Baltimore reaches settlement with Freddie Gray family
BALTIMORE - The family of Freddie Gray, a black man who died after being critically injured in police custody, has reached a $6.4 million wrongful death settlement with the city of Baltimore, officials said Tuesday.
The deal has to be approved by the city's Board of Estimates, which will meet Wednesday morning.
The proposed settlement would require $2.8 million to be paid during the current fiscal year and $3.6 million during the next fiscal year, beginning July 1, 2016. It would resolve all civil claims stemming from Gray's death.
Six Baltimore officers have been charged in the 25-year-old Gray's death, which led to protests in the city and a riot that prompted National Guard intervention and a city-wide curfew. Gray was critically injured April 12 in the back of a prisoner transport van after he was arrested.
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said in a news release Tuesday that the proposed settlement "should not be interpreted as a judgment on the guilt or innocence of the officers facing trial."
"This settlement is being proposed solely because it is in the best interest of the city, and avoids costly and protracted litigation that would only make it more difficult for our city to heal and potentially cost taxpayers many millions more in damages," the statement says.
The news release said the settlement has nothing whatsoever to do with the criminal proceedings and does not resolve any factual disputes, and expressly does not constitute an admission of liability on the part of the city, its police department or any of the officers.
Officers Edward Nero, Garrett Miller, William Porter and Caesar Goodson, as well as Lt. Brian Rice and Sgt. Alicia White all face second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office charges in connection with Gray's death.
Rice, Porter and White also face manslaughter charges, and Goodson faces an additional charge of second-degree "depraved heart" murder.
Three of the officers are black and three are white.
Lt. Gene Ryan, President of the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police, issued a statement calling news of the proposed settlement concerning and alarming.
"To suggest that there is any reason to settle prior to the adjudication of the pending criminal cases is obscene and without regard to the fiduciary responsibility owed to the taxpaying citizens of the City," the statement says.
"We strongly urge the city's spending panel to reject this proposed settlement and to wait until such time as there is a more appropriate response."
News of the settlement between Baltimore and the Gray family comes just under a week after a judge ruled that the six officers will be tried separately.
Defense lawyers had argued for separate trials for each of the six because not all of the evidence applies to each defendant and they argued they do not want jurors prejudiced against their clients based on evidence that was brought into the trial against another defendant, CBS News Justice Reporter Paula Reid reported.
According to Reid, the decision to try the officers separately means more money, more time, more jurors, and ultimately a lesser likelihood of conviction.
Last week, the judge also denied a motion by the defense to recuse State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby and her staff due to what defense attorneys characterized as conflicts of interest.
Defense attorneys had also sought to drop the charges against the officers, citing prosecutorial misconduct on the part of Mosby.
Initial police reports said Gray was arrested for carrying a knife, though whether Gray was legally carrying that knife is sure to be a centerpiece of the case as it moves to trial. Prosecutors say it's legal under a city ordinance, while defense attorneys argue that it's a switchblade, and thus illegal under both city and state law.