The next Freddie Gray trial is going badly for the prosecution before it even begins

[Valin]

Hot Air:

Jazz Shaw

July 6 2016

 

The next stage of Marilyn Mosby’s catastrophic attempt to prosecute the Baltimore PD over the death of Freddie Gray kicks off tomorrow and the early signs don’t look very good for her. Next up on the list of officers to be tried is Lt. Brian Rice, the most senior member of the unit deployed on the fateful day when Gray was picked up. Being in more of a supervisory role, Rice was expected to be a tougher conviction than some of the other officers to begin with, and early indications from the judge are likely giving his defense team reason to be cautiously optimistic.

 

For starters, Rice has opted for a bench trial before Circuit Judge Barry Williams, the same circumstances which produced not guilty verdicts in the last two trials. And in the closing steps of the preliminary proceedings, Williams dealt the prosecution yet another blow. (Yahoo News)

 

 

 

Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams ruled Tuesday that prosecutors can’t enter into evidence 4,000 pages of documents involving the training of Lt. Brian Rice, the fourth of six officers — three black, three white — to be tried in the young black man’s death…

 

Prosecutors are expected to argue that the 17-year Baltimore Police veteran knew or should have known that he and the officers he commanded were violating orders by intentionally leaving Gray unbuckled. Examining his in-service training records in court might have helped.

 

(Snip)

 

This prosecution team is beginning to gain the reputation of being The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight at this point. The previous trial of Officer Goodson centered – in part – around this question of whether or not the cops should have known to belt Gray in after seating him in the van. That argument didn’t carry enough weight before, so now they decided to dump Rice’s entire training record on the defense only a few days before the trial began in hopes of proving that at least he should have known to do it. The judge was in no mood for it.

 

(Snip)

[clearvision]

So they had on the stand a police "manager" saying how this officer should be distributing info on rules to the others below him. He is a lieutenant. The defense points out the "rule" that commanders are supposed to distribute the info. "Manage" says well that is not really feasible so they ignore the rule.... Score one for defense.

 

They then have an IT guy saying the lieutenant received his emails with new rules (containing the seatbelt update). I believe this was a week or so before the event. Defense on cross says 4 emails of new rules AND asks if the 2" stack of paper printout of new rules is valid. So a week or so to read/absorb/implement 100's of new rules.... Score two for defense.

 

Prosecution also dropped the "false" arrest charge because as has been said all along the knife was illegal.