No Trial By Jury For Highest-Ranking Officer Charged In Freddie Gray Case
BALTIMORE (CBSNewYork/AP) -- There will be no trial by jury for the highest-ranking Baltimore police officer charged in the death of a young black man whose neck was broken inside a police van. Lt. Brian Rice has chosen to be tried instead by a judge, the same one who acquitted two fellow officers in Freddie Gray's death.
Rice faces charges of manslaughter, assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office.
Judge Barry Williams acquitted Edward Nero and Caesar Goodson after bench trials last month. The first of the six officers to go to trial, William Porter, faced a jury and ended with a mistrial. He'll be retried in September.
Six officers were charged in Gray's death, but only Goodson was accused of murder. Gray was fatally injured after officers bound his hands and feet and Goodson left him unprotected by a seat belt that prosecutors say would have kept him from slamming into the van's metal walls.
Gray died April 19, 2015, a week after suffering a spinal injury in Goodson's wagon.
Gray's death set off Baltimore's worst riots in decades, and fueled the Black Lives Matter movement. The violent riots prompted the governor of Maryland to declare a state of emergency and activate the National Guard in Baltimore. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also deployed 150 state troopers to help Baltimore restore peace and order.
A New York City demonstration held in solidarity with the Baltimore protests resulted in 143 arrests last April after protesters spilled into traffic and shut down the outbound Holland Tunnel, the West Side Highway and several other city streets.
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