Closing arguments set for Baltimore police officer’s trial

A verdict is expected Thursday at 10 a.m in the trial of Officer Caesar Goodson, who was driving the police van when Freddie Gray sustained ultimately fatal spinal injuries. One officer was acquitted, another’s trial ended in a hung jury, and in closing arguments Monday, prosecutors all but abandoned their central theory – that Officer Caesar Goodson meant to give Gray a “rough ride” after he tried to run from police.

Baltimore Police officer Caesar Goodson, charged with murder in the death of Freddie Gray, leaves the courthouse at the end of day four of his trial.

Prosecutors contend Gray was given a “rough ride”, causing the injuries from which he died a week later. In Nero’s trial, Chief Deputy State’s Attorney Michael Schatzow said the officer was responsible for putting Gray in a seat belt because custody of Gray never transferred to Goodson.

Goodson declined to testify on his behalf. The trial of Officer William Porter ended in December with a hung jury.

Caesar Goodson is the third of six police officers to be tried in the high-profile case of the African American whose death previous year triggered riots in Maryland’s largest city and led to a national debate about police brutality.

Goodson, the third officer to go on trial, was charged with second-degree depraved-heart murder, second-degree assault, misconduct in office, involuntary manslaughter, manslaughter by vehicles (gross negligence), manslaughter by vehicle (criminal negligence) and reckless endangerment. Defense attorneys say Goodson did nothing wrong. It was just the opening salvo in an unusual expression of rancor between police and prosecutors in the trial over Freddie Gray’s death.

Prosecutors have yet to win a conviction in Gray’s April 2015 death, which sparked Baltimore’s worst civil unrest in decades.

Williams has already questioned whether prosecutors had presented evidence to prove the rough-ride theory or that Gray showed any injuries that would prompt a call to medics.

“I know he testified that he was high and the like but there was a lot of specificity in his first statement for someone that was high on heroin and Xanax and whatever else he said”, Brown added.

Two other officers charged in the case also testified.

He testified for the defense before they rested on Friday. Like Nero, Goodson opted for a bench trial.

Officers have said he was too unruly to secure with a seat belt.

The last defense witness was Goodson’s colleague, Edward Nero, who was also charged in the case but was acquitted of all counts after a bench trial in May.

Williams said it would be inappropriate to include Schatzow’s remarks from Nero’s case because the closing arguments were more of a conversation with the judge and attorneys, instead of a formal appeal to a 12-member jury.

On Thursday, tensions between police and prosecutors surfaced when a prosecutor said he tried to have the lead detective removed from the case a year ago because he believed she was “sabotaging the investigation” by holding back information. The detective’s notes indicate the medical examiner initially considered it an accident, but she later ruled Gray’s death a homicide.

Defense attorney Matthew Fraling sought to exploit the discrepancy, comparing the state’s case to a game of “Three Card Monty”.

Warren Alperstein, another defense attorney, said he thought the defense “did a very good job” of discrediting state witnesses, including Allan. Closing arguments are scheduled Monday.