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Along with the case against Miller, the City State’s Attorney’s Office is dropping charges against Sgt. Alicia White and Ofc. William Porter. White’s trial was scheduled for October and Porter’s retrial—his first trial ended in a hung jury—was scheduled for December. With the dropping of all charges, the gag order imposed in the cases was also rescinded by Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams.

Prosecutors had failed to earn a conviction in the first of four trials of the six officers charged in connection with the death of the 25-year-old Gray, who suffered fatal spinal injuries in custody while being transported in the back of a police van.

Ofc. Caesar Goodson, the driver of the police transport van, was acquitted of all charges, including the most serious facing any of the six officers—second-degree depraved heart murder—in late June. Ofc. Edward Nero and Lt. Brian Rice were acquitted of charges ranging from second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and misconduct in office.

The timing of the decision this morning by prosecutors was a surprise, but ultimately not wholly unexpected. It comes as apparent acknowledgement of the unlikelihood of earning a conviction in the rest of the cases after the previous acquittal rulings by Williams, who was expected to preside over the remaining trials from the bench as well. Nero, who was on hand in support of Miller, said he was “relieved” by the decision to drop the charges.

At a press conference held at the site of Freddie Gray’s arrest, City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby defended her decision to bring charges against the six officers last April.

“Despite that challenges of not having an independent investigatory agency to work with us throughout this process, we still are grateful for the opportunity to show the world the reality of the justice system from start to finish,” Mosby said. “The legitimacy of our prosecution efforts were affirmed time and time again.”

Mosby also placed blame for her office’s failure to successfully prosecute the cases on the Baltimore Police Department. There were “lead detectives that were completely uncooperative and started a counter-investigation to disprove the state’s case by not executing search warrants.”

At every step of the way, Mosby said, due process was afforded to all of the officers.

She said she recognized that Judge Williams made it clear that he does not agree with the State’s theory in the case—essentially that the officers were criminally negligent in detaining and failing to seatbelt Gray—adding that her office “does not believe that Freddie Gray killed himself.”

“As a mother, the decision not to proceed on these trials is agonizing,” Mosby said. “What I’ve ultimately learned throughout this arduous process is that . . . justice is always worth the price paid for its pursuit.”

“For those that believe that I’m anti-police, it’s simply not the case. I am anti-police brutality,” she added to cheers from onlookers gathered at the press conference.

Finally, Mosby said: “Without communal oversight of policing in this community, without real substantive reforms to the current criminal justice system, we could try this case a hundred times, and cases just like it, and we would still end up with the same result.”

Some observers have called for Mosby to step down in light of the failed prosecutions, alleging she over-reached in bringing the charges against the officers initially. George Washington University public interest law professor John Banzhaf III has said he intended to file a complaint against Mosby with the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission.

Harvard Law School criminal law professor and director of the Criminal Justice Institute, Ronald Sullivan defended Mosby’s decision to bring charges in an op-ed to The Baltimore Sun this week.

In a statement, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said the Baltimore Police Department will still complete an administrative review of each officer involved. “I recognize the emotional nature of this case,” Rawlings-Blake said. “The eyes of the nation, indeed the world, have been on Baltimore for a very long time and I thank the citizens of our city for their patience during these trials. Now I ask the citizens to again join me in being patient as the administrative process moves forward.”

The Baltimore Police Department said they would not make a formal comment at this time, but would release a statement later.

“Everybody wanted to find out what happened to Freddie Gray,” Ivan Bates, defense attorney for Sgt. White, commented. “The Baltimore City Police Department did the investigation and they said it was an accident. The [Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office] had an opportunity to do an in-depth investigation, and they did not. It is the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s office that has denied justice to the Gray family.”

Gene Ryan, president of the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police, responded to the announcement this afternoon at a press conference.

“The state’s attorney simply could not accept the evidence,” Ryan said. “There was no wrongdoing by any officer.”

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Maryland Judiciary Office of Communications and Public Affairs deputy director Terri Charles told Baltimore magazine that no timeline has been set in the rescheduling of Goodson’s trial as of yet. Initially, a three-judge, Maryland Court of Appeals panel was expected to rule on Porter’s testimony sometime this week or next while Goodson’s trial was underway. Charles said Monday that the state Court of Special Appeals has now asked Porter’s defense attorneys and city prosecutors to file briefs on the matter and that an oral argument hearing will be scheduled before the court rules on whether Porter can be compelled to testify in the Goodson’s trial.

In temporarily staying the start of Goodson’s trial, the Court of Special Appeals wrote that “it is presumably in the interests of all parties” . . . that “the State’s motion to compel the testimony of William Porter be decided be before the commencement of the trial.”

