Trial Set To Open For Fourth Officer Charged In Freddie Gray Case

BALTIMORE – Attorneys are set to deliver opening statements Thursday in trial for the highest-ranking Baltimore police officer charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray.

Lt. Brian Rice, 42, faces counts of manslaughter, reckless endangerment, assault and misconduct in office related to the 25-year-old’s death last year from a fatal neck injury in police custody.

Prosecutors are scheduled to start laying out their case against Rice at 9:30 a.m. in Baltimore City Circuit Court, followed by opening statements from defense attorneys. Rice has opted for a bench trial before Judge Barry G. Williams, rather than a jury trial.

Rice is one of six officers charged and the fourth to be tried in the case. Prosecutors have yet to secure a conviction. Two other officers who chose bench trials were acquitted; trial for a third officer ended in a hung jury.

Rice was on bike patrol in West Baltimore the morning of April 12, 2015, when Gray made eye contact with him and fled. After a brief chase, Rice and other officers shackled Gray’s wrists and legs and loaded him into a police van without seat-belting him. Gray suffered a fatal neck injury during the ride to jail. His death a week later was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner.

Prosecutors allege Rice put Gray’s life at risk when he failed to seat-belt him, and argue that the officers never should have arrested Gray in the first place.

Defense attorneys contend that none of the lieutenant’s actions were criminal, saying police at the time routinely transported detainees without seat belts.

In a motion hearing Tuesday, Williams dealt a blow to prosecutors when he ruled they could not use some 4,000 pages of materials from Rice’s police training as evidence in the trial. Prosecutors said they only recently requested the documents and gave them to Rice’s attorneys as soon as they received them. But Williams said the late disclosure amounted to a discovery violation.

In the same hearing, the judge denied a series of motions by the defense to dismiss the charges and to prevent the state from discussing police policies on seat-belting detainees.

Rice’s trial comes just weeks after the judge acquitted Officer Caesar Goodson Jr., the van’s driver, on all counts, including second-degree depraved-heart murder. Prosecutors alleged Goodson gave Gray a “rough ride,” driving recklessly as Gray was tossed around in the van’s prisoner compartment. He faced the most serious charges in the case.

Officer Edward M. Nero was acquitted in May of assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office, following a bench trial. Officer William G. Porter is scheduled to be retried in September, after a jury failed to reach a verdict on his charges late last year.

Gray’s death came amid a fevered national debate over the deaths of young black men in police custody and sparked demonstrations and later riots in Baltimore.