Trial delayed for officer in Freddie Gray case

With jury selection scheduled for Monday in the second Freddie Gray trial, prosecutors are awaiting a crucial decision by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals on whether Officer William G. Porter will be compelled to testify against his fellow officers – including Officer Caesar Goodson.

He later died of a broken neck. But Porter’s lawyer, Gary Proctor, argued to the appellate court that because prosecutors repeatedly called Porter a liar during his trial, he could be open to perjury charges depending on his testimony in Goodson’s trial.

When Judge Williams ordered Porter to testify in Goodson’s trial, he warned prosecutors they couldn’t use anything Porter says against him in his retrial.

For now prosecutors are without a key witness, as the Maryland Court of Special Appeals has temporarily blocked a Court order requiring Officer William Porter to testify as a material witness.

The trial will offer the public its first chance to hear Goodson’s side of the story.

Chief Judge Peter Krauser wrote in a ruling Monday for the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland that “it is presumably in the interests of all parties” that Porter’s appeal is settled before Goodson’s trial begins.

Goodson, who drove the police van carrying Gray, faces the most severe charges in connection with Gray’s death: second-degree depraved-heart murder, which could mean 30 years behind bars if convicted.

Last month, the trial of Baltimore police officer William Porter ended with a deadlocked jury.

After Porter’s case ended in a mistrial, the stakes for Goodson’s trial are even higher in a city still on edge from the rioting and unrest in April. [L1N14S1G2] Porter has said he will invoke his constitutional right against self-incrimination if called to testify.

Prosecutors accuse Goodson and Porter of failing to properly buckle Gray into a police wagon and ignoring his requests for medical attention, charges both officers deny.

His death exposed the tense relations between the public and the police in the USA, and became a national symbol of the Black Lives Matter movement protesting police brutality against minority communities.

Jamiea Speller Gray died on April 19 while in police custody in Baltimore.

Goodson, they say, bears the most responsibility because as the van driver, Gray was technically in his custody.

During the hearing, defense attorneys argued that prosecutors had introduced “a new legal theory or area of testimony at the proverbial eleventh hour”.

“And it’s his van that this happened in”, says defense attorney Warren Brown who adds Goodson has the “biggest hurdle” to overcome in his case.