Caesar Goodson Trial: Freddie Gray’s Van Driver Seeks To Block Key Witnesses

The trial of the police officer facing the most serious charge in connection with the death of Baltimore man Freddie Gray was delayed Monday, shortly before the case was set to begin.

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals issued a stay that halts the trial of Caesar Goodson Junior.

Criminal defense attorney Clarke Ahlers, a former Maryland police officer who is not involved in the Gray case, said if the appellate courts decide Porter doesn’t have to testify, prosecutors could try to gain Porter’s cooperation by offering him complete immunity. Williams announced Monday morning Goodson’s trial will be pending until the Maryland Court of Special Appeals rules on the judge’s decision to force Porter to testify. Though the prosecutors say they will not be able to use statements Porter makes in Goodson’s trial against him later, the defense was skeptical of this unprecedented arrangement.

Caesar Goodson Jr. could face as many as 30 years behind bars if found guilty of the most severe charge against him, second-degree depraved-heart murder. Although they are co-defendants, the officers will get separate trials.

Porter was tried in December on charges of involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment.

Sergeant Alicia White is one of six Baltimore, Maryland police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray.

Gray died in April from a broken neck he suffered during a van ride.

On Friday afternoon the appeals court said it would stay the Circuit Court decision, “Because the State has not yet had an opportunity to respond to this 38-page motion that was filed just 24 hours ago, and because the trial in this matter is to commence shortly”.

Goodson drove the van that transported Gray to several stops in West Baltimore when Gray’s injury occurred last April.

Before Williams issued his ruling last week, he said he was in “uncharted territory”.

For Goodson’s trial, the prosecutors team recently gained a new player by recruiting a new witness, Stanford Franklin, a retired Baltimore police officer who is also the executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. “The second he testifies, it may change the game”, he told them last week. Or they could ask to re-try Porter first, or proceed without Porter’s testimony.

I’m sympathetic to the prosecution’s desire to bring Gray’s purported killers to justice, and I appreciate their efforts to put Porter on the witness stand. But at this stage, the legal maneuver simply seems impractical, delaying the trial and shifting the focus to a constitutional sideshow.