Four Baltimore Police officers facing charges for the death of Freddie Gray have filed motions in Baltimore City Circuit Court, asking for their cases to be dismissed.
Lt. Brian Rice, Officer Garrett Miller, Sgt. Alicia White and Officer William Porter have all filed motions asking the court to dismiss their indictments “based on a defect in the institution of the prosecution.”
“These defects occurred at both the District Court and Circuit Court levels and rise to a level which would violate Lt. Rice’s rights of due process secured by the United States Constitution as well as the Maryland Declaration of Rights,” read the filing in Rice’s case.
Pre-trial motions for Rice are scheduled for July 5.
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According to the filing, the officer who filed a statement of charges said in an affidavit that “he was simply presented a narrative by the State’s Attorney’s Office and, at most, retyped the narrative, signed it under oath and presented it for charges and arrest warrants for the six officers.”
“The defect in the institution of the prosecution at the District Court level was substantial,” the filing reads.
At the Circuit Court level, lawyers cited a Baltimore Sun report that “not only was a script given to the lead detective in this case to present to the grand jury, that script had material misrepresentations of fact contained within it. Further, it was reported that prosecutor Jan Bledsoe gave unsworn testimony before the grand jury.”
Multiple defects, attorneys for Rice said, “rose to the level of prosecutorial misconduct and a violation of the officers’ rights to due process.”
The filings in the other three cases contain similar language.
Officers Edward Nero and Caesar Goodson have been acquitted of charges related to Gray’s death last April. Porter’s trial ended in a hung jury last year; a second trial is scheduled for September.
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