BALTIMORE (AP) — A judge dropped an assault charge Monday against a Baltimore police officer charged in the death of a black man injured in a police transport van.
Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams dismissed the second-degree assault charge against Lt. Brian Rice, the fourth of six officers — three black, three white — to be tried in the 2015 death of Freddie Gray. After three trials, Williams has yet to rule that any of the officers committed crimes. Rice is the third officer to let Williams alone decide their fate.
The judge said the prosecution’s basis for the assault charge was that Rice used the van in the alleged assault. Williams ruled that because Rice didn’t drive the van, prosecutors had no evidence.
Rice still faces charges of manslaughter, reckless endangerment and misconduct. One misconduct charge was dropped when the trial began last week.
Williams dropped the assault charge after the prosecution rested its case and Rice’s lawyers asked for the judge to acquit him.
Earlier Monday, two other officers charged in Gray’s death testified at Rice’s bench trial.
The trial resumed with testimony from Officer Edward Nero, who was acquitted, and William Porter, whose trial ended in a mistrial.
After prosecutors asked Nero about his defamation lawsuit against prosecutors and a joint defense agreement he entered with other defendants, Williams ruled that Nero was hostile to the prosecution, allowing them to ask him leading questions.
Gray died a week after suffering a spinal injury in the van, touching off protests and rioting.
About a dozen protesters, the largest group since the trial began, stood outside the courthouse, some holding signs referencing the recent police killings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota.
Rice, the highest-ranking of the officers charged, is white. The judge, chief prosecutor and Baltimore’s mayor are African-American. Race has not been cited as a direct factor in Gray’s death, but his arrest and fatal injury added momentum to the Black Lives Matter movement, which decries the treatment of black Americans by people in power.
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These ridiculous trials, which are costing the City of Baltimore hundreds of thousands of dollars each, should be simply dismissed.
There was no illegal arrest, no assault, and no attempt to injure well known drug seller Freddie Gray.
Instead Ms. Mosby basically fucked herself and Baltimore by rushing to satisfy the BLM thugs. And, as a result, after assurances that she would win, the City gave a $6.5 million civil settlement (without a civil trial) to the family of a criminal whose life wasn’t worth a dime bag.
Wow - determining that any life is worth less than 10 cents is beyond judgmental. I hope no one in your circle of family or friends ever makes a mistake and also that you’re not so hypocritical as to be a right-to-life proponent.
The notion there was no fault by anyone whose passenger sustained a fatal spinal injury while driving down the street is pretty thin under the best excuses.
That it happened in a van operated by police…?
Only a corrupt court system with no standards can excuse it.
There are many people like wagonmound in the world. Thank gawd for aging.
And a very cheery “Seig Heil” to you, this fine morning as well.
First thing in the morning, and, right here at TPM, we have yet another Internet authoritarian waxing indignant that cops are being prosecuted for recklessness in their handling of a criminal suspect resulting in his death as if they were ordinary people too busy chatting on their cells while they drove to see an an innocent white bicyclist. I mean, why even have cops if not to make them judges, juries and executioners of bad black people who, after all, everybody knows are bad and deserve to die? Who cares if a few keifers get their heads broken in a van, eh? If they have prior convictions, they’re just subhuman trash with no rights of citizenship in a democracy, or, really any rights a white man need respect.
What a day-brightener, as Ann Landers used to say.