Lt. Brian Rice, the highest-ranking police officer charged in the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, was acquitted today in a bench trial presided over by Circuit Judge Barry Williams. Rice is the fourth of six officers to stand trial in Gray’s death. Two others have been acquitted (Edward Nero and Caesar Goodson) and a mistrial was declared for one officer (William Porter). The remaining two officers, Alicia White and Garrett Miller, will go to trial in the coming months—that is, if Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby ignores numerous calls to drop the charges against them.
As with the previous two acquittals, the judge stated that the prosecution failed to meet the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt for the charges against Rice.
[Circuit Judge] Williams cleared Rice, 42, of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office in a downtown Baltimore courtroom on Monday morning. The judge had dismissed a second-degree assault charge at the trial's midpoint, and prosecutors dropped a second misconduct charge at the start.
The prosecution did not show Rice acted in a "grossly negligent manner," required of manslaughter, he said. It did not show that Rice acted in an unreasonable way or ignored the substantial risk in placing Gray in a police van without a seat belt, required for reckless endangerment, he said. And, it did not show Rice acted "corruptly," which is required for misconduct in office, [Judge Williams] said.
The judge stated that prosecutors were asking the court to “rely on ‘presumptions or assumptions’ — something it cannot do. He said the court ‘cannot be swayed by sympathy, prejudice or public opinion.’"
Pro-police critics of the prosecution say that charges should never have been filed against the officers. Community critics say that the decision to allege Gray’s injuries occurred during the van ride to the police station—known as a “rough ride”—and base the state’s case on this premise, when anyone with eyes can see that Gray was injured before he entered the van, is the reason the prosecution of the officers was doomed from the beginning.