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DOJ won't bring charges against officers in Gray case


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By Juliet Linderman  
Associated Press

BALTIMORE — The U.S. Department of Justice won't bring federal charges against six police officers involved in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray, a young black man whose death touched off weeks of protests and unrest in Baltimore.

The officers were charged by state prosecutors after Gray's neck was broken in the back of a police transport wagon in April of 2015. The 25-year-old was handcuffed and shackled at the time, but he was unrestrained by a seat belt.

Three officers were acquitted at trial. Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby dropped the remaining state cases.

The Gray family's attorney, Billy Murphy, says the Justice Department informed him on Tuesday that no charges would be filed.

Five officers face internal disciplinary trials, scheduled to begin Oct. 30.

Source : https://www.policeone.com/investigations/articles/418497006-DOJ-wont-bring-charges-against-officers-in-Gray-case/

 

 

 

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIireUtum9Q

 

 

 

What Happened 

 

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 was arrested by the Baltimore Police Department for possessing what the police alleged was an illegal switchblade under Baltimore law.[2]While being transported in a police van, Gray fell into a coma and was taken to a trauma center.[3][4] Gray died on April 19, 2015; his death was ascribed to injuries to his spinal cord.[4] On April 21, 2015, pending an investigation of the incident, six Baltimore police officers were suspended with pay.[3]

 

Source : Wikipedia 

 

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Initial State charges were definitely over the top. If I recall correctly the cops were charged with manslaughter, false imprisonment and even some kind of murder. No wonder the state case fell apart, I'd love to see how one would prove murder by placing in the back of a police car.

 

On the other hand, transport procedure violation resulted in death of the transported person... In my eyes enough ground for termination of those directly responsible.

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7 minutes ago, Hastings said:

Initial State charges were definitely over the top. If I recall correctly the cops were charged with manslaughter, false imprisonment and even some kind of murder. No wonder the state case fell apart, I'd love to see how one would prove murder by placing in the back of a police car.

 

On the other hand, transport procedure violation resulted in death of the transported person... In my eyes enough ground for termination of those directly responsible.

 

 

Yeah department policy wise they might have some hangups along with civil lawsuits.

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I don't see why this is so difficult. Officer's are responsible for the safety of the suspect while the suspect is in their custody. If the suspect is injured or killed, and it isn't self-inflicted, they should be liable to some extent. They apparently violated transportation policy (assuming what @Hastings said is accurate and correct), so they're at fault.

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29 minutes ago, TheDivineHustle said:

I don't see why this is so difficult. Officer's are responsible for the safety of the suspect while the suspect is in their custody. If the suspect is injured or killed, and it isn't self-inflicted, they should be liable to some extent. They apparently violated transportation policy (assuming what @Hastings said is accurate and correct), so they're at fault.

 

Not some extent, the full extent.  Once you are arrested, you are now in the custody of the arresting officer.  HE/SHE is is your guardian and have to make sure you're taken care of.  A neck doesn't magically get broken.    I'm almost positive in every single one of these cases where the officers get off Scott free, the DA did it because he/she doesn't want to face backlash from the department.  If this had been any other regular person, they'd already be behind bars.  More and more we are seeing cops are not held to the same standards as everyone else. They can do as they please and get a slap on the wrist.  Get "time off" work, but not fired when they should've been.  It's hard to respect the profession anymore when they don't even have respect for themselves or integrity.

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4 hours ago, Kallus Rourke said:

 If this had been any other regular person, they'd already be behind bars. 

And what the charge would be? The DoJ declined to prosecute for civil right violation. Are you sure they would do it to any other person?

 

We don't know all the facts of the case and discovered evidence, at least not me certainly. But judging from what was made public, state DA overcharged the cops and then failed to provide convincing proof (some cops were acquitted by the court, others were mistried and the charges were dropped, if the info I found is correct). The DA probably did that to satisfy the angry public.

 

In my country were would be a lot of negligence charges (failed to transport properly -> prisoner dies -> all elements of crime in order) and a termination of course.

