State Faces Hurdle in Trial of 5th Officer Charged in Freddie Gray Case
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The Baltimore State's Attorney's Office will face an unprecedented hurdle as they try to successfully prosecute Baltimore Police Officer Garrett Miller, one of several officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray.
Officer Miller marks the first defendant to face prosecution after testifying against a co-defendant. Before his trial can begin, prosecutors must show that his past testimony -- given in the trial of fellow officer Edward Nero, who was later acquitted of all charges -- will not be used against him.
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Miller, one of five officers suing State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby over allegations that the charges brought against him were motivated by political reasons, was a bicycle officer involved in Gray's initial arrest. He faces charges including manslaughter, assault, misconduct, and reckless endangerment.
The situation is the first of its kind as it has never happened before in a Maryland courtroom. "This is absolutely a unique circumstance," legal analyst Adam Ruther, an attorney with the firm Rosenberg Martin Greenberg, LLP, told WJZ's Mike Hellgren.
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As Ruther noted, the state was warned of the risks involved with Miller taking the stand against a fellow officer.
"If you're going to use these officers as witnesses against each other, you're going to be held to a very high standard to prove that nothing you forced them to stay when you used them as witnesses comes back to bite them when they are sitting in the chair as defendants," he said.
State's Attorney Mosby fought tooth and nail for the officers' testimony all the way to Maryland's highest court.
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While she won that fight, the decision to force Officer Miller -- as well as Officer William Porter -- to take the stand in other trials means Deputy State's Attorney Janice Bledsoe and Chief Deputy State's Attorney Michael Schatzow are out of the picture. They will be replaced in Miller's trial by Assistant State's Attorneys Sarah David and Lisa Phelps.
The new team of prosecutors, dubbed the "Clean Team," will have to prove they were were not tainted in any way by the past testimony provided by Officer Miller.
According to court documents filed by the State's Attorney's Office, they were "instructed not to watch any news coverage of any trials involving the testimony of Officer Miller, not to discuss any testimony of Officer Miller, and to take precautions to ensure that they would not be exposed to Officer Miller's immunized testimony."
Said Ruther, "Not only can they not use what he said against him, but they can't use anything they gleaned from what he said against him."
The situation marks a new twist in this series of high-profile trials surrounding the officers who were directly involved, and later charged, in the arrest and death of Gray, who died last year following an injury suffered in the back of a police wagon.
The motions hearing for prosecutors to prove that information gleaned from Miller won't be used against him is set for Wednesday morning at Courthouse East. It's not yet clear how long that hearing will take.
