Tag: freddie gray trial
Baltimore Cop Says Freddie Gray Ask For Help During Fatal Ride

Baltimore Cop Says Freddie Gray Ask For Help During Fatal Ride

A Baltimore police officer testified on Monday that black detainee Freddie Gray asked for help while being transported in a police van, where he suffered a broken neck.

The officer, William Porter, took the stand in the trial of Officer Caesar Goodson, 46, the van’s driver. Prosecutors contend Goodson gave Gray a “rough ride” and he is accused of second-degree depraved heart murder and other charges in Gray’s death in April 2015.

His death triggered protests and rioting in Baltimore and stoked a U.S. debate on police treatment of minorities. Goodson is the third of six officers to go on trial, and his attorneys argue that Gray caused his own fatal injuries.

Porter testified in Baltimore City Circuit Court that he responded to a call to assist Goodson at the fourth stop the van made while transporting Gray. He found Gray, who was shackled, lying on his stomach on the van’s floor, his head toward the front of the vehicle.

“What if anything did Mr. Gray say?” asked prosecutor Michael Schatzow.

“I said, ‘What’s up?’ He said, ‘Help,'” Porter said. “‘What do you need help with?’ ‘Help me up.'”

No medical aid was sought, and Porter, whose trial on a manslaughter charge ended in a hung jury in December, helped put Gray onto a bench inside the van. Gray was not buckled into a seat belt, a violation of department procedures.

Schatzow read from a statement that Porter gave internal affairs investigators in which Porter said he had told Goodson that Gray should he taken to a hospital.

Asked if Goodson had agreed, Porter paused, then said: “Sure.”

A medical examiner’s report concluded that Gray was fatally injured between the second and fourth stops that Goodson made. Prosecutors had been expected to call Porter to help establish a timeline on Gray’s transport.

Goodson’s charge of second-degree murder is the most serious one against the officers accused in Gray’s death. He also faces manslaughter and other charges.

Goodson waived a jury trial and Judge Barry Williams will decide the case. The trial began on Thursday.

Porter’s testimony in a case in which he also faces trial was the result of a lengthy legal battle that reached Maryland’s highest court.

Porter faces a retrial in September. Williams acquitted one officer, Edward Nero, in a second trial.

(This version of the story corrects to read fourth stop, not fifth, in fourth paragraph.)

 

Writing by Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Dan Grebler

Photo: A man, who declined to offer his name, walks past a mural of Freddie Gray in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of Baltimore, December 17, 2015.  REUTERS/Bryan Woolston 

Immediate Medical Help Would Have Prevented Death Of Baltimore Man: Prosecution Witness

Immediate Medical Help Would Have Prevented Death Of Baltimore Man: Prosecution Witness

By Ian Simpson

BALTIMORE (Reuters) – A defense lawyer for a Baltimore police officer charged in the death of a young black man in police custody on Monday attacked the findings of the medical examiner who ruled the death a homicide.

Officer William Porter, 26, is accused of manslaughter in the April death of Freddie Gray from a spinal injury. His death triggered rioting in the largely black city and fueled a U.S. debate on police tactics.

Assistant Medical Examiner Dr. Carol Allan, who conducted Gray’s autopsy, testified in Baltimore City Circuit Court that she would not have classified Gray’s death a homicide had Porter called a medic when Gray asked for one.

Defense attorney Joseph Murtha asked Allan whether she was shown any evidence that showed Gray was hurt between the van’s second and fourth stops or if that was her belief. Agreeing with Murtha, Allan called her finding a “theory.”

“It’s a theory based on witnesses’ statements of Freddie Gray’s behavior and medical analysis of the injury,” she said.

The van made six stops after Gray, handcuffed and shackled, was put in it. Medical help was not called until Gray was found unconscious at the last one, at a police station.

Dr. Morris Marc Soriano, a neurological surgeon from Rockford, Illinois, and witness for the prosecution, said the failure to get Gray medical attention brought on brain death.

Had a medic promptly put a breathing tube down Gray’s throat, “he would not have suffered the brain injury that killed him,” he said.

Gray was arrested after a foot chase. He was put in the back of a transport van and was not secured by a seat belt.

Porter is charged with manslaughter, assault, misconduct and reckless endangerment. Prosecutors contend he was negligent in failing to call a medic when Gray asked for one and for failing to fasten a seat belt for him.

The defense has said Porter did not believe Gray was seriously injured until he was found unconscious at the police station.

One of the jurors, a black woman, was excused for a medical emergency, and was replaced by a white man. The panel now comprises seven women and five men.

Porter is the first of six officers to face trial. He could be sentenced to more than 25 years in prison if convicted on all counts. Charges against the other officers range from misconduct to second-degree murder.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Dan Grebler)

Protestors gather outside of the courthouse in Baltimore, Maryland November 30, 2015, on the first day of jury selection for Baltimore Police Officer William Porter who is  charged in connection with the death of Freddie Gray.    REUTERS/Bryan Woolston