 

But then again, I'm not proficient in American law, it's all speculation. You guys might know better

 

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10 hours ago, Kallus Rourke said:

 

Not some extent, the full extent.  Once you are arrested, you are now in the custody of the arresting officer.  HE/SHE is is your guardian and have to make sure you're taken care of.  A neck doesn't magically get broken.    I'm almost positive in every single one of these cases where the officers get off Scott free, the DA did it because he/she doesn't want to face backlash from the department.  If this had been any other regular person, they'd already be behind bars.  More and more we are seeing cops are not held to the same standards as everyone else. They can do as they please and get a slap on the wrist.  Get "time off" work, but not fired when they should've been.  It's hard to respect the profession anymore when they don't even have respect for themselves or integrity.

I have no issue respecting law enforcement. I've never had an issue respecting our officers, and probably never will. It's always been easy for me to respect them, because most officers are good people that do their jobs well. 

 

I dunno. I wasn't there and I don't have enough evidence to make a reasonable conclusion. Baltimore PD is known for mistreatment, and I've experienced it myself the times I've been there. 

 

 I don't think any regular civilian would have reason to transport a handcuffed individual locked in the back of a van, so yes, they'd be immediately locked up. 

 

I mean officers have families too. What are they supposed to do? Just not brig in any money? What about the children? What if the wife doesn't/can't work and depends solely on the husband that's an officer? What if they're already uncomfortable financially and now the officer is not getting paid because of an angry and ignorant public? Yeah, no. Paid leave was necessary. Suspend them, but they still need to get paid. You can't just not make any money, that's not how American society works.  

 

 

 

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If the DA over charged to essentially get the cases tossed out its not an ideal situation. Since the States Attorney is an elected official that is something that would have to change through the vote.

 

In saying that the department itself is in the wrong as well as the officers regardless of what evidence is presented. Any suspect dying in your care custody and control you are liable for period. 

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I think people tend to forget the difference between civil and criminal cases...in a criminal case, you need to have enough evidence to prove that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. From the very little that I have read, it seems the evidence just is not there. To be fair, the procedure requiring suspects to be restrained during transport was only put into effect 6 days prior to his arrest. In my opinion, the entire police department should face civil lawsuits for not already having this procedure in place. If the police have been transporting suspects without restraining them for their entire career since it wasn't a department policy, it's entire possible they were just acting based on what they've been doing all along. That alone would create some reasonable doubt in my mind that the officers are at fault.

 

Now, should they be fired? Yeah, probably. Should they have to pay retribution to the family for wrongful death or some other civil charge? Maybe, it would definitely be easier to prove. But it's a hell of a lot harder to find someone guilty of a crime, especially those that the officers were being charged.

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17 minutes ago, willpv23 said:

I think people tend to forget the difference between civil and criminal cases...in a criminal case, you need to have enough evidence to prove that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. From the very little that I have read, it seems the evidence just is not there. To be fair, the procedure requiring suspects to be restrained during transport was only put into effect 6 days prior to his arrest. In my opinion, the entire police department should face civil lawsuits for not already having this procedure in place. If the police have been transporting suspects without restraining them for their entire career since it wasn't a department policy, it's entire possible they were just acting based on what they've been doing all along. That alone would create some reasonable doubt in my mind that the officers are at fault.

 

Now, should they be fired? Yeah, probably. Should they have to pay retribution to the family for wrongful death or some other civil charge? Maybe, it would definitely be easier to prove. But it's a hell of a lot harder to find someone guilty of a crime, especially those that the officers were being charged.


Honestly how any department functions without having a policy to directly secure your charge is beyond me. Its not the 80s anymore and for most liability insurances require those policies for the past 20 years. Your telling me they ignored it until a week before someone died? That is confusing to say the least. 

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11 hours ago, Hastings said:

And what the charge would be? The DoJ declined to prosecute for civil right violation. Are you sure they would do it to any other person?

 

We don't know all the facts of the case and discovered evidence, at least not me certainly. But judging from what was made public, state DA overcharged the cops and then failed to provide convincing proof (some cops were acquitted by the court, others were mistried and the charges were dropped, if the info I found is correct). The DA probably did that to satisfy the angry public.

