Prosecution Nears Finish In Baltimore Officer’s Trial In Freddie Gray’s Death

Judge Barry Williams refused a defense request to declare a mistrial because prosecutors failed to give defense attorneys information that Freddie Gray complained about a back injury before his arrest in April-but the defense can use that information in its case.

As the trial entered its second week, much of the testimony focused on medical evidence and what it reveals about the core issues presented by this racially and politically charged case: Did officers abandon their duty by leaving Gray shackled and without a seat belt in the back of a police van?

Gray’s injury, a spinal contusion near his brain stem, was so severe that it caused swelling, bleeding and tissue death.

Medical assistance was not called until the van reached a police station, the sixth stop it made with Gray inside.

Defense attorney Joe Murtha called the statement exculpatory and accused prosecutors of withholding it.

The judge has said the trial would run until December 17 at the latest. He said there was no testimony that Porter deviated from what a reasonable police officer would do.

Porter told investigators that he and the driver of the van in which Gray’s neck was broken didn’t call for an ambulance because Gray was already in the van.

Allan said she considered that possibility, but saw no evidence that a prior injury would have contributed to Gray’s death.

She asked the officers what happened, and they speculated Gray might have been banging his head on the side of the van.

Assistant medical examiner Dr. Carol Allan fended off a variety of explicit and implied criticisms of her work in the Gray case from defense attorney Joseph Murtha, including a suggestion that she may have rushed the report to help State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby make a quick announcement of charges.

Asked by Murtha whether Gray’s apparent difficulty breathing could have merely been breathlessness as a result of having fled from police, Soriano curtly replied, “That’s a bit of a stretch, counselor”. Criminal justice professor Michael Lyman also testified that Porter shared with other officers a duty to buckle Gray in, as required by department policy.

Defense attorneys say it is incomplete and speculative.

Soriano testified as an expert witness in a case involving Dondi Johnson, a Baltimore man who was arrested in 2005 for public urination and left paralyzed after riding in the back of a police van. Instead, Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr., the driver of the van, stopped to pick up another suspect and then drove to the headquarters for the Western District before Gray was found unconscious inside and a medic was called, prosecutors said. Witnesses said that Gray had ceased rocking the van and protesting after the second stop, Allan testified.

Porter and Goodson are among six Baltimore police officers charged in the case.

The makeup of the jury also changed today, as a medical emergency reportedly led to one juror, a black woman, being replaced by a male alternate juror, according to NBC Washington. The other officers face charges ranging from misconduct to second-degree murder. He is the first of six officers to be tried over Gray’s death.