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Remaining Charges Against Baltimore Officers Are Dropped in Freddie Gray Case Charges Dropped in Freddie Gray Case Against Baltimore Officers
(about 4 hours later)
The state’s attorney in Baltimore on Wednesday dropped all remaining charges against three city police officers awaiting trial in the death of Freddie Gray, ending one of the most closely watched — and unsuccessful — police prosecutions in the nation. BALTIMORE — The state’s attorney here dropped all remaining charges Wednesday against three city police officers awaiting trial in the death of Freddie Gray, closing the book on one of the most closely watched police prosecutions in the nation without a single conviction — and few answers about precisely how the young man died.
The decision brought to a close a sweeping prosecution that began with criminal charges against six police officers last May, announced with the city still in the grips of violent protest after the death of Mr. Gray, who was found unresponsive and not breathing after he rode unsecured in a police transport wagon after his arrest on a bright morning in April 2015. Mr. Gray later died of a spinal cord injury. The announcement ended a sweeping, deeply polarizing prosecution that began last spring, as National Guard troops rumbled through the streets, with Baltimore under curfew and residents tense and edgy after looting and riots that broke out after Mr. Gray sustained a fatal spinal cord injury in police custody.
But prosecutors were unable to secure a single conviction during the first four trials, the first of which, for Officer William G. Porter, began in December and ended in a mistrial that led to months of delays. Officer Edward M. Nero, who participated in the initial arrest, was acquitted in May; Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr., the driver of the vehicle in which Mr. Gray was transported, was acquitted in June; and another officer present early in the arrest, Lt. Brian Rice, was acquitted earlier this month. Mr. Gray, a 25-year-old black man, had been arrested after two officers on bicycles spotted him and he ran. He was found unresponsive and not breathing after he rode unsecured in a police transport wagon after his arrest on a bright morning in April 2015, and died a week later. Six officers were charged with crimes including manslaughter and murder; the first trial ended in a hung jury, and three more officers were acquitted after trials before a judge.
The extraordinary turn of events put in sharp relief the wrenching national debate over race and policing — after a month of deadly shootings of African-American men and deadly retaliations that left President Obama pleading for racial healing after five police officers in Dallas were gunned down by a black Army veteran. Wednesday’s extraordinary turn put into sharp relief the wrenching national debate over race and policing, after a month of deadly shootings of black men and deadly retaliations against police officers around the nation. Just a few weeks ago, President Obama pleaded for racial healing after five police officers in Dallas were gunned down by a black Army veteran. The outcome also left the city deeply divided over whether its top prosecutor, Marilyn J. Mosby, 36, had overreached in her initial charges.
In Baltimore, a majority black city, that debate is playing out with great nuance. The case featured a black victim, but it also had a black judge who once worked as a civil rights lawyer investigating police misconduct, and a black prosecutor. And three of the six officers are black, as is the defense lawyer who spoke on their behalf Wednesday. Facing cameras in front of a bright-colored mural — a homage to Mr. Gray — in the blighted West Baltimore neighborhood where he grew up, she defended herself, sounding every bit as fiery and passionate as she was a year ago May when she drew national attention in announcing the charges. She accused the police department of working to thwart her investigation.
At the end, there were no convictions, and there were more questions than answers, with still no clarity on how Mr. Gray died. There was anguish on all sides of the debate. “We do not believe Freddie Gray killed himself,” Ms. Mosby said, calling the decision to drop the charges “agonizing.” Complaining she lacked an independent investigatory agency, she added, “Without real substantive reforms to the current criminal justice system, we could try this case 100 times and cases just like it, and we would still end up with the same result.”
“We’re nowhere,” Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, said in a telephone interview from Boston, where he was running a training session for police executives. “It just adds to the strong visceral feelings on both sides. Both sides walk away from this feeling like they didn’t get justice — the people who were concerned about Freddie Gray, and the people who are concerned about cops doing their job.” But a police union official, Lt. Gene Ryan, and lawyers for the six officers struck back hard, with Lieutenant Ryan calling Ms. Mosby’s accusations “outrageous.” They argued that the judge, Barry G. Williams Jr., who had prosecuted police misconduct while working for the Justice Department, had followed the evidence — even if Ms. Mosby did not like where it led.
“You can get a conviction against the police, whether a bench trial or a jury trial, if you do an investigation,” said one of the lawyers, Ivan Bates. But, he said, if “you quickly want to automatically say that the officers are guilty because they’re the police, then you perpetrate that fear that’s already there and that’s dividing our country.”
The exchanges showed that even in a majority-black city, with a black mayor and a black prosecutor, there are no easy answers to questions involving race and policing. The case featured a black victim and had a black judge. And three of the six officers are black, as is the defense lawyer who spoke on their behalf Wednesday.
