USA TODAY International Edition
BALTIMORE COP ACQUITTED IN GRAY DEATH
City’s mayor urges calm after white officer is cleared
A Maryland judge acquitted Baltimore police officer Edward Nero of all charges Monday in the controversial case of Freddie Gray, whose death last year touched off sometimes violent protests in the city and reignited Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the nation.
Nero, who is white, was the second of six officers to face trial and the first to obtain a verdict. The first case ended in a hung jury and will be retried.
Gray, 25, suffered a spinal injury while in police custody April 12, 2015, and died a week later. Prosecutors say he suffered the injury while traveling, handcuffed and without a secured seat belt, in the back of a police van after his arrest.
Nero, 30, had declined a jury trial, and Judge Barry Williams heard testimony that wrapped up last week. Nero was found not guilty of assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment.
Mayor Stephanie RawlingsBlake issued a statement immediately after the verdict was announced asking for calm.
“Officer Nero will face an administrative review by the Police Department,” she said. “In the case of any disturbance in the city, we are prepared to respond. We will protect our neighborhoods, our businesses and the people of our city.”
The Baltimore Police Department issued a statement saying the internal investigation was being handled by other departments and wouldn’t be completed until all six criminal cases have been resolved.
Nero, who is white, was among a group of bicycle officers who initially pursued and helped arrest Gray, although Nero claims he did not touch Gray except to help him stand after he was handcuffed.
Nero was accused in connection with the initial arrest — prosecutors say there was no probable cause — and with later failing to properly secure Gray in a police van. Nero’s lawyers say that he had little to do with the arrest and that it was the responsibility of the officers in the van to buckle Gray.
Nero was the second officer to stand trial in the case. The trial of officer William Porter ended in a hung jury, and Porter, who is black, faces retrial later this year. The other officers, two black and two white, also face trials in the coming months.
Maryland lawyer Tim Maloney, who has represented — and sued — numerous police officers, said convicting Nero for misconduct on grounds there was no probable cause for the arrest would have set a dangerous precedent.
“That would mean that every officer who makes an arrest could face this ( charge),” Maloney, who is not involved in any of the Freddie Gray cases, told USA TODAY.
Nero’s decision to have a bench trial could be repeated by the other officers, Maloney added. “A jury can be swayed more by emotion than by law,” he said.
In Baltimore, Gray’s death sparked riots that tore the city apart, was blamed for an increase in violent crime and led to the dismissal of police chief Anthony Batts. The city agreed in September to pay Gray’s family $ 6.4 million to settle civil litigation in the case.
“In the case of any disturbance in the city, we are prepared to respond. We will protect our neighborhoods, our businesses and the people of our city.” Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings- Blake