Officer's Claim That Freddie Gray Arrest Was Legal Could Affect Case
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A number of significant developments in the fallout over the death of Freddie Gray.
WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren looks into the claims being made by one of the officers charged that could affect the case.
The first in what's expected to be a flurry of motions from defense attorneys focused on exactly what happened during the April 12 arrest of Freddie Gray.
Will the charges against the six officers in the Freddie Gray case stick?
Already, lawyers for Officer Edward Nero are picking them apart, claiming in a new motion that Gray had an illegal knife and his arrest was within the law.
This comes as Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby faces new scrutiny. A former deputy prosecutor slammed her as politically ambitious, calling the charges reckless.
"She didn't even have the autopsy report until the morning she had the charges. In other words, her mind was already made up, ditto with the police report," said Page Croyder, former deputy state's attorney.
"I practiced criminal law for years, and you're going to always have criticism of a prosecutor. That's just the way it is," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, (D) Baltimore.
So was the knife legal or not? The state's attorney isn't commenting.
Her office issued a statement that: "While the evidence we have obtained through our independent investigation does substantiate the elements of the charges filed, I refuse to litigate this case through the media."
Legal analyst Andy Levy calls the charges aggressive.
"When the officers were making the arrest, so long as they had a good faith belief that this was an illegal knife, even if that later proved incorrect, that ought to get them acquitted on the criminal charges of false imprisonment, misconduct in office," said Levy.
He points out the legality of the arrest is a separate issue from what happened to Gray inside the transport van.
So will the charges stand?
"I couldn't possibly predict," said Levy. "These lawyers are doing what good lawyers do. I've been doing this a long time. One thing I've learned is not to try to predict what a jury will do."
If the officers do go to trial, it could be four to six months away. It's unclear whether they would be tried together or separately.
