Goodson was the driver of the van in which Gray, according to the state medical examiner’s office, suffered a broken neck and the severe spinal cord injuries that led to his death last April.

Goodson Jr. has been charged with second-degree depraved heart murder—the most serious allegation made against the six officers involved in case—involuntary manslaughter, manslaughter by vehicle, criminally negligent manslaughter by vehicle, second-degree assault, misconduct in office, and reckless endangerment.

In two previous trials, Baltimore prosecutions failed to earn convictions in trials involving two police officers involved in Gray’s arrest and transportation.

In a bench trial last month, Judge Barry Williams acquitted Officer Edward Nero of charges of assault, reckless endangerment, and two counts of misconduct in office. Williams said in reading his verdict that Nero had essentially acted in a manner that “a reasonable officer” could be expected to act during his relatively minor role in Gray’s arrest and transport.

Officer William Porter’s manslaughter trial ended in December with a hung jury. He is scheduled to be tried again in September.

In both of those trials, defense attorneys and the expert witnesses they called stated that ultimate responsibility for securing detainees being transported rests with the driver of the vehicle—in this case—the 46-year-old Goodson. Like Nero, Goodson and his attorneys sought to have the case decided by Williams rather than a jury. A second-degree depraved heart murder conviction carries a maximum sentence of 30 years.

Goodson is the only one of the six officers who did not make a statement to police investigators after Gray’s injury and death.

David Jaros, a University of Baltimore law professor who has been following the trials, told The Baltimore Sun that the outcomes of the first two trials should not be considered predictive of the outcome in the Goodson case.

“The case against Officer Nero was one that involved some very close legal questions that, I think, the defense felt favored them and so wanted a judge who appreciated the legal standards that were in question,” Jaros said. “Goodson’s case will rest less on the complexity of the legal theory and more on questions of fact and responsibility, which we consider more in the jury’s bailiwick—the questions of what happened.”

Others experts have said that proving second-degree murder after the failure to secure a detainee will be a heavy burden for prosecutors. Specifically, demonstrating that Goodson gave Gray a so-called “rough ride” without surveillance video and eyewitness testimony would be a challenge. Prosecutors indicated at the first day of the trial yesterday that they believe—and they are in possession of—such evidence.

The Baltimore Sun reported last April that Gray was not first detainee to suffer spinal chord injuries after unsecured rides in city police vans.

Tessa Hill-Aston, Baltimore chapter president of the NAACP, noted after Nero’s acquittal the difficulty for Gray’s family in going through six separate trials. She also indicated frustration that the responsibility for the failure to properly seatbelt Gray has been passed from one officer to the next thus far at the two trials.

“Police rules have at least changed for the better since [Gray’s death]—I’ve read them.” Hill-Aston said.”In the future, no officer will be able to claim it was someone else’s responsibility—a superior officer or the driver. It is everyone’s responsibility now.”

Meanwhile, five of the six police officers charged in relation to Gray’s death, including Porter, Nero, Garrett Miller, Alicia White, and Brian Rice, are known to have filed defamation suits against City State’s Attorney General Marilyn Mosby now. Nero and Miller allege, for example, that Mosby intentionally made allegations she knew “contained false statements” and spoke in a “divisive and inciting manner” when announcing the charges against the police officers at a press conference that received national media coverage.

A copy of Nero and Miller’s 28-page civil suit can be read here.

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Following Judge Barry G. Williams declaring a mistrial Wednesday afternoon, tensions grew amongst demonstrators, as a scuffle broke out and at least one protestor was arrested and brought inside the courthouse.

“I’m mad. I’m upset. But I am also not surprised,” said Justin Sanders, 32, of West Baltimore outside the courthouse. “How can anybody be surprised anymore?”

The mistrial was declared after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict to acquit or find Porter guilty of involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, misconduct in office, or reckless endangerment. Attorneys are due in court tomorrow to set a retrial date.

“It’s part of the process,” said community organizer J.C. Faulk outside the courthouse. “What the city is doing is delaying the inevitable.” While clearly not happy with the court’s ruling, he added, “Now is not the time to put bodies on the line.”

Following the announcement, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake immediately released a statement, urging citizens to “respect the outcome of the judicial process . . . I urge everyone to remember that collectively our reaction needs to be one of respect for our neighborhoods, and for the residents and businesses of our city.”

Congressman Elijah Cummings echoed the mayor’s sentiment in a statement released Wednesday evening.

“With the eyes of the world on Baltimore City, we must ensure that any protests that take place are peaceful, and we must ensure that the process of healing our community continues,” Cummings said in the statement. “We must continue to channel our emotions into strong, positive change, so that, as a city, we truly see our young men of color before it is too late.”

Similarly, mayoral candidate and City Councilman Nick Mosby released a statement saying, “As a city, we must come together and continue the healing process of working to rebuild trust and improve community-police relations for the safety of residents and our police officers.”

Gene Ryan, president of the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police, called the decision “obviously frustrating” in a statement.

“Officer Porter and his attorneys will continue, with the full support of the Fraternal Order of Police, to press for his acquittal,” Ryan said.

City State’s Attorney prosecutors Michael Schatzow and Janice Bledsoe, pictured, left the courthouse without speaking to the media.

As Wednesday evening went on, protestors continued to march from the courthouse to City Hall, just a block away.

