First Trial in Freddie Gray Murder Case Set for November

Earlier this month Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams granted requests by the six officers to be tried separately, setting the stage for a months-long series of trials.

Mr. Gray was a 25-year-old black man who died on April 19 after sustaining a critical spinal cord injury while in police custody.

If the account is true, Porter’s testimony will shed light on a looming question in the case: Why wasn’t Gray taken to a hospital immediately after he requested medical attention and his inhaler following his arrest? His death prompted protests and rioting that shook the city and caused millions of dollars in damage, and has since come to symbolize the broken relationship between the police and the public in Baltimore, and the treatment of black men by police in America.

“If they don’t obtain a successful conviction in the Porter matter, it’s going to be very hard for them to obtain convictions in the following matters”, said defense lawyer J. Wyndol Gordon.

Although each officer will get his or her own trial, the order in which the officers will be tried is significant.

The officers’ statements about each other had been raised as an issue during previous hearings, and were cited by Williams as a reason for his decision to split the officers’ trials, rather than try them in groups.

Porter is charged with manslaughter, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office.

Goodson was the only one of the six who did not provide a statement to investigators in the aftermath of the incident.

However, The Baltimore Sun reported that it was granted exclusive access to the police department’s investigation, which shows Porter allegedly told Officer Caesar Goodson Jr., the driver of the van in which Gray was transported after his arrest, that the police booking facility would not process Gray because of his medical condition.

According to Reid, all of the officers except for Porter were present for the hearing Tuesday at which the trial dates were set. According to charging documents, they failed to render aid to Gray once he’d been placed into the police transport van.

The other five officers, whose charges include involuntary manslaughter, assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment, will not be tried until next year.

Lt. Brian Rice, March 9.

Officer Edward Nero, 29, was on bicycle and arrested Gray in the 1700 block of Presbury Street; Nero is charged with second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and two counts of misconduct in office. All have pleaded not guilty.