Experts say settlement in Gray case could affect hearing

While the proposed settlement was announced on Tuesday, it was ratified by the City’s Board of Estimates on Wednesday.

The settlement comes months after 25-year-old Gray died after suffering a spinal cord injury in police custody.

The hearing in Baltimore City Circuit Court will be on whether the officers’ separate trials should be moved from the largely black city of about 620,000 people.

“All this settlement does is remove civil liability from the six officers”, she said.

In July, New York City settled for $5.9 million with the family of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who died after being put in a white police officer’s chokehold. His property had sought $10 million in his demise.

The officers face charges ranging from second-degree depraved heart murder to assault and misconduct.

University of Pittsburgh law professor David Harris, who specializes in police misconduct cases, talked about the settlement on Maryland’s News Now.

He said there are two other cases, which he declined to identify, that would yield the city millions of dollars. All six have pleaded not guilty.

Shortly thereafter, the family of Freddie Gray filed claims against the City and the BPD arising out of his tragic death.

Money isn’t the only factor in the settlement; the city has also agreed to require Baltimore police to wear body cameras, a requirement that is also part of a bill that was signed in May.

The settlement has yet to be approved by the city’s Board of Estimates, the local institution that manages Baltimore’s spending. But later, it was revealed that the officers were both black, white, male and one woman. He said the notion that there is any reason to settle while criminal charges against the officers are pending “is obscene and without regard to the fiduciary responsibility owed to the taxpaying citizens of the city”.

He said Gray’s family members “are not advocates for a particular position” in the criminal trials, and only want to see justice served.

But the head of Baltimore’s police union, which represents the six accused officers, said before the announcement that a settlement would be premature.

It is not a judgement on the guilt or innocence of the officers facing trial, said Ms Rawlings-Blake.

Levy expects news of the settlement will not impact the judge’s decision on whether to move the cases, saying any jury would get special instructions to base their verdict only on evidence admitted during the trial.

Defense attorneys, citing the large amount of publicity surrounding the case, have asked for a change of venue.