NYPD Commissioner Calls Out Mosby For 'Inexperience, Overcharging Cops'
BALTIMORE (WJZ)--Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby drew cheers when she first announced charges against six officers in the Freddie Gray case.
But the Monday acquittal of Officer Edward Nero drew a sharp response from New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton.
"The charges occurred within several days of her coming into the case," said Bratton. "District attorneys usually don't move that fast. They usually investigate more thoroughly, and so I think that the loss of some of these cases may be in fact the fact that it was not investigated thoroughly."
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Bratton, who has also lead Boston's and Los Angeles' police departments during his long career, called Mosby inexperienced and said she was playing to the crowd.
"In some instances there was overcharging, as was clearly the case in the officer who was acquitted yesterday by the judge," he said. "The idea that it was an extraordinary stretching of the law in that case in my opinion. As to whether there were violations of law, violations of rules and regulations, well, that is ultimately the process that is being gone through at the moment."
City Councilman Brandon Scott says Bratton is the one who rushed to judge Mosby.
"Mr. Bratton should stay in New York and worry about New York's business, we don't need his opinions," said Scott. "The only thing mister Bratton has done for the City of Baltimore recently is have his mentee come here and be a bad commissioner--Anthony Batts. We know that if she wasn't a woman and also black she wouldn't be met with the same scrutiny."
RELATED: Police Commissioner Anthony Batts Fired As Baltimore Sees Alarming Violence Spike
Legal experts say Mosby's got a tough battle ahead.
"Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is protection from any prosecution but there have been so few successful prosecutions of police officers," said UMD law professor Doug Colbert. "It's going to take a lot of evidence to show an officer should be held criminally responsible."
Defense attorney Warren Brown believes the prosecutions are political and wrong.
"There were other paths to achieve that besides serving these officers up as sacrificial lambs to the community. She destroyed the lives of these individuals, there's something upside down about that," said Brown. " You indict these officers to placate people who are rioting. It makes no sense whatsoever."
Mosby is under a gag order. Her director of communications tells WJZ she will not comment and will respect the judge's order.
Mosby's team is gearing up for the next case in less than two weeks for the trial of van driver officer Caesar Goodson Jr.