January Freddie Gray trials postponed

Baltimore Police Department (BPD) Officer William Porter cannot be compelled to testify against three of his fellow officers implicated in the death of Freddie Gray.

Judge Barry Williams denied the prosecution’s motion at a hearing last week stating that he believed the prosecution was simply trying to delay the trials of Officers Garrett Miller and Edward Nero and Lieutenant Brian Rice, which are tentatively set to be held in February and March.

Porter was tried in December on the charges of manslaughter, assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment. Williams declared a mistrial after the jury came back hung on all four charges. Porter will be retried in June.

Prosecutors did not mention wanting Porter to testify against Miller, Nero and Rice until this month.

“We tried to learn something from our experience in trying Officer Porter,” Chief Deputy State’s Attorney Michael Schatzow said at the hearing. “We think we have the right to change our mind, and we acknowledge we are changing our mind.”

Schatzow told Williams that Porter could help shore up the reckless endangerment charges against Miller and Nero and the manslaughter and assault charges against Rice by testifying about Gray not being secured in the van and being injured.

Williams did not agree that Porter’s testimony would be necessary or germane.

Porter was the first of six officers to be tried so that he could testify against Officer Caesar Goodson, Jr., the driver of the van that transported Gray to the Western District police station and Sergeant Alicia White without fear of self-incrimination.

According to Porter, he told both of them that Gray wanted medical attention. The prosecution said back in September that Porter was a “necessary and material” witness against them.

After his mistrial, Porter pleaded the Fifth Amendment to avoid incriminating himself in testimony against Goodson, whose trial was scheduled to start Jan. 6.

Prosecutors motioned for Porter to be compelled to testify with limited immunity, which Williams granted. Porter’s attorneys then turned to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, which chose to postpone Goodson’s trial indefinitely while it makes a decision about whether Porter should be compelled to testify. A hearing is set for March 4.

Last week, Williams postponed White’s trial, which was scheduled to start Jan. 25, in response. Miller will now be the next officer tried. His trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 22.

Gray, 25, died of a severe spinal cord injury in April, one week after being arrested by BPD officers.