In the end, there was anguish on all sides of the debate here and around the country.
“We’re nowhere,” Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, said in a telephone interview. “Both sides walk away from this feeling like they didn’t get justice — the people who were concerned about Freddie Gray, and the people who are concerned about cops doing their job.”
“We haven’t gotten to the bottom of the Freddie Gray case,” he said.“We haven’t gotten to the bottom of the Freddie Gray case,” he said.
On Wednesday, the state’s attorney, Marilyn J. Mosby — released from the gag order that had kept her from commenting — fiercely defended the prosecutions. “We do not believe Freddie Gray killed himself,” she said. Despite the lack of convictions, Ms. Mosby, 36, argued that her work has not been for naught; there have been police department reforms, and the city is “one step closer to equality.” Officers now routinely buckle up prisoners traveling in police wagons, she said, and cameras record what happens inside.
Ms. Mosby also said the prosecutions had led to changes to police practices and pushed the Baltimore Police Department, long plagued by accusations of racial bias and under investigation by the Department of Justice, “one step closer to equality.” In Baltimore, Wednesday’s news was met with grim resignation. Supporters and detractors of the police seemed, by this point, to expect the outcome. And it was clear that, more than a year after Mr. Gray was arrested, deep divisions remained.
Ms. Mosby’s move caused ripples on the presidential campaign trial, as Donald J. Trump, who has cast himself as the law-and-order candidate, sharply criticized her. In the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood, where Mr. Gray grew up, residents unanimously agreed with Ms. Mosby’s assertion that Mr. Gray’s death was a homicide. Alethea Booze, 72, said she had witnessed the arrest. “He wasn’t hollering until two officers put that knee in his back and he was screaming,” Ms. Booze said. “Everybody was screaming, ‘Call the ambulance, call the ambulance,’ and the officers didn’t do anything.”
“I think she ought to prosecute herself,” Mr. Trump told reporters traveling with him. He added, “I think it was disgraceful what she did and the way she did it and the news conference that she had where they were guilty before anybody knew the facts.” All six officers face administrative hearings led by the police in nearby counties. Four are back at work, although in desk jobs. The Department of Justice is investigating the Baltimore Police Department to determine whether it engaged in a pattern of racial discrimination.
Critics of Ms. Mosby have long raised questions about whether she overcharged the officers. She insisted Wednesday that she had not. Ms. Mosby’s move caused ripples on the presidential campaign trial, as the Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump, who has cast himself as the law-and-order candidate, sharply criticized her, telling reporters, “I think she ought to prosecute herself.”
Instead, appearing before television cameras in front of a mural in the West Baltimore neighborhood where Mr. Gray grew up, was arrested and died, she was every bit as passionate as she was when she first announced the prosecutions. And she issued an urgent call for criminal justice reform. Ms. Mosby was elected in 2014 on a promise to aggressively prosecute police misconduct; she faces re-election in 2018. But she is under intense pressure from activists who say she has not done enough to prosecute misconduct in less high-profile cases; on Wednesday, she vowed to “fight for a fair and equitable justice system for all, so that whatever happened to Freddie Gray never happens to another person in this community again.”
Ms. Mosby said the decision to drop the charges had been “agonizing.” But she said she had no choice given the realities of the case — including the lack of an independent investigatory agency to help prosecutors and the officers’ right to opt for bench trials. The judge, Barry G. Williams Jr., made clear he did not agree with prosecutors’ theory of the case. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake — who decided not to seek re-election after the unrest — asked residents to be patient as they absorbed the news. On Tuesday night in Philadelphia, the mayor called the roll that resulted in the nomination of Hillary Clinton for president, part of her duties as secretary of the Democratic National Committee.
“Without real substantive reforms to the current criminal justice system, we could try this case 100 times and cases just like it, and we would still end up with the same result,” Ms. Mosby said. To Black Lives Matter activists, the outcome was a clear disappointment — though perhaps not a surprise. DeRay Mckesson, a leader of the movement who ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Baltimore, echoed Ms. Mosby’s call for criminal justice reform, saying “someone should be held responsible” for Mr. Gray’s death.
As Ms. Mosby defended herself and her prosecution team, a starkly differing version of events emerged from the president of the police union — who branded Ms. Mosby’s criticisms of police as “outrageous” — and a lawyer for one of the officers, four of whom are back on the job.
“Baltimore, it’s time to heal,” the lawyer, Ivan J. Bates, who represented Sgt. Alicia D. White, told reporters, speaking on behalf of all the other lawyers and defendants. He extended condolences to the Gray family and said, “None of these officers woke up wanting to do anything negative to anyone.”
Mr. Bates said Judge Williams, who investigated police misconduct as a civil rights lawyer with the Justice Department, had followed the evidence — even if Ms. Mosby did not like where it led.
