quote:

Originally posted by domcintosh:

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
But then they will be sent to jail for contempt.

Bring it. Counter sue, with the claim they are trying to force him to violate his Fifth Amendment protections, using imprisonment as coercion.

And get it out of the kangaroo zoo that is Baltimore when bringing the suit.
Nobody in their right mind wants to go to court unless they are getting paid for it, but these cops have their lives on the line. Fight it.

quote:

Originally posted by domcintosh:
"I plead the Fifth" All day long.

Or, "I don't remember" all day long.

All of the officers (except the van driver) gave a statement after the incident last 12 April.

When they gave the statements, they didn't know they would be charged. They thought the statements were "for the record" witness statements.

The prosecutors cannot enter any of those statements into the trials unless the officer testifies.

So even if they fight the contempt charge, their original statement can be introduced as evidence.

Gray was arrested on 12 April 2015, and died on 19 April 2015.

adding:
Mosby announced she wants Officer Miller to testify against 2 other officers. (Nero and Rice)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: sdy,

I still cannot get my head around the court ordering the testimony of a co-defendant and that being anything remotely legal.

What is the latest on the appeals process for that ruling?

Maryland Appeals Court agreed w the prosecutors. Officers have to testify or face contempt.

Only possible next step would be if the defense went to Supreme Court.

I watched the Appeals Court hearing live. It was very frustrating . 7 judges trying to out do each other w citing case history and using up the limited presentation time (15 minutes) of the people making the appeal.

For all their grand law knowledge display, they ignored the most obvious point. If an officer faces a future trial, and he testifies against another officer, the testimony is tweeted out literally within minutes.

The entire jury pool in Baltimore knows what the testimony was.

The Appeals Court handed the prosecutors a complete by pass of the 5th.

"I dont recall" would be about all they would get out of me at this point. I hope the lawyers are conferring and going to take this to the supreme court.

quote:

Originally posted by TKO:
"I dont recall" would be about all they would get out of me at this point. I hope the lawyers are conferring and going to take this to the supreme court.

It was a year ago, I don't think I'd be able to remember either

I don't understand how ANY of this shit is Constitutional. I'd sit in jail for a year or more before testifying against myself.

What's the max punishment for contempt?

quote:

I don't understand how ANY of this shit is Constitutional.

I don't think the US Constitution or the State Constitution have much, if anything to do with the legal process in Baltimore. Probably true of lots of liberal states and cities.

Larry Hogan is the Rep Gov of Maryland.

Regarding the Baltimore riots of last year:

http://hