In Baltimore, Maryland, prosecutors have dropped all remaining charges against three officers yet to be tried over the death of Freddie Gray. The officers have sued State Attorney Marilyn Mosby with allegations of intentionally filed false charges. In turn, she has accused the officers of corrupting the investigation into Gray’s death with “obvious bias.”
Of the six officers involved in the 2015 arrest and transportation of Freddie Gray that led to his death, four had already been tried resulting in three acquittals and a mistrial. The decision to drop the charges comes on the morning that pre-trial hearings for Garrett Miller were set to begin. Miller and Alicia White were the only remaining officers yet to be tried. Miller was accused of reckless endangerment, second-degree assault, and two counts of misconduct in office. White was charged with manslaughter.
Among those officers tried and acquitted were Lt. Brian Rice — the highest-ranking officer involved — and Caesar Goodson, who drove the van.
While the charges have been dropped, Mosby refused to backtrack on the idea that Gray’s death from a severed spinal cord — following an unrestrained ride in a police van — was a homicide. “We do not believe Freddie Gray killed himself,” she said in a news conference shortly after the charges were dropped. “We stand by the medical examiner’s determination that Freddie Gray’s death was a homicide.”
Freddie Gray’s death and the subsequent trials sparked protests, celebrity action, and riots in the city of Baltimore. While none of the officers were found responsible in his death, the City of Baltimore did award Gray’s family a $6.4 million settlement and force its police department to modify its use of force policy.
(Via ABC New York)