Prosecutors abandon case against police in Gray’s death
BALTIMORE — More than a year after a black man suffered a broken neck in a police van, the effort to hold six officers criminally responsible for his death collapsed Wednesday when the city dropped all charges in the case that tore Baltimore apart and exposed deep fissures between the police, prosecutors and the people.
A day before another trial was to begin, prosecutors dismissed charges against three remaining officers, blaming police for a biased investigation that failed to produce a single conviction in the death of Freddie Gray.
Mr. Gray, 25, was fatally injured in April 2015 while he was handcuffed and shackled but left otherwise unrestrained in the back of the van. His death added fuel to the growing Black Lives Matter movement, set off massive protests and led to the city’s worst riots in decades.
Prosecutors suffered blow after crippling blow in the courtroom. A judge acquitted three other officers, including the van driver who prosecutors considered the most responsible and another officer who was the highest-ranking of the group. A mistrial was declared for a fourth officer after a jury deadlocked. Authorities had planned to retry him.
The case took shape soon after the rioting, when Democratic State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby confidently announced the charges atop a sweeping staircase across from City Hall.
“To the youth of the city: I will seek justice on your behalf,” she said. “This is a moment. This is your moment.”
On Wednesday, she was fiery and indignant as she spoke from behind a podium across the street from the public-housing complex where Mr. Gray was arrested. She angrily blamed the outcome on an uncooperative police department and a broken criminal justice system.
Ms. Mosby outlined what prosecutors have called sabotage, saying officers who were witnesses were also part of the department’s investigative team. She said “obvious questions” weren’t asked during interrogations. She alleged lead detectives were slow to provide information and failed to execute search warrants for key text messages. She also accused investigators of creating notes after the case was launched to contradict the medical examiner’s conclusion that Mr. Gray’s death was a homicide.
But while Ms. Mosby stood firm, defense attorneys and legal observers say the state faced insurmountable hurdles in winning a conviction against any officers from the start: The investigation and charges were rushed and the evidence was thin. Problems with the case — which some say shouldn’t have been prosecuted at all — and how the state handled it became more apparent with each passing trial.
After the third acquittal of an officer, and with the judge again saying that prosecutors didn’t have the facts for a criminal conviction, Ms. Mosby and her team this month likely realized that no new evidence would emerge in the remaining trials to secure a conviction, said Adam Ruther, a former Baltimore City prosecutor now in private defense practice.
“It’s the right conclusion, that it’s not worth the taxpayers’ time and money,” Mr. Ruther said.
Ms. Mosby’s promises of justice nearly 15 months ago calmed a violent, broken city, bringing her instant national celebrity. At the same time, the first-term prosecutor’s many detractors accused her of recklessly slapping together criminal cases with unseemly haste in an ambition-fueled rush to judgment.
Earlier this year, five of the officers filed defamation lawsuits against Ms. Mosby. As a result, she refused to answer questions Wednesday.
The Gray case never fit neatly into the narrative of white authorities imposing unfair justice on minorities. Three of the officers who were charged are white and three are black. The victim, judge, top prosecutor and mayor are all African-American. At the time of Mr. Gray’s death, so was the police chief.