BALTIMORE, May 20 (UPI) — A decision in the trial of Edward Nero, one of six police officers charged in connection with the death of Freddie Gray, is expected on Monday.
Judge Barry Williams is spending the weekend deliberating his verdict after a testy day of final arguments Thursday.
At one stage, the judge challenged prosecution claims that the takedown and arrest of Gray without probable cause amounted to a criminal assault.
Prosecutor Janice Bledsoe argued that searching and handcuffing Gray itself constituted an assault.
“That’s what happens in the city all the time,” she said. “People get jacked up in the city all the time.”
But Williams challenged her, asking repeatedly: “Every time there is an arrest without probable cause, it is a crime?”
Deputy State’s Attorney Bledsoe eventually conceded that it would depend on the circumstances.
At one point, the judge even noted: “If you touch someone, it could be assault, it could be a hug.”
Nero’s attorney Marc Zayon insisted his client had followed established legal procedures surrounding the apprehension of fleeing suspects. But he added that even if Nero had strayed from protocol, it wouldn’t necessarily have amounted to a crime.
“Like it or not, that’s the law,” Zayon said as he looked at the prosecutors.
Michael Schatzow, chief deputy state’s attorney, acknowledged that “not every arrest that occurs without probable cause is a crime.” But he added that arrests in which the actions of the officer “are not objectively reasonable” are criminal.
The prosecutor said Nero and his partner turned a routine “Terry stop” — a brief detention based on reasonable suspicion of a crime — into a full-blown arrest requiring probable cause.
Gray, 25, died from spinal injuries in April last year, a week after being shackled without a seat belt in a police van. The incident sparked weeks of demonstrations, riots and looting in Baltimore, and amplified the Black Lives Matter movement nationwide.
Bledsoe told the court Nero ignored a general order for officers to secure suspects in vans with seat belts.
Prosecutors have said that Gray complained of having trouble breathing and asked for medical help as he was driven in the van. When he arrived at a police substation, he was unconscious.
Nero, 30, who doesn’t face manslaughter charges for Gray’s death, is accused of putting Gray in a dangerous situation. He pleaded not guilty to second-degree assault and misconduct charges, both misdemeanors, related to Gray’s arrest, and reckless endangerment and misconduct based on the way Gray was loaded into the police van.
He opted for a bench trial, meaning that the judge will determine the verdict rather than a jury. He is the second officer to be tried.
Earlier this week he was described during witness testimony as a young police officer who was improperly trained.
Four officers have yet to stand trial — Miller, Lt. Brian Rice, Sgt. Alicia White and Officer Caesar Goodson Jr.. The trial for Goodson, the van driver, will start June 6.
The case against William Porter, the first officer to go on trial, ended in a mistrial in December after jurors couldn’t agree on a verdict.
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