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Prosecutors Say Baltimore Police Mishandled Freddie Gray Case Prosecutors Say Baltimore Police Mishandled Freddie Gray Case
(about 5 hours later)
BALTIMORE — The prosecutors who were unable to win convictions of police officers in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray sharply criticized the city Police Department on Thursday, saying that its handling of the case undermined the prosecution, and refuted defense claims that they rushed to file charges. BALTIMORE — After a string of high-profile defeats, the prosecutors who were unable to win convictions of police officers in the death of Freddie Gray defended themselves on Thursday and sharply accused the city’s Police Department of undermining them.
At an extraordinary news conference the day after their boss, Marilyn J. Mosby, the state’s attorney for Baltimore, announced she was dropping charges against the three officers who still awaited trial, the two lead prosecutors — both seasoned lawyers — said the police failed to serve search warrants for the officers’ personal cellphones and repeated a charge made in court that a detective assigned to the case was sabotaging it. At a news conference the day after their boss, Marilyn J. Mosby, the state’s attorney for Baltimore, announced she was dropping charges against the three officers who still awaited trial, the lead prosecutors — both seasoned lawyers — said the police had failed to serve search warrants for the officers’ personal cellphones. The lawyers also echoed a charge made in court that a detective assigned to the case was sabotaging it.
The comments were the first time the prosecutors — who had been under a rule of silence — spoke about a case that drew national attention. They appeared worn out and at times frustrated but offered a remarkable look into their thinking, and the potential conflicts between the police and prosecutors who usually work together. They disputed a contention by critics that they rushed to bring charges, and said they never doubted their theory of the case — or whether they had the evidence to win.
“There was sufficient evidence for a rational juror to convict,” Michael Schatzow, deputy chief state’s attorney, told reporters, crowded into a conference room in Ms. Mosby’s downtown suite of offices. “We believed in these cases, and we were prepared to fight very hard for these cases.” “There was sufficient evidence for a rational juror to convict,” Michael Schatzow, deputy chief state’s attorney, told reporters crowded into a conference room in Ms. Mosby’s downtown suite. “We believed in these cases, and we were prepared to fight very hard for these cases.”
He and Janice Bledsoe, a deputy state’s attorney, said prosecutors tried to get the personal cellphones of the six officers, which might have shown their communications during and after the episode, but could not because of a Police Department foul-up. The appearance by Mr. Schatzow and Janice Bledsoe, a deputy state’s attorney, was the first time the prosecutors — who like all the lawyers, defendants and witnesses had been subject to a strict rule of silence imposed by the judge — spoke publicly, outside the courtroom, about a case that has torn apart this city and drawn national attention.
“The Baltimore Police Department did not execute those warrants in the correct amount of time, and they expired,” Ms. Bledsoe said. The two appeared worn out and at times exasperated — “When it comes to frustration, I plead guilty,” Mr. Schatzow said — but offered a remarkable look into their thinking, and the potential conflicts between the police and prosecutors who usually work together.
Asked why that failure occurred, and whether she thought the department was “circling the wagons” around its fellow officers, she said: “Why the search warrants weren’t executed is a question that the Police Department can answer. In terms of circling the wagons, again I think that’s a question that B.P.D. can answer.” It is “extraordinarily unusual,” for prosecutors to publicly criticize the police, said David Jaros, a law professor at the University of Baltimore. He said the trials highlighted the need — as Ms. Mosby suggested at her news conference on Wednesday — for independent investigators and prosecutors to handle police misconduct cases.
The Baltimore Police Department has stood by its investigation. In a statement released on Wednesday, Commissioner Kevin Davis said he wanted to remind residents that “over 30 ethical, experienced and talented detectives worked tirelessly to uncover facts” in the case. “There is something problematic,” Mr. Jaros said, “when police officers are asked to investigate themselves and when local prosecutors are involved in these highly politicized, high-profile prosecutions.”
Responding to defense lawyers’ claims that the prosecution was slow to turn over material, Ms. Bledsoe said, “We can’t turn over things we don’t have.” The Police Department has stood by its investigation. In a statement released Wednesday, Commissioner Kevin Davis said “over 30 ethical, experienced and talented detectives worked tirelessly to uncover facts” in the case. A department spokesman said Thursday that the police would “not engage in public banter with our criminal justice partners.”
At one point, she said, in a meeting last August, nearly four months after the arrest of Mr. Gray, the police gave prosecutors “441 pages of documents that we had not previously been given.” Mr. Gray, a 25-year-old black man, was arrested on April 12, 2015, in the blighted West Baltimore neighborhood where he grew up. He sustained a fatal spinal cord injury and died a week later — one of a string of deaths around the country of black men at the hands of the police that prompted national outcry, and riots here.
