Justices won’t hear city officers’ case against Mosby

The U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal on Tuesday from five Baltimore police officers in a case in which they alleged they were wrongfully prosecuted for the death of Freddie Gray by Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby.

The decision brings the case to an end, in Mosby’s favor. It leaves intact a Maydecision by a Richmond, Va.-based federal appeals court that blocked the officers’ lawsuit on the grounds that prosecutors have immunity from such charges. The officers appealed that court’s decision to the SupremeCourtin October.

The Supreme Court’s denial was posted to the court’s website Tuesday.

Mosby said she was pleased with the ruling, and that she had “no regrets” about prosecuting the officers.

Catherine Flynn, an attorney who petitioned the appellate court’s ruling to the high court on the officers’ behalf, could not be reached for comment.

Gray, 25, died of severe neck injuries that he sustained while in police custody in April 2015. His death kicked off large-scale protests across the city and his funeral was followed byunrest andrioting, whichcaused millions of dollars in damage and brought the Maryland National Guard to the city to restore order.

In the days after the unrest, Mosby filed criminal charges against six Baltimore police officers involved in Gray’s arrest. Three were acquitted at trial, after which Mosby dropped all charges against the other three. None of the officers were found guilty of administrative violations by the department.

Five of the officers — Lt. Brian Rice, Sgt. Alicia White and Officers Edward Nero, Garrett Miller and William Porter — sued Mosby afterward, alleging she defamed them, lacked evidence for the charges she brought against them, and only charged them to ease the unrest. The sixth officer charged in the case, Officer Caesar Goodson Jr., did not join the lawsuit.

Mosby’s defense countered that she had prosecutorial immunity for her decisions to charge the officers.

In January, U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis dismissed the officers’ charges of false arrest and false imprisonment against Mosby, but ruled that charges including malicious prosecution, defamation and invasion of privacy could move forward against Mosby and Assistant Baltimore City Sheriff Samuel Cogen, who wrote the statement of probable cause in the Gray case.

In May, the federal appeals court in Richmond overturned Garbis.