The saga is finally nearly over for the officers involved in the 2015 arrest and deadly transport of Freddie Gray. Today Lt. Brian Rice, the highest ranking officer on scene was cleared of all administrative chargesin relation to the case. Last week Officer Caesar Goodson Jr. was acquitted of all 21 administrative charges. Two other…
Read more
Marilyn Mosby said she is dropping all charges against the six Baltimore Police officers in the custody death of Freddie Gray. In the press conference she sounded like a petulant child who was caught out doing bad, and so blames everybody else instead. “Systemic issues,” she said. I think a voice of humility, noble humility,…
Read more
My piece over at CNN: Those who have not been following the trial assume there was some justification to the state’s charges. This assumption may be too generous. The prosecution not only failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, but as presented, the facts failed to show even evidence of a crime.
I’m calling this trial for the defense. Now I’m only following on twitter, so take this with a grain of salt, but the trial of Goodson — the most culpable of the officers on trial for the death of Freddie Gray — is not going well for the prosecution. Judge Williams told the defensethat they…
Read more
This isn’t new, it was just hard to figure out. And I wanted to add it to my Baltimore Primer. What exactly was argued in the acquittal of Officer Nero was hard to figure out. Mostly because the State’s Attorney, Mosby, has repeated changed her story. Initially she claimed the stop of Freddie Gray illegal…
Read more
Writing in the Baltimore Sun, co-authored with my friend, Leon “HL Mencken” Taylor: Mr. Nero, who had but a tangential role in Gray’s detention, should never have been charged. He committed no crime. … The prosecutor, in her desire to achieve “justice” for Freddie Gray, wanted somebody — anybody it seems — to pay for…
Read more
The latest from Page Croyder. It’s all good, but this is the part that clarified what exactly was being argued: They argued to trial judge Barry Williams that in the 2-3 minutes after Gray was handcuffed, but before the illegal knife was found on him, Nero, by not instantly finding out why the supervisor wanted…
Read more
Good. Judge Williams used the law. There was no case. I don’t find this surprising. But then I’ve learned to be surprised by these absurd trials. And I was speaking to a friend here in New Orleans who, naturally, assumed the officers are guilty. She hadn’t read my primer and had no idea this trial…
Read more
For all ya’ll too lazy to read Illinois v. Wardlow (2000), here is the key part that relates to the constitutionality of chasing suspects who run from a drug corner. The Freddie Gray scenario is almost exactly similar to Wardlow. (I’ve selectively bolded and also removed the citations, but you can click through for the…
Read more
A lot of people still don’t know the basics about the death of Freddie Gray and the trial of six Baltimore City police officers. I understand people have other priorities, but many of those with no clue still hold very strong opinions. So here’s a selective primer on the trial of the officers in the…
Read more