“You can get a conviction against the police, whether a bench trial or a jury trial, if you do an investigation,” the lawyer said. But, he said, if “you quickly want to automatically say that the officers are guilty because they’re the police, then you perpetrate that fear that’s already there and that’s dividing our country.”
Lt. Gene Ryan, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police Baltimore City Lodge 3, said that Ms. Mosby had refused to accept that an investigation by the Baltimore police found that no crime had been committed. “She had her own agenda,” he said.
All six officers face administrative hearings led by the police in Montgomery and Howard Counties.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake — who decided not to seek re-election in the aftermath of last spring’s unrest — asked residents to be patient as they absorbed the news. On Tuesday night, in Philadelphia, the mayor called the roll that resulted in the nomination of Hillary Clinton for president, part of her duties as secretary of the Democratic National Committee.
To Black Lives Matter activists, the outcome was a clear disappointment — though perhaps not a surprise. DeRay Mckesson, a leader of the movement who later ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Baltimore, echoed Ms. Mosby’s call for criminal justice reform, saying “someone should be held responsible” for Mr. Gray’s death.
“The dismissals are a reminder that the laws, practices and policies justify the actions of the police at all costs,” Mr. Mckesson said in a text message. “Freddie Gray should be alive today and someone should be held responsible for his death.”“The dismissals are a reminder that the laws, practices and policies justify the actions of the police at all costs,” Mr. Mckesson said in a text message. “Freddie Gray should be alive today and someone should be held responsible for his death.”
The decision to drop the remaining charges was disclosed during a pretrial motion for Officer Garrett Miller, whose trial was scheduled to begin this week. Ms. Mosby appeared in court at the lawyers’ table — a first — along with a member of her team; they told Judge Williams, of Baltimore City Circuit Court, that the state would not prosecute that case or the two remaining ones — against Sergeant White and against Officer Porter, the first officer to be tried. The officers’ trials opened with a sputter in December, when a jury deadlocked in the case of Officer William G. Porter, who had checked on Mr. Gray during the van ride, but had not belted him in or called medical attention. The mistrial caused delays — Ms. Mosby’s office appealed to Maryland’s highest court in a successful bid to compel Officer Porter to testify against his fellow officers — but the next up, Edward M. Nero, was acquitted in May.
There had been little public hint of the decision; Judge Williams had imposed a gag order on the lawyers, defendants and witnesses, seeking to tamp down publicity surrounding a death that had sparked violent protests and riots last spring. The driver of the van, Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr., faced the toughest charge — second-degree murder — and was acquitted in June. And Lt. Brian Rice, the highest-ranking officer present for the arrest, was acquitted this month.
“I think this was bowing to the inevitable,” said David Jaros, a law professor at the University of Baltimore who was in the courtroom Wednesday. “Ultimately, a prosecutor under the rules of ethics has to believe that they have sufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. Given what they had, given what was insufficient in the prior cases, I think it became clear after the last verdict that there wasn’t an avenue forward that would result in a conviction.” Over four trials, prosecutors and defense lawyers argued that Mr. Gray’s injury had taken place in the van, and Judge Williams agreed in his ruling in Lieutenant Rice’s case. But outside the courthouse, in the streets of Mr. Gray’s neighborhood, another theory on his death has thrived: that he was injured by the officers before he got into the van.
When Ms. Mosby appeared in court Wednesday, it was the first indication that something unusual was about to happen, Mr. Jaros said. The table was cleared of papers and briefs. “They didn’t look like attorneys about to start a case,” he said. The theory is fed by some witness statements and a video showing Mr. Gray being dragged into the van, his legs mostly limp, that have impressed themselves far deeper into the city’s consciousness than prosecutors’ arguments have.
The officers were not in court, and the prosecutors left the courtroom quickly. That — coupled with the lack of convictions and now the abandonment of the prosecution altogether — has fed a lingering sense of frustration among those who once saw in Ms. Mosby a hopeful sign.
Abandoning the charges was a clear blow for Ms. Mosby, who had pressed forward with the prosecutions even as doubts mounted about whether she could gain convictions. “We thought we were going to get answers — the way proceedings have gone, that has not come about,” said A. Dwight Pettit, a Baltimore lawyer who has represented plaintiffs in police brutality cases. “That’s the tragedy of this case.”
“At every turn, this prosecution pursued the aggressive path toward trying to get a conviction,” Mr. Jaros said. The decision to drop the charges, he said, is “not to say that the state’s attorney doesn’t believe that a crime occurred — only that they concede at this point that they could not prove all the elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Ms. Mosby said she and her team stood by the medical examiner’s conclusion that Mr. Grays’s death was a homicide.
“I need not remind you,” she said, “that the only loss — and the greatest loss — in all of this was that of Freddie Gray’s life.”