Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

On May 26 we posted that two of the six police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray—Sergeant Alicia White and Officer William Porter—had filed defamation and invasion of privacy charges against Maryland State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby and Major Samuel Cogen of the Baltimore City Sheriff’s Office . It was Cogen who swore out criminal charges against the officers, presumably at Mosby’s request. We followed this up with a post on June 8 noting that the two officers had amended their complaint to include allegations of malicious prosecution, false arrest, and violation of the Maryland declaration of rights, article 24 and 26. At the same time, we noted that a third officer, Lieutenant Brian Rice, had filed a civil suit against Mosby on similar grounds. Today we learned that another two officers, Officers Garrett Miller and Edward Nero, have jointly filed similar charges against Mosby. In total, now, five of the six officers charged by Mosby in Gray’s death are suing her and Cogen for various forms of misconduct.

Prosecutors in the Freddie Gray trial of van driver Officer Caesar Goodson suddenly announced on Thursday, the first day of Goodson's trial, a new theory of the case never before formally argued by them:  that they believe Gray's injuries were the result of a malicious "rough ride" delivered by Goodson.  As the Baltimore Sun reports (emphasis added):

Before Thursday, prosecutors had presented evidence of a diving-type injury that caused his injuries inside the van, but had not directly alleged that Gray was hurt as a result of aggressive driving by the van driver.

The media and activists (but I repeat myself) have previously suggested that a "rough ride" might be in play in this case, but the prosecution itself has never directly made this claim part of their theory of the case--not, that is, until the opening day of Officer Goodson's trial. Officer Goodson is charged with murder, manslaughter, second-degree assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment in the death of Freddie Gray. By all indications the prosecution has long planned to convict Goodson on the grounds that he had failed in a legal duty to provide Gray with adequately prompt medical care.  Specifically, the prosecution had planned to argue that Goodson was aware that Gray was having difficulty breathing, because of a statement to that effect by his colleague Police Officer William Porter. Porter is alleged by Detective Syreeta Teel to have made a statement to the effect that Gray was saying he was having difficulty breathing during an initial unrecorded interview by Teel.  In a later recorded interview, however, Porter made no similar statement.  Further, when Porter took the witness stand at his own trial (the first of the Freddie Gray trials, and ending in a hung jury), he denied having ever made the statement.