All Charges Dropped Against Police Officers in Freddie Gray Case

The trials cost Baltimore $7.4 million.

7.28.2016

Baltimore prosecutors dropped all charges against the police officers named in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray on Wednesday.

In a hearing Wednesday meant to start the trial of Officer Garrett Miller, prosecutors dropped their cases against him, Officer William Porter and Sgt. Alicia White. Circuit Judge Barry G. Williams, who had acquitted the other officers, was expected to preside over the remaining trials as well.

After the most recent acquittal and "a great deal of thought and prayer," Mosby said, she resolved to drop the remaining charges. Mosby stood by her decision to bring the charges, pointing out that the medical examiner's office ruled Gray's death a homicide and that it's her job as the city's top prosecutor to seek justice.

"It's something that I've been grappling with for some time," Mosby said of her decision to end the prosecution, during an interview with The Baltimore Sun. "It's not something that was overnight."

The trial cost the taxpayers $7.4 million including additional riot gear and overtime for officers in anticipation of protests and disruptions connected to the trial.

Mosby charged the six Baltimore officers days later with offenses ranging from second-degree depraved-heart murder to manslaughter, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office.

The case pitted Mosby against police, and their verbal sparring Wednesday raised questions about their ability to cooperate going forward. The Fraternal Order of Police accused Mosby of pursuing a malicious and wrong-headed prosecution, while she accused police investigators of sabotage.

Mosby laid the blame for the failed charges on the Police Department, saying the prosecutors had to rely on the Department to police its own. Additionally, she said that prosecutors did not have a say in whether cases went before a judge or a jury. According to Maryland law, defendants can pick whether they want a judge or a jury trial.

"For those that believe I'm anti-police, it's simply not the case. I'm anti-police brutality," she said. "The only loss and the greatest loss in all of this was that of Freddie Gray's life.

"As a mother, the decision not to proceed on these trials, these remaining trials, is agonizing," she added. "However, as a chief prosecutor elected by the citizens of Baltimore, I must consider the dismal likelihood of conviction at this point."

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