How does that work? They are going to give him immunity from what? Im guessing it doesnt work like it does on TV....

How can they force him to testify?

I'm not a lawyer but I'll give my interpretation of what the article is saying.

The prosecutors will tell the judge they want Porter to testify against Goodson.

They offer immunity from anything he testifies to in Goodson's trial.

Then in June they retry Porter for the charges against him.

The prosecutors will ask the judge to make Porter testify or face contempt charges and have him arrested.

I guess what confuses me is that they can compel him to testify in a seperate trial about the same event that he is going to be seperately tried for... What compels him to do so beyond being held in contempt? Cant he be hostile to the prosecution and basically be as uncooperative as the law will allow?

If Lois Lerner can invoke the 5th amendment in front of Congress, it is a travesty of justice if Officer Porter is denied the same privilege in a court of law.

from a WSJ article

http://www.wsj.com/articles/of...er-trials-1452009448

According to Mr. Porter’s lawyers, prosecutors argue that Mr. Porter can’t refuse to testify at the two coming trials because, they say, they plan to offer him an immunity grant that would prevent them from using his own testimony against him.

Mr. Porter’s lawyers argued in their motion to the court that compelling his testimony would violate his right against self-incrimination. Even with such an immunity grant, calling him to testify in two trials about the same matters related to his pending manslaughter charge wreaks of impropriety, they said in the filing.

Mr. Porter’s lawyers said a continuing federal probe of Mr. Gray’s death could lead to federal charges against Mr. Porter, noting that members of the local U.S. Attorney’s Office were present when Mr. Porter testified in his own defense .

“It is therefore, surely, undeniable that Officer Porter remains in the sights of the United States,” the defense lawyers wrote in the motion.

Mr. Porter’s lawyers also said his compelled testimony at the other officers’ forthcoming trials could expose him to perjury charges. If the state believed his testimony differed from testimony he gave during his own trial, “all the immunity the state could confer would be rendered meaningless,” they said.

Because a convicted perjurer can’t testify in court, calling Mr. Porter to testify at the two trials could strip him of his ability to testify at his retrial, they said.

***********************

I don't know if the last paragraph above is true. Sounds odd.

If that is true, this bunch of hangmen in the prosecutor's office could really screw Porter even further.

It was generally thought that Porter's testimony in his own trial was helpful to his defense.


adding: All this local and federal prosecutor attention to convict 6 police officers while there are 237 uncleared Baltimore homicides from 2015.

Just an attempt by the prosecutors to get porter to throw his buddies under the bus. To be followed quickly by the jaded buddies throwing him under the bus in retaliation.

They can't prove their case in reference to the charges without the assistance of co-defendants. Since they've already shown their hand on how they treat the city's officers, they will get no cooperation.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/ne...-20160105-story.html

Media coalition intervenes, calls for broader court transparency in Baltimore officers' trials

A coalition of local and national media outlets has intervened in court to call for broader transparency and increased access to legal documents in the prosecution of the Baltimore police officers in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray.

The coalition, which includes The Baltimore Sun, filed a memorandum on Tuesday in support of its intervention in the case and is asking for access to sealed documents, trial transcripts, evidence, and future moments during trials when jurors leave the courtroom to view evidence.

It also asked the court to refrain from admonishing jurors not to talk about their experiences after their service is concluded, as Judge Barry G. Williams did with jurors in the recently concluded trial of Officer William G. Porter.

In addition to the Sun, the media coalition includes Bloomberg News, Hearst Stations, Inc., ABC News, Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, The Guardian, NBC News, Sinclair Broadcast, Inc., The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, WJZ, WMAR, and the Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press.

The media coalition argued that any direction to jurors that they not discuss their experiences after the conclusion of their service would be an "unconstitutional prior restraint" on free speech.

The coalition noted that the court denied transcripts from the Porter case under a 2010 administrative order — issued amid the trial of then-Mayor Sheila Dixon for embezzling gift cards — that transcripts would not be provided by the court until "a decision, verdict or judgment has been reached in the case."

The coalition noted that, to its knowledge, no other Circuit Court in the state operates under a similar rule, and said the 2010 order violates the First Amendment because it does not present a "compelling reason" for why it was needed, nor was it tailored narrowly either in scope or duration.

Well this judge is definitely for the prosecution.

Judge Williams orders that Porter be compelled to testify.

Baltimore Sun:

Williams, prosecutors & defense all agreed ruling may be first of its kind... Porter attys going to Ct of Appeals tomorrow for injunction

Porter briefly took the stand where prosecutors asked if he would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights; he said yes

Judge Williams: "I find myself in uncharted territory"

******************

not really Judge. You are corrupt.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
Well this judge is definitely for the prosecution.

