BALTIMORE, Maryland December 1, 2015 - Back on September 10 of this year, Credible and Incisive was highly critical of the decision of Baltimore City Circuit Judge Barry Williams' to keep the 'Freddie Gray' cases in the Baltimore City Circuit Court. The Gray cases - in case anyone forgets - arise out of the May, 2015 death of a Baltimore City resident, who was also a career criminal, while in the custody of Baltimore City police. The death, and anger with City police over a death they are said to be responsible for, caused vicious riots over the period of several days, the occupation of Baltimore City by the Maryland National Guard for over two weeks, and other highly visible manifestations of disatisfaction with the City police department by many many Baltimore City residents. The entire episode has gripped the attention of the City for weeks and months on end. For days on end, beginning with the day the riots began, accounts of all things connected with Gray's death and continuing through the very quick indictments of the six officers by a prosecuter more concerned with her national reputation than with getting a grip on crime in the City, have kept the "Freddie Gray" matter plastered across the front page of the City's only general circulation daily newspaper and in 'lead story' status on local television newscasts. One unending story thread has been the demonstrators and their non-stop "anger" over Gray's death. These demonstrators have held what seems like weekly marches in the downtown area.
Gray has been transformed from a career criminal whose fame began and ended with the turnkeys at the City's Criminal Intake Jail, to, in death, a community giant who seems only days away from deification.
And now, with the trial of the first of six police officers indicted by a show-boating prosecuter, the attention of the City is again locked up tight by the continuing events surrounding Mr. Gray's death.
The attorneys representing the six veteran Baltimore City Police Officers charged in the death filed joint motions to change the venue of the trials. For non-attorneys, this means that the attorneys and their clients believed there was little or no chance they would receive a fair trial in the City. Credible and Incisive believes that the motion needed to be granted and that the trial needed to be transferred to any Maryland jurisdiction where the incident didn't hold the county selected in a vice-grip of preconceived notions and opinions about the guilt or innocence of the six officers. . Such counties are not few and far between. In fact, any jurisdiction besides Baltimore City would due. In the current atmosphere, in fact, in the current context of daily occurrences in the City, the six officers charged have a zero percent chance of getting a fair trial. It just cannot happen. This is how events unfurl around the courthouse where the first trial began Monday with jury selection: under the window of the courtroom where the trial is taking place, loud shouts and chants from a group of protestors, who all chanted in unison something to the effect that if the officer who is the first defendant isn't convicted, the City will pay. Considering what has already happened, does anybody doubt that?
I try cases in these courtrooms. What goes on outside is heard inside. I spent years defending the City and its employees, including police officers, in civil cases. One very common fact scenario was a police officer and the City being sued when the officer was said to have acted negligently while responding to an emergency call. Typically, a plaintiff would claim that they couldn't hear the siren on the police car. It seemed like in everyone of those trials, at some poignant moment, a vehicle with a siren wailing would ride by outside the courtroom's windows, and everybody would look at me as if I planned it. I never did, but the jury would hear those sirens loud and clear. The point is, what goes on outside will be heard inside. The demonstrators know that. They have checked it out. Throughout the trial - and especially as the case moves close to a decision - Demonstrators will be verbally threatening the empanelled jury to convict...or else. On Monday, demonstrators were chanting a phrase that was to the effect of, 'if you don't convict there will be hell to pay.'
Terrific.
Just terrific.
And I'm sure the trial court was stunned by the protests. What person paying even casual attention will be surprised by the appearance of protestors demanding that the six officers be convicted?
You see, whether these six officers did anything criminal - and it is the considered opinion of many legal experts that there are no facts in this case which form the basis of a criminal violation - does not matter to the protestors or, for that matter, to many residents of Baltimore City. Instead, these officers are the relevant representatives of all of the alleged police misconduct cases that have occurred in this City over the last what?, 50, 75, or 100 years. The protesters have adopted the attitude that somebody has to pay for this misconduct, and these six police officers are the ones who have slipped into the crosshairs of all of those seeking this revenge. The price they are paying is supposed to begin to make up for all of the wrongs allegedly done by the police during the relevant generations of time in this City.
Anyone paying even a little bit of attention knows this. The Freddie Gray cases have turned into a witch hunt. The six police officers charged in the cases are the proverbial fox being chased by the proverbial hounds.
Don't get me wrong. During the days that society was segregated, Baltimore was no exception. During those days, the police force was white and black citizens were not treated like White citizens. The people who lived back then had reason to riot. Anyone who denies that is living in a dream world.
The manner in which the police treated black citizens changed just like society has changed. Today, nearly half of the Baltimore City police force is black. The Police Commissioner during the events relevant to this trial was black. The Mayor was black. The City Council was overwhelmingly black. The manner in which the police treat black citizens today has improved dramatically, as well it should. Progress has been so dymanic that there has been noticeable improvement even in very recent times. Now, police treat black citizens far far better than they did just 25 years ago. If this wasn't the case, the police force would be attacking each other. Are things perfect? Human Beings are involved, so perfection isn't possible.
The idea that six police officers conspired with each other to kill Mr. Gray doesn't seem plausible. The autopsy discounts the idea that Gray was beaten. He wasn't beaten by the officers who pursued Gray on foot when he took off and ran from police on the morning of the relevant events. When those officers caught him, they cuffed him and put him in a police wagon for transport to the jail. Much of the events during this time are on video and every City resident has seen it, over and over again.
Sometime between the time he was put in the wagon and the time when the wagon arrived at the University of Maryland Hospital, Mr. Gray was injured. He hit something inside the wagon and as a result, his neck was broken. He lasted several days at the Hospital's Shock Trauma Unit, but then he died.
No one is suggesting, as the trial starts, that Gray was beaten by one of the six officers, or by anyone else, for that matter. No one is suggesting that any person performed any act to kill Mr. Gray. The State says that the two officers in the front of the wagon knew, at some point, that he had been hurt but didn't move quick enough to get him medical assistance.
If this sounds like a charge of negligence to be tried in front of a civil (non-criminal) jury, you would be correct. In fact, the Baltimore City administration has settled with the Gray Family for a sum exceeding $5 million. Whether or not that is a fair sum is not for me to say. The only thing about that settlement that bothered me was the timing of the announcement. The settlement was announced just before the Court was to hold a hearing on the defense's multiple motions, including the motion to change the venue of the case.
Imagine you are Officer William Porter, the first officer to be tried. As your trial is proceeding, a crowd will be chanting outside that he better be convicted. They will exclaim, in unison, over and over again, that Officer Porter is guilty. The people serving on the jury will know the of violence that has already transpired in this case. They will have seen it. Some may have experienced it first hand. Judge Williams has asked the jury array - the pool of citizens who may be picked to serve on the jury - whether they are aware of the Gray case, the riots that erupted and the civil settlement of the family's case. Only one member of the array said they were not aware of all of these events. The array also know that many people - reporters, courtroom gadflies, other people with more nefarious purposes - will be doing everything in their power to learn their identities. A whole lot of well-meaning people will be praying for a conviction because they believe that only a full conviction will short-circuit more riots.
But the trial judge says that even in the atmospere that does exist - there doesn't need to be any speculation - a fair trial by an impartial jury will be possible.
A lot of people don't believe that. I don't believe that. Not for a minute.
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