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Attorney Sheryl Wood analyzes the decision to drop charges in remaining Freddie Gray cases

Posted at 12:05 PM, Jul 27, 2016
and last updated 2018-12-31 14:19:52-05

The state’s decision to drop charges against the remaining three officers in the Freddie Gray cases came at the end of several legal battles.

Most recently, in the charges against Officer Garrett Miller, a new team of attorneys from the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office was assembled to prosecute his case.

Miller had previously testified for the state in the case of Officer Edward Nero, following an unsuccessful appeal to the Maryland Court of Appeals.

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“Now they have to prove, that’s why they brought in a new prosecution team, a clean team if you will, and they were going to have this hearing to prove that this old prosecution team didn’t do anything to taint the clean team,” said Sheryl Wood, a former federal prosecutor who has been analyzing the Freddie Gray cases.

The defense attorneys for Miller were alleging there had been conversations between the old and new prosecution teams, and lawyers from each team were subpoenaed to testify at the pre-trial hearing for Miller scheduled for Wednesday.

“What we’ve seen here is strong lawyering on both sides,” Wood said. “The defense has not let any issue go unchallenged.”

Wood said she was surprised that the charges were dropped.

“I think we talked about charges being dropped, and I even recommended and thought that they should drop charges against Sgt. White, if not all of them,” Wood said. “I am surprised, it seemed like they were steadfast in moving forward.” 

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