Mr. Schatzow reiterated what he had said in court last month, that the lead police detective involved in the investigation, Dawnyell Taylor, had sabotaged the case. Ms. Taylor claimed in testimony that a medical examiner had told her that Mr. Gray’s death was a “freakish accident,” which Mr. Schatzow suggested was false; the same medical examiner officially called it a homicide. On May 1, with National Guard troops on patrol, Ms. Mosby announced that she was bringing criminal charges against six officers. Prosecutors said that Mr. Gray’s arrest was baseless, that officers were slow to get him medical help, and that he sustained the fatal injury during a police van ride, in part because officers failed to put a seatbelt on him.
“She was doing things without notifying us, and doing things that were counter to what a primary detective should be doing on a case,” Mr. Schatzow said on Thursday. But the first trial ended in a hung jury, and three more ended in acquittals issued by Judge Barry G. Williams of the Baltimore City Circuit Court, prompting the prosecution team to conclude they could not win convictions before him. In Maryland, defendants may choose whether to have a trial by judge or jury.
And he said the officers who testified gave contradictory accounts of what happened. Mr. Schatzow said prosecutors began investigating the circumstances around Mr. Gray’s injury in the days after it happened, and said it was not scattershot or rushed, adding, “I don’t think we felt that there was material that we overlooked.”
“When it comes to frustration, I plead guilty,” he said. Legal experts have noted that timeline fell short of what is typical for federal inquiries, which last months if not years. But the prosecutors laid blame on the police, not themselves.
Mr. Gray was arrested on April 12, 2015, and sustained a neck injury that badly damaged his spinal cord, and he died a week later. His was one of a string of deaths of black men at the hands of the police that prompted national outcry, and it sparked rioting in Baltimore. Mr. Schatzow said the lead police detective involved in the inquiry, Dawnyell Taylor, “was doing things without notifying us, and doing things that were counter to what a primary detective should be doing,” and was removed from the case as a result of his complaints. But in court, she denied that she had been removed from the case.
Ms. Mosby, the state’s attorney for Baltimore, brought criminal charges against six officers, saying that the arrest of Mr. Gray was baseless, that officers were slow to get him medical help, and that he sustained the fatal injury during a ride in a police van, in part because officers failed to put a seatbelt on him. And Ms. Bledsoe said that while the police tried to get personal cellphones of the six officers, which might have shown their communications during and after the episode, the department “did not execute those warrants in the correct amount of time, and they expired.”
Some residents here, as well as neurologists who have watched the case from afar, have questioned whether Mr. Gray might have actually been injured during the initial arrest, when he was pinned to a sidewalk. But prosecutors said Thursday that video recordings of the arrest, showing Mr. Gray raising his chin off the pavement, and later standing on the back bumper of the police van, at least partially supporting his own weight, indicated that he had not yet sustained a paralyzing injury. One of the biggest outstanding questions is what, precisely, happened to Mr. Gray. Some residents here, as well as neurologists who have watched the case from afar, have questioned whether he was injured not in the van, but during the initial arrest, when he was pinned to a sidewalk — a scene captured on video that was widely replayed.
One officer’s trial ended in a hung jury, and the officer was scheduled to be retried. Three other officers, who opted for trials before a judge, Barry G. Williams, were acquitted. On Wednesday, just as another trial was set to begin before the same judge — who, as a prosecutor, had tried officers for misconduct — the state’s attorney’s office dropped all the remaining charges. “Everybody who saw that acknowledged that he couldn’t use his legs properly,” said Mary Anne Whelan, a retired neurologist in Cooperstown, N.Y., who was one of several doctors who in interviews have questioned the narrative about Mr. Gray’s injury. “Somehow or other it’s gotten to be accepted that it happened in the van, but that’s wrong.”
Mr. Schatzow said of the judge: “It is not likely that he is going to start making different decisions. We have to take that into account in determining whether or not to go forward.” But prosecutors said that video recordings of the arrest, which they said showed Mr. Gray raising his chin off the pavement and later standing on the back bumper of the police van, at least partly supporting his own weight, indicated that he had not yet sustained a paralyzing injury.
Defense lawyers said on Wednesday that Ms. Mosby had rushed to bring charges, and that her office did not conduct a real investigation. The prosecutors firmly disputed that claim, noting that most of the important evidence was available within days of Mr. Gray’s arrest. In the end, Mr. Schatzow said, Ms. Mosby “correctly determined” that while there may have been enough evidence to persuade jurors, they would never convince Judge Williams that the officers had committed a crime — despite the judge’s history as a lawyer who once prosecuted police misconduct for the Justice Department.
“I don’t think we felt that we were rushing,” Mr. Schatzow said. “I don’t think we felt that there was material that we overlooked. I think much of the evidence was in the statements of the officers who gave statements, and those statements were all in by April 17.” “We had to face the reality,” he said, “that defendants would select judge trials, and that this judge would try the cases.”