One of the interesting facets of the charges brought in the Freddie Gray case is that even at the earliest stages it appears that Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby was running an independent investigation in parallel with that of the Baltimore Police Department.
Naturally, any investigation has a lead, and so it seems worthwhile to ask who Mosby assigned to that sensitive and responsibility-burdened position for her own investigative team.
This is, after all, the man who generated the evidence presumably used by Mosby in bringing her 26 charges–including second-degree depraved-heart murder and manslaughter–against six Baltimore officers associated with the death of street-level drug dealer Freddie Gray.
Legal Insurrection, I introduce you to Avon Mackel. Let’s roll the video tape from Anderson Cooper on CNN:
As an aside, how typical it is that the Progressive propagandist journalist Anderson Cooper’s take-home message from this report is to question the motives of those who “leaked” this factual public information as opposed to questioning the motives and judgment of Mosby for appointing such an apparent loon to lead her “investigation.”
For those not in an immediate position to watch the video above, or those disinclined to watch CNN in general, here’s the gist of that reporting:
Mr. Mackel used to be a high-ranking Baltimore police officer, according to CNN.
Well, until things went horribly wrong.
In 2009 Mackel was stripped of his command position because of a grievous failure to follow through on allegations of a mishandled robbery investigation by two of his officers.
In addition, according to that same CNN report the Baltimore Sun newspaper reported that police in Mackel’s district were falsely “down-classifying” crimes in order to suggest crime rates were lower than was actually the case–and to make Mackel look more effective as a crime-fighter than he was.
But it gets even more interesting.
Four months after his demotion, Mackel engaged in a drunken gun-wielding incident at his home of sufficient severity that the Baltimore County police department sent in their SWAT team. Mackel was non-compliant with officers and obviously (the responding officers reported) intoxicated.
Despite being tasered by the SWAT team, the armed and intoxicated Mackel managed to barricade himself in his bedroom.
After that, the police record apparently gets vague, without any clear explanation for how the incident ended.
For some bizarre reason–I am shocked, SHOCKED!–Mackel was not arrested following these remarkable events.
I rather expect that if I had engaged in the same behavior in Baltimore County an arrest–if only to secure my assessment by psychiatric personnel–would have been effected post haste.
But who am I to speculate.
In any case, that’s the guy Prosecutor Mosby assigned to lead her investigative team assigned to the Freddie Gray death.
Make of that what you will. I can assure you that’s exactly what defense counsel will do, with barely concealed glee. In particular: Is it not possible that Mackel has an axe to grind with the Baltimore Police department that shamed him?
–-Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
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Andrew F. Branca is an MA lawyer and the author of the seminal book “The Law of Self Defense, 2nd Edition,” available at the Law of Self Defense blog (autographed copies available) and Amazon.com (paperback and Kindle). He also holds Law of Self Defense Seminars around the country, and provides free online self-defense law video lectures at the Law of Self Defense Institute and podcasts through iTunes, Stitcher, and elsewhere.
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