Maryland: Trial Delayed for Police Van Driver in Freddie Gray Case

Officer Caesar Goodson, 46, stands accused of the most serious offense: second-degree depraved heart murder.

A Maryland appeals court has delayed the trial of the police van driver charged in the death of Freddie Gray.

A two-page order was issued Monday by Maryland Court of Special Appeals Judge Peter B. Krauser, which stays the Goodson trial pending a resolution on whether the state can compel Officer William Porter to testify.

Six Baltimore Police officers are charged in the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old who was arrested in April 2015 and died a week later in police custody. However, officials said a decision could made sooner than that. Porter’s trial on involuntary manslaughter and other charges ended in a hung jury last month, and a retrial is set for June. He’s the second of six officers scheduled for trial.

Porter, whose own charges are still pending following a mistrial in December, is considered by prosecutors to be a material witness against Goodson and Sgt. Alicia White, and Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams ordered him to testify under limited immunity. Deadlines for attorneys on both sides to file various legal arguments with the court start January 26.

Goodson drove the van in which Gray suffered a fatal neck injury.