 

In my country were would be a lot of negligence charges (failed to transport properly -> prisoner dies -> all elements of crime in order) and a termination of course.

 

But then again, I'm not proficient in American law, it's all speculation. You guys might know better

 

 

A guy was in a police transport, in handcuffs, and had his neck broken.  What other facts do we need to know?  What else matters?  You cannot honestly tell me you get your neck broken accidentally while in custody and in a vehicle.  There's no defending them.  It is plain as day what happened.

 

I mean officers have families too. What are they supposed to do? Just not brig in any money? What about the children? What if the wife doesn't/can't work and depends solely on the husband that's an officer? What if they're already uncomfortable financially and now the officer is not getting paid because of an angry and ignorant public? Yeah, no. Paid leave was necessary. Suspend them, but they still need to get paid. You can't just not make any money, that's not how American society works.  

 

A lot of people have families, doesn't stop them from doing wrong.  Seriously, think about this. A neck somehow got broken during transport?  Really, folks, please Google neck breaking causes.  Necks don't accidentally break.  That's not a thing.

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1 hour ago, Kallus Rourke said:

 

A guy was in a police transport, in handcuffs, and had his neck broken.  What other facts do we need to know?  What else matters?  You cannot honestly tell me you get your neck broken accidentally while in custody and in a vehicle.  There's no defending them.  It is plain as day what happened.

We do not need to know anything else. The court and the jury, on the other hand, need a ton more to reach a guilty verdict on a murder. 

 

Where's the intent? Where's the evidence to clearly establish the chain of causation? I can't see. 

 

While we're at it... Yes, you can accidentally break your neck while being driven in a back of van during sudden breaking or turning. No cop (except officer Tenpenny) would risk his life, freedom, career and pension by actually trying to murder someone by driving this someone recklessly in the back of a police car. They might have wanted to 'teach him a lesson', sure. He accidentally died during this. 

 

Could this be proven? Well, let's see.

 

The cops were hit with some solid charges, I mentioned them before. Say, I am one of the six suspected officers. I am the least involved (I stood by and did nothing while they conspired to murder the guy). Why would I wait and go down with the rest of them for a murder / mistreatment I was merely an unwilling participant of, if all I need to do is testify and give the DA the story he needs? 

 

tl;dr no cops willed to testify no matter how hard the DA tried to push them, no witnesses / evidence which could prove murder intent were retrieved, so no murder could be proven.

 

Like I said... Negligence and transport procedure violation. Fire the responsible, sue the dept., improve the procedures... Install cameras in the vans... 

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3 hours ago, Hastings said:

Like I said... Negligence and transport procedure violation. Fire the responsible, sue the dept., improve the procedures... Install cameras in the vans... 

 

I agree with you man, but knowing Baltimore, the cameras and the changes to procedure and policy won't happen unless there's some sort of lawsuit or media attention. Baltimore is broke, and the department (was) desperate for officers. They still need officers, but they've increased the minimum standards. At one point, Baltimore PD was hiring at 18 with a GED. Baltimore has already started to make positive changes and new additions to various aspects of its law enforcement agencies. It's well overdue, and things didn't start to improve until after the Baltimore riots; when the city realized that they were short hundreds of officers and couldn't contain the violence and saw how ill-equipped the officers were in dealing with the rioters.

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6 hours ago, TheDivineHustle said:

I agree with you man, but knowing Baltimore, the cameras and the changes to procedure and policy won't happen unless there's some sort of lawsuit or media attention. Baltimore is broke, and the department (was) desperate for officers. They still need officers, but they've increased the minimum standards. At one point, Baltimore PD was hiring at 18 with a GED. Baltimore has already started to make positive changes and new additions to various aspects of its law enforcement agencies. It's well overdue, and things didn't start to improve until after the Baltimore riots; when the city realized that they were short hundreds of officers and couldn't contain the violence and saw how ill-equipped the officers were in dealing with the rioters.

Well, seems like they got the attention now :(

 

It's truly sad to hear because I enjoyed my time in B-more and spoke to many cops (as with the other side of the law :P). Once a sergeant with  some red shoulder patches even drove to home when he thought I was lost.

 

 

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