National
In Defending Baltimore Police Officers, Lawyers Build Case From the Details
Clockwise from top left: Baltimore police officers William G. Porter, Garrett E. Miller, Caesar R. Goodson Jr., Edward M. Nero, Alicia D. White, Brian W. Rice. (Baltimore Police Department)
Sergei F. Kovaleski and Michael Wines, THE NEW YORK TIMES
BALTIMORE (The New York Times) — Less than two weeks after six police officers were charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray, the officers’ lawyers and supporters have sketched the outline of a defense, taking aim at the substance of some of the most serious accusations, as well as at procedural issues.
Last Friday, lawyers for the six officers filed to dismiss all charges and asserted that Marilyn J. Mosby, the state’s attorney for Baltimore City, was so tainted by conflicts of interest that she could not have fairly judged the merits of the case. They also argued that she misread the law in charging that Mr. Gray’s arrest for carrying an illegal knife — the reason for detaining him in a police van where he suffered a fatal spinal cord injury — was without foundation.
Those are threads in a broader narrative that is expected to challenge Ms. Mosby’s main accusation, laid out in her charging documents. She says the officers illegally arrested and shackled Mr. Gray, flouting police rules and standards of decency in loading him into a police van without required safety restraints and ignoring his pleas for help during an extended ride.
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