still seething after the unrest following Mr. Gray’s death in April 2015. The first trial, against Officer William G. Porter, ended in a hung jury in December, touching off legal maneuvers that brought proceedings against the officers to a temporary halt.
“The verdict on each count,” said Judge Williams, concluding his reading after about 30 minutes, “is not guilty.” But legal experts said Judge Barry G. Williams’s finding was a narrow one that does not forestall the possibility of convictions against other officers charged in the case. They said Judge Williams’s ruling turned not on a wholesale rejection of prosecutors’ broad legal theory, but rather on his determination that Officer Nero, 30, was a bit player in Mr. Gray’s arrest.
“The state’s theory has been one of recklessness and negligence,” Judge Williams said. “There has been no evidence that the defendant intended for a crime to occur.” Judge Williams, who ruled on the case after the officer opted to forgo a jury trial, said in his verdict that there were other officers who played — or who could have reasonably been expected to play — a bigger role in the encounter. And while that is no guarantee that other officers will be found guilty, it is those officers who will stand trial in the coming months.
Officer Nero, who was implicated not in the death of Mr. Gray but in the opening moments of his arrest, then stood and hugged his lawyers as supporters pressed forward to congratulate him. He wiped away tears and, at one point, embraced Officer Garrett E. Miller, who is also charged in connection with the arrest of Mr. Gray “The judge did seem to create a hierarchy of responsibility and say that Officer Nero was at the bottom,” said David Jaros, a professor of law at the University of Baltimore who has been watching the case. “Now, let’s see as we go up whether or not anyone else is sufficiently responsible as to be criminally liable.”
Perhaps a dozen protesters gathered outside the courthouse in the moments after the verdict was rendered, and some chanted the familiar protest cry, “No justice, no peace.” Judge Williams read his verdict matter-of-factly while Officer Nero stared straight ahead.
“To see that officer walk away, and still no accountability, that hurts me the most,” said the Rev. Westley West, a frequent presence at demonstrations related to Mr. Gray’s death. “That could be me.” “There has been no information presented at this trial that the defendant intended for any crime to happen,” Judge Williams said.
The verdict, the first in any of the six officers implicated, comes a little more than a year after Mr. Gray died in April 2015. The first trial, against Officer William G. Porter, ended with a mistrial in December. Mr. Gray’s death embroiled parts of Baltimore, which has a history of tension between the police and its residents, in violent protest and became an inexorable piece of the nation’s wrenching discussion of the use of force by officers, particularly against minorities. At the conclusion of his 30-minute explanation, he added, “The verdict on each count is not guilty.” Officer Nero rose to his feet and wiped away tears as his supporters — including Officer Garrett E. Miller, who is also charged in the case — moved in to embrace him.
Many demonstrators had felt vindicated last year when the city’s top prosecutor, Marilyn J. Mosby, announced charges against the officers, but legal specialists have questioned whether they were too ambitious. Outside the courthouse, perhaps a dozen protesters gathered after the verdict. Some chanted, “No justice, no peace.”
Peter Moskos, a former Baltimore police officer who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said that Ms. Mosby had “overplayed her hand.” “To see that officer walk away, and still no accountability, that hurts me the most,” said the Rev. Westley West, a frequent presence at demonstrations related to Mr. Gray’s death.
Charges were filed too quickly, he said, adding that prosecutors should have spent more time bolstering cases against one or two officers who may have been most culpable. “Someone dying doesn’t always make it a crime,” Mr. Moskos said. “The prosecutors are trying to find social justice, but these are trials of individual cops.” Mr. Gray’s death touched off rioting, looting and arson in this city, which has a long history of tension between residents and the police.
He had been walking through the Sandtown neighborhood in West Baltimore when he saw a group of officers and took off running. He was arrested and put into a transport van where, prosecutors and defense lawyers have said, his spinal cord was functionally severed; he died a week later.
Last May, the state’s top prosecutor, Marilyn J. Mosby, announced charges against six police officers.
For Officer Nero’s trial, Ms. Mosby’s team of prosecutors tried an unusual legal theory: that he and Officer Miller exceeded their authority by handcuffing, moving and searching Mr. Gray without first questioning and patting him down, as the law requires — essentially turning a lawful detention into an unlawful arrest. The prosecutors said that Officer Nero had committed misconduct by arresting Mr. Gray without probable cause, and that any physical contact they had made with him while doing so amounted to second-degree assault.
Normally defense lawyers, not prosecutors, make claims of illegal search and seizure in court. During closing arguments, Judge Williams himself questioned prosecutors aggressively on whether they were really asserting that every arrest made without probable cause could be a criminal act.
But he sidestepped those questions on Monday, focusing instead on the fact that no evidence showed Officer Nero had touched Mr. Gray during the critical opening moments of his arrest.