“We’re not allowed to speculate on when the [oral arguments] hearing may take place or what date the trial may rescheduled for,” Charles said.

Porter was the first of the six officers tried on charges related to the death of Freddie Gray. His case ended in a deadlocked jury and his retrial has been reset for June. Prosecutors have said that Porter is a material witness in their cases against Goodson and Sgt. Alicia White, whose trial is scheduled to follow Goodson. Porter’s attorney’s have argued that their client has a fifth amendment right against self-incrimination that he can invoke to avoid being put on the witness stand in the prosecution’s case against Goodson.

The trial of Officer Caesar Goodson Jr., who faces the most serious charge—second-degree, depraved heart murder—of the six police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, begins Monday with jury selection.

Goodson, 46, was the driver of the police transport van in which Gray suffered his fatal spinal cord injury, according to the state medical examiner’s office. Second-degree, depraved-heart murder doesn’t require premeditation like first-degree murder, but holds that the alleged perpetrator behaved with a reckless disregard for another person’s life. If guilty, the charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 years.

The Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office may have to change their prosecution strategy, however. Prosecutors had planned to have Officer William Porter, who checked on Gray during the 25-year-old’s 45-minute ride in the police transport van, testify against Goodson.

Goodson, prosecutors allege, is the officer most accountable for Gray’s fatal injury because, as the driver of the police transport van, Gray was in his custody. He is also charged with manslaughter, second-degree assault, criminally negligent manslaughter by vehicle, misconduct in office, and reckless endangerment.

Now, as the trial gets underway, it is unclear whether Porter can be compelled to testify.

Last week, Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams ruled that Porter—whose first trial in the case ended in a hung jury—had to testify as a witness against Goodson, despite Porter’s claim of a right against self-incrimination since his charges remain up in the air with a June retrial date. Williams said in ruling that Porter could be compelled to testify because the prosecution’s granting of limited immunity would protect Porter from having his testimony used against him at his second trial.

But immediately after Williams’ decision, Porter’s defense team filed for an injunction to prevent their client, who is also under federal investigation, from having to take the witness stand with Maryland Court of Special Appeals. The state appellate court has temporarily blocked Williams’ decision to force Porter to testify until it can make a final ruling.

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals ruling on whether Porter can be required to testify is expected to come at some point during the trial, but the question is when. Porter’s testimony is considered crucial because he allegedly told Goodson that Gray indicated he needed medical assistance.

The appellate court’s ruling could also affect the prosecution’s case against Sgt. Alicia White, whose trial follows Goodson’s. Porter is also expected to be called as a material witness in White’s trial, which has been pushed back to Feb. 8.

Jury selection in Porter’s trial took two days, so there’s a chance the appellate court’s ruling could come before opening statements in Goodson’s trial are made.

Warren Alperstein, a Baltimore attorney who has been following the cases closely, and defense attorney Steven Levin, a defense attorney and former prosecutor, both told the Associated Press that case against Goodson could be hard to prove without Porter’s testimony.

“I don’t think the state can come close to meeting its burden without Porter’s testimony,” Levin said. “I think it could be another hung jury.”

While some protestors are expected outside the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse downtown, demonstrations are not expected to be widely disruptive this week. Significant protests around Porter’s trial did not materialize until after the announcement of a deadlocked jury on all four charges he faced.

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Mosby said the state medical examiner’s office ruled the death a homicide and alleges that city police had at least five different opportunities to render medical assistance to Gray or call for medical assistance as Gray was loaded into the van in handcuffs and during later stops when they checked on him.

Gray, Mosby said, did not have a pulse and was in cardiac arrest when medical assistance was called and arrived to treat him at the Western District police station.

Mosby also said the knife found in Gray’s pants pocket after he was detained by police was not a switchblade and is lawful under Maryland law. She said that the officers who arrested Gray “failed to establish probable cause for his arrest as no crime had been committed.” Gray, who had ran after making eye contact with one officer, in other words, according to Mosby,”was illegally arrested.”

Mosby said Gray sustained a neck injury during his transport to the Western District police station and that a Baltimore City Police Department general order that all detainees must be restrained inside a police van was not followed. Gray, according to Mosby, asked several times for medical assistance, requests which were ignored by officers.

“Following transport from Baker Street, Mr. Gray suffered a severe and critical neck injury as a result of being handcuffed, shackled by his feet and unrestrained inside of the BPD wagon,” Mosby said.

