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Posted by
Olog-hai
on Thu Jun 23 12:47:19 2016, in response to Officer Nero Acquitted on All Counts (Freddie Gray's Death Ruled A Homicide, Cops To Be Charged), posted by Olog-hai on Mon May 23 11:39:03 2016.
fiogf49gjkf0d The van driver.
NY Times
Baltimore Officer in Freddie Gray Case Is Cleared of All ChargesBy Jess Bidgood and Sheryl Gay Stolberg
June 23, 2016The Baltimore police officer who drove the van in which Freddie Gray sustained a fatal spinal injury was acquitted on Thursday of second-degree murder and six lesser charges, leaving prosecutors still without a conviction after three high-profile trials in a case that has shaken this city.
In his ruling, Judge Barry G. Williams rejected the prosecution’s claim that the officer, Caesar R. Goodson Jr., had given Mr. Gray a “rough ride” in the van, intentionally putting him at risk for an injury by taking a wide turn while Mr. Gray was not secured with a seatbelt.
“The court finds there is insufficient evidence that the defendant gave or intended to give Mr. Gray a rough ride,” Judge Williams, said, adding that there had not been “evidence presented at this trial that the defendant intended for any crime to happen.”
Office Goodson sat very quietly watching the judge as the verdict was read. Afterward, he hugged his family and some of the other officers charged in the case.
The death of Mr. Gray, a 25-year-old black man, in April of last year spurred days of violent protests that prompted the governor to call in the National Guard and put the city at the center of a wrenching national debate over race and policing. The state’s attorney, Marilyn J. Mosby, stood on the steps of the city’s War Memorial and told residents that she would “deliver justice” on their behalf. Ms. Mosby then took the unusual step of charging six officers in Mr. Gray’s fatal arrest and death, reserving the steepest charge — second-degree “depraved heart” murder — for Officer Goodson, who is also black.
Demonstrators and activists from the Black Lives Matter movement hailed the charges, but they were criticized by others as politically motivated or too ambitious. The two other trials have ended without convictions. The first trial, of Officer William G. Porter, who faced manslaughter and assault charges, ended with a hung jury in December. Last month, Officer Edward M. Nero was acquitted of four charges, including assault and reckless endangerment, for his role in Mr. Gray’s initial arrest. Like Officer Nero, Officer Goodson elected to have the judge, rather than a jury, decide his fate.
Mr. Gray was arrested after fleeing, apparently unprompted, from officers in the downtrodden Sandtown neighborhood of West Baltimore, and loaded onto the floor of the van. His legs were shackled and his hands cuffed behind his back, and he was not wearing a seatbelt. The police wagon made six stops through West Baltimore before it arrived at the Western District police station, where Mr. Gray was found unresponsive and not breathing with a spinal cord injury.
In his ruling, the judge methodically turned aside the state’s main contentions. The state, he said, had failed to prove that Officer Goodson knew or should have known that Mr. Gray needed medical attention during most of the van ride.
Prosecutors, he said, had also “failed to prove behind a reasonable doubt that the defendant drove in a criminally negligent manner.”
Prosecutors had also claimed that Officer Goodson had a duty to place a seatbelt on Mr. Gray, and failed to do so. Judge Williams said there was a point, during the van’s fourth stop, when Officer Goodson should have reassessed whether it was possible to put a seatbelt on Mr. Gray.
“Here, the failure to seatbelt may have been a mistake, or may have been bad judgment,” Judge Williams said, but the state had not shown it was a crime.
Outside the courthouse, immediately after the verdict, a few dozen demonstrators gathered and chanted, “Freddie Gray should be with us today.”
“This,” said Warren Brown, a defense lawyer in Baltimore, “was the state’s Waterloo.”
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