“When the detention morphed into an arrest, the defendant was not present,” Judge Williams said. He cited the testimony of the state’s witnesses: Officer Miller, who told the court that he had handcuffed Mr. Gray, and Brandon Ross, a friend of Mr. Gray’s who witnessed the arrest.
“Since the defendant’s contact with Mr. Gray came after Mr. Gray was detained by Miller, this court finds that the contact by the defendant was legally justified and not reckless,” the judge said.
Mr. Jaros, the law professor, said Judge Williams’s finding that the detention had turned into an arrest and his focusing on the actions of Officer Miller could foreshadow a tougher-than-expected case for Officer Miller’s defense team when he is tried this summer.
“That certainly seemed to suggest that the case against Officer Miller would actually be significantly stronger than the case against Officer Nero, and perhaps significantly stronger than we thought before the verdict came out,” Mr. Jaros said, although he cautioned that all of the trials will require separate findings of fact.
Judge Williams found that Officer Nero acted reasonably when he did not use a seatbelt on Mr. Gray in the police van, citing questions about his training and awareness of the rules. Again, he looked to other officers, saying Officer Nero could reasonably have assumed that Lt. Brian Rice, a superior officer who climbed into the van with Mr. Gray, or Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr., the driver of the van, would have secured Mr. Gray if either believed that it was required or necessary.
Other observers, like Peter Moskos, a former Baltimore police officer who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said it seemed that Ms. Mosby had “overplayed her hand.”
“Someone dying doesn’t always make it a crime,” Mr. Moskos said. “The prosecutors are trying to find social justice, but these are trials of individual cops.”
A lawyer for Officer Nero, Marc Zayon, called for the charges against the remaining officers to be dropped.A lawyer for Officer Nero, Marc Zayon, called for the charges against the remaining officers to be dropped.
“The State’s Attorney for Baltimore City rushed to charge him, as well as the other five officers, completely disregarding the facts of the case and the applicable law,” Mr. Zayon said in a statement. “The state’s attorney for Baltimore City rushed to charge him, as well as the other five officers, completely disregarding the facts of the case and the applicable law,” Mr. Zayon said in a statement.
“Like Officer Nero,” Mr. Zayon added, “these officers have done nothing wrong.” Despite the acquittal, Tessa Hill-Aston, the president of the Baltimore city branch of the N.A.A.C.P., said she remained hopeful that someone would eventually be held responsible for Mr. Gray’s death.
Concerned about reaction within the community, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, in a statement, asked residents to be patient as the legal process played out, but added that the city was prepared to respond to any disturbances. “I’m thankful we’re even in court, that charges were brought,” she said. “But now we’ve got to come out with something.”
The Police Department said in a statement Monday that the internal review of Officer Nero, 30, who remains on administrative leave, will not be resolved until after the trials of the other officers involved.
The trial had shifted the focus from the injuries that killed Mr. Gray, which was a crucial point in Officer Porter’s trial, to the opening moments of his arrest. It was never going to be the highest-profile prosecution in the case related to Mr. Gray; that will be Caesar R. Goodson Jr., the driver of the police wagon in which Mr. Gray is believed to have broken his neck. But, in a city that is already the subject of a federal civil rights investigation into whether officers use excessive force and discriminatory policing, Officer Nero’s trial renewed questions about when an officer can stop a private citizen and what an officer is allowed to do.
“I would say the trial has engendered a wider conversation about how police operate in poor communities, particularly poor communities of color that raises critical issues about society,” said David Jaros, a law professor at the University of Baltimore.
Judge Williams focused his rulings on Officer Nero’s specific actions, Mr. Jaros said, rather commenting on the broad legal theory underpinning the prosecution’s case.
Paul Butler, a former federal prosecutor and a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, called the charges an unusual — and possibly unprecedented — attempt by a prosecutor to convict a police officer for making an arrest that lacked probable cause.
The attempt may have been fueled in part by public anger over the death of Mr. Gray. Mr. Butler said said such calculations were a normal part of prosecutors’ decision making before handing down indictments. That tactic was essentially negated, he said, when Officer Nero’s defense team opted for a bench trial.
Despite the acquittal, Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the Baltimore city branch of the NAACP, said she remained hopeful that someone would eventually be held responsible for Mr. Gray’s death.
“I’m thankful we’re even in court, that charges were brought,’ she said. “But now we’ve got to come out with something.”
“The low man in the totem pole was found not guilty, but now we’re working our way up,” Ms. Hill-Aston said.
A lawyer for the Gray family, William H. Murphy Jr., called Judge Williams’s ruling an “excellent opinion.”
“He did his job under very trying circumstances,” Mr. Murphy said.
Mr. Murphy added: “The family doesn’t want to see a conviction or an acquittal. They want to see justice. So they’re not going to be frustrated regardless of how this turns out, and neither should the community.”
Baltimore reached a $6.4 million settlement with Mr. Gray’s family in September.