The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Prosecutors say police mishandled Gray case
BALTIMORE — The prosecutors who were unable to win convictions of police officers in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray sharply criticized the city Police Department on Thursday, saying that its handling of the case undermined the prosecution, and refuted defense claims that they rushed to file charges.
At an extraordinary news conference the day after their boss, Marilyn Mosby, the state’s attorney for Baltimore, announced she was dropping charges against the three officers who still awaited trial, the two lead prosecutors — both seasoned lawyers — said the police failed to serve search warrants for the officers’ personal cellphones and repeated a charge made in court that a detective assigned to the case was sabotaging it.
The comments were the first time the prosecutors — who had been under a rule of silence — spoke about a case that drew national attention. They appeared worn out and at times frustrated.
“There was sufficient evidence for a rational juror to convict,” Michael Schatzow, deputy chief state’s attorney, told reporters. “We believed in these cases, and we were prepared to fight very hard for these cases.”
He and Janice Bledsoe, a deputy state’s attorney, said prosecutors tried to get the personal cellphones of the six officers, which might have shown their communications during and after the episode, but could not because of a police foul-up.
“The Baltimore Police Department did not execute those warrants in the correct amount of time, and they expired,” Bledsoe said.
Asked why that failure occurred, and whether she thought the department was “circling the wagons” around its fellow officers, she said: “Why the search warrants weren’t executed is a question that the Police Department can answer. In terms of circling the wagons, again I think that’s a question that BPD can answer.”
The Baltimore Police Department has stood by its investigation. In a statement released Wednesday, Commissioner Kevin Davis said he wanted to remind residents that “over 30 ethical, experienced and talented detectives worked tirelessly to uncover facts” in the case.
Responding to defense lawyers’ claims that the prosecution was slow to turn over material, Bledsoe said, “We can’t turn over things we don’t have.”
At one point, she said, in a meeting last August, nearly four months after the arrest of Gray, police gave prosecutors “441 pages of documents that we had not previously been given.”
Schatzow reiterated what he had said in court last month, that the lead police detective involved in the investigation, Dawnyell Taylor, had sabotaged the case. Taylor claimed in testimony that a medical examiner had told her that Gray’s death was a “freakish accident,” which Schatzow suggested was false; the same medical examiner officially called it a homicide.
“She was doing things without notifying us, and doing things that were counter to what a primary detective should be doing on a case,” Schatzow said on Thursday.
And he said the officers who testified gave contradictory accounts of what happened.
“When it comes to frustration, I plead guilty,” he said.