The criminal charges filed against the six police officers in the death of Gray include the allegation of second-degree, depraved heart murder against officer Caesar R. Goodson, Jr., who drove the police transport van, faces a potential maximum penalty of 63 years in prison if found guilty of all the charges brought against him. The depraved heart murder charge is unusual, Baltimore criminal defense attorney Walter Balint, with 33 years experience told Newsweek. “Depraved heart murder is a super manslaughter case. It is like taking a loaded gun and firing it down the street. You kill someone standing on the other side of the street with that shot. You didn’t intend that specific victim but you killed someone.”

Three other officers, William G. Porter, Lt. Brian Rice, and Sgt. Alicia D. White have been charged with involuntary manslaughter, among other allegations, and face a possible maximum penalty of 20 or more years.

Two other officers, Edward M. Nero and Garrett E. Miller, have been charged with two counts each of second-degree assault, among other charges, and also face a possible maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, if convicted.

In her opening remarks, Mosby said that she had met with Gray’s family.

“I assured his family no one is above the law and I will pursue justice on their behalf,” Mosby told reporters in announcing the charges in front of Baltimore City’s War Memorial Building downtown.

In closing, Mosby highlighted her family’s extensive background in law enforcement, including her parents, who were both police officers, and said that the charges should not be viewed as an indictment of the entire Baltimore City Police Department.

She also said that she had heard protesters calls for justice in the wake of Gray’s death in police custody and had a message for them. Large demonstrations and marches are planned today and this weekend.

“Your peace is sincerely needed,” Mosby said. “I can bring justice for the man.”

Mosby said that her office’s probe into the Gray case had begun April 13, the day after he was injured, and that her team had “worked around the clock, 12- and 14-hour days” in completing their own investigation. Her office’s probe was in addition to the initial police investigation that was turned over to her office yesterday.

At a scheduled 1 p.m. press conference following Mosby’s announcement Friday afternoon, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said she was “sickened and heartbroken” by the charges brought forth against the six police officers. She also said five of six officers who are being charged are already in police custody.

When asked by a reporter about Fraternal Order of Police letter asking for a special prosecutor to handle the Gray case, Mosby said: “The people of Baltimore City elected me and there is no accountability with a special prosecutor.”

Rep. Elijah Cummings, in a statement, said he was “pleased” that Mosby had moved “judiciously and swiftly to seek justice for the Gray family.”

“While investigations are ongoing, we must start working now to secure the safety of our children’s futures,” added Cummings, who has been a visible presence at protests in West Baltimore. “This is a transformative moment for the City of Baltimore and I will continue to urge my neighbors to remain peaceful while continuing to seek justice for Freddie Gray.”

The full video of Mosby’s press conference can be found here.

The following information is courtesy of the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office and includes the respective maximum penalties, if found guilty, in parenthesis. All officers are innocent until proven guilty.

Officer Caesar R. Goodson was charged with

• 1)Second-degree depraved heart murder (30 yrs.)
• 2)Manslaughter-involuntary (10 yrs.)
• 3)Assault-second degree (10 yrs.)
• 4)Manslaughter by vehicle-gross negligence (10 yrs.)
• 5)Manslaughter-criminal negligence (3 yrs.)
• 6)Misconduct in office (*8^th Amendment)

Officer William G. Porter

• 1)Manslaughter-involuntary (10 yrs.)
• 2)Assault-second degree (10 yrs.)
• 3)Misconduct in office (*8^th Amendment)

Lt. Brian W. Rice

• 1)Manslaughter-involuntary (10 yrs.)
• 2)Assault-second degree (10 yrs.)
• 3)Assault-second degree (10 yrs.)
• 4)Misconduct in office (*8^th Amendment)
• 5)Misconduct in office (*8^th Amendment)
• 6)False imprisonment (*8^th Amendment)

Officer Edward M. Nero

• 1)Assault-second degree (10 yrs.)
• 2)Assault-second degree (10 yrs.)
• 3)Misconduct in office (*8^th Amendment)
• 4)Misconduct in office (*8^th Amendment)
• 5)False imprisonment (*8^th Amendment)

Officer Garret E. Miller

• 1)Assault-second degree (10 yrs.)
• 2)Assault-second degree (10 yrs.)
• 3)Misconduct in office (*8^th Amendment)
• 4)Misconduct in office (*8^th Amendment)
• 5)False imprisonment (*8^th Amendment)

Sgt. Alicia D. White

• 1)Manslaughter-involuntary (10 yrs.)
• 2)Assault-second degree (10 yrs.)
• 3)Misconduct in office (*8^th Amendment)

*Any sentence that does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment

*This story will be updated

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