Amongst the demonstrators was City Councilman Carl Stokes, who said, to him personally, it was “most bothersome” that Porter’s defense attorneys made the case that their client was not guilty because “nobody follows the rules,” in terms of seat-belting arrestees in transport vans.

Stokes was also upset at the defense for putting all the blame on not securing Gray on the van driver and, ultimately, making the case that it didn’t matter whether Porter called for medical assistance or not because Gray would not have survived his catastrophic injury regardless.

“[Porter] and his fellow officers are accountable and responsible for Freddie Gray’s death,” he said. “But there is a systemic issue as well. There is a culture that has developed within the police department that some of our citizens’ lives are worthless.”

Also following the trial closely was Tessa Hill-Aston, NAACP Baltimore chapter president.

“I’m disappointed,” she said. “I sat in court each day and heard medical testimony and everything else. I know Freddie Gray was in pain. I heard testimony that made me cringe about the pain he was in. And nobody called for help. Somebody has to be responsible and accountable for that.”

Hill-Aston added that she expects protests this evening in the city, but hopes no one will do anything that ends up in an arrest.

“We know what can happen to people when they get locked up,” she said. “I don’t want to see anyone else get hurt.”

Additional reporting was contributed by senior editor Ron Cassie.

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Williams rejected pre-trial motion arguments by defense attorneys that their clients would be unable to get a fair trial in city. Defense attorneys argued that media coverage, statements by Baltimore state’s attorney general Marilyn Mosby, the riots that broke out after Gray’s death, a leak of the medical examiner’s report, as well as the City’s recent $6.4 million civil settlement with Gray’s family, had prejudiced the city’s 622,00 residents—and potential 275,000 jurors—against the six police officers to the point where impounding impartial juries was impossible.

Williams said the defense team’s argument—made by attorney Ivan Bates, representing Sgt. Alicia White in the case—“did not carry the day” and did not reach the burden requiring a change of venue set forth by Maryland’s state constitutions and U.S. Supreme Court.

The Baltimore People’s Power Assembly, which has protested in the past against police brutality, demonstrated in front of the Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. Courthouse on North Calvert as they had before last week’s hearing.

After the ruling, exuberant demonstrators, a relatively small but vocal group numbering in the dozens shouted, “That trial stays here! The trial stays here!”

Earlier, interim Baltimore City police commissioner Kevin Davis showed up at the peaceful protests at the courthouse. Some demonstrators were not happy to see Davis, chanting, “Commissioner go home!”

“This is Baltimore’s time to get it right. Citizens ought to be able to look into the eyes of the defendants,” said Rev. C. D. Witherspoon. “It’s important that it stays in Baltimore. Just as it was important that Marilyn Mosby be allowed to continue in the case; just as it was important that the charges be allowed to stand.”

University of Maryland law professor Douglas Colbert noted that moving jurisdictions is “rarely ever done.” He called the ruling “critical.”

Prior to the hearing, Colbert said removing the case to another jurisdiction “would almost be an insult to residents of the city.”

“I believe in our jury system more than any other part of our legal system,” Colbert said.

Those sentiments were echoed by Michael Schatzow, the chief deputy state’s attorney for Baltimore City, in rebutting the defense team’s effort to remove the case from the city’s jurisdiction.

Schatzow also noted that an “incredible amount of discretion” remains in the hands of the trial judge as part of the jury selection process.

“It would be insulting to the citizens of Baltimore [to remove the case to another jurisdiction],” Schatzow argued. “We have a very large, diverse citizenship.”

In making his ruling, Williams essentially concurred with Schatzow, saying, “the citizens of Baltimore are not a monolithic group” and had “the integrity and intellect” to form their own opinions—outside of those expressed by city leaders, clergy, and others.

“To presume prejudice is not fair to the defendants, who have a right to be tried in the jurisdiction where the event occurred,” Williams said.

The pre-trial motion hearing today came one day after mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s administration and the City Board of Estimates approved the wrongful death payout to Gray’s family. That move was praised by some for avoiding potentially even costlier and divisive litigation—and criticized as premature by others—who said the settlement would affect jurors and impact the officers’ ability to receive a fair trial in Baltimore.

In a statement released after the wrongful death settlement was announced, Lt. Gene Ryan, president of Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge #3, called the decision by city officials “obscene and without regard to the fiduciary responsibility owed to the taxpaying citizens of the City.”

Ryan also said the settlement “threatens to interrupt any progress made toward restoring the relationship between members of the Baltimore Police Department and the Baltimore City government.

Rawlings-Blake said the settlement agreement “should not be interpreted as a judgment on the guilt or innocence of the officers facing trial.” She also said that along with potentially saving taxpayers money, the settlement would avoid “protracted litigation that would only make it more difficult for our city to heal.”

A trial date in the Gray case has been set for Oct. 13, though it likely will be pushed back after Williams’ ruled against a motion by prosecutors to try three of the officers together last week.

The six officers are currently set to be tried separately. None have been required to be in attendance at the pre-trial motion hearings.

Baltimore police officer Caesar Goodson faces the most serious charge—second-degree “depraved-heart” murder—in the death of Gray, who was fatally injured while being transported in a van driven by Goodson. Lt. Brian Rice, Sgt. Alicia White and officer William Porter face manslaughter charges. All six of the officers, who also include Edward Nero and Garret Miller, have been charged with second-degree assault, misconduct and reckless endangerment.

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