Yep, I posted his bio on page 6 - the prosecution could not have found a more pro-prosecution judge if they searched the entire country. He spent his entire early career in the civil rights division of the Dept of Just-us.

So they accuse him of murder, then force him to incriminate himself? What the fuck happened to fifth amendment? How does a states attorney give him immunity from federal persecution prosecution? I'd ride the bench in jail before admitting anything on the stand to build a case against me. The contempt would end when the trial ends right?

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
Porter briefly took the stand where prosecutors asked if he would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights; he said yes

Judge Williams: "I find myself in uncharted territory"

Yet another COMPSTITUTIONAL SCHOLAR.

The "immunity" that the prosecutors offered to Porter was NOT that they would drop charges against him.

It was only that whatever he testified to in the Goodson trial would not be used against him later.

I can't explain this to have it make sense. This is a railroad job for the ages.

I wonder if the Baltimore DA office was able to handpick the judge. Overall it appears that the Mayor, DA, and the general judicial system are working together to obtain a conviction, and will not let laws or the truth get in their way.

Time to start taking the Oliver North approach.

The stakes here are huge.

If the prosecutors don't get a conviction on Goodson, the whole thing falls apart.

Marilyn Mosby's career would be ruined by showing what a political tool she has been.

The Mayor's reputation would be even further damaged.

The 6.4 million pay out would be shown to be a total waste and extremely inappropriate.

And there probably would be riots.

At this point I am surprised the Baltimore Police force isn't taking some drastic action as they watch their fellow officers get devoured by prosecutors who they have to work with every day.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:
Is it not unheard of to have a fully trained and practicing LAWYER on a jury pool? Very odd...

I've been a juror in a criminal case. I have been a practicing lawyer since 1991, and served as a prosecutor in the Army in the early 90s. Now I practice corporate law, so my daily experience is far removed from the case I was sitting on.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/ne...-20160106-story.html

Baltimore Judge Barry G. Williams ordered that Officer William Porter be compelled to testify at the upcoming trial of a fellow Baltimore Police officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray, a ruling Porter's defense attorneys said they would immediately seek an injunction to block.

Williams said he found himself in "uncharted territory" as he granted Porter a type of immunity that allows his charges to stand but which precludes his testimony from being used against him.

Attorneys and legal observers agreed that such a ruling against a co-defendant was a first in Maryland.

Porter's defense attorney Gary Proctor had argued that forcing Porter to testify at the trial of Officer Caesar Goodson would violate his state and federal constitutional rights that protect defendants against self-incrimination, and that he could be subjected to perjury charges or become exposed in a federal investigation.

Chief Deputy State's Attorney Michael Schatzow said Porter could not claim such protections once granted immunity.

"Officer Porter, in the Officer Goodson case, is a witness," Schatzow told Williams in his argument. "That's the only status he has."

Schatzow said that though he thought the law was clear, he agreed the ruling would be a first


"Somebody has to be first," Schatzow said to Williams.

"It's gotta be me," Williams said with mock regret.

"Who would be better?" Schatzow joked.

there seems to be running jokes in open court between Williams (the judge) and Schatzow (the prosecutor)


Jury selection in Goodson's trial is scheduled for Monday.

Prosecutors have said Porter is a "material witness" against Goodson and Sgt. Alicia White, whose trial is scheduled for Jan. 25.

Immunity is used both ways.

Back in NYC during the Gasrner incident, the Sergeant in charge and who ordered the takedown was removed and never seen again.

quote:

Lost in the racial outcry over the decision to not indict white police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Black petty criminal Eric Garner is the key fact that the attempt to arrest Garner was overseen by a Black female police sergeant.

Black female Police sergeant Kizzy Adoni supervized the fatal arrest of Eric Garner.

The Black female police sergeant is not shown in the countless replays in the media of cellphone footage that showed white male police officers confronting and taking down Garner but she is said to be seen in the video.

From a police report reported by PIX11 in July, the sergeant’s name appears to be Kizzy Adoni.

“
“Another female sergeant, Kizzy Adoni, made a similar statement in the report. She “believed she heard” Garner say he was having difficulty breathing. Adoni also said “The perpetrator’s condition did not seem serious and he did not appear to get worse.””

There is no mention of Adoni in a Google News search of the latest reports on the Garner decision.

There are very few mentions at all that a Black female sergeant oversaw the attempted arrest of Garner.

NBC News in New York reported the sergeants at the scene were offered immunity for their testimony before the grand jury

Could one of our forum legal team educate me on how he can't invoke the 5th Amendment?

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
Judge Williams: "I find myself in uncharted territory"

******************

not really Judge. You are corrupt.

This is beyond absurd. This judge is a joke. A bad joke, but a joke none the less. Let's hope the attorneys for Porter get their injunction before this retard in dark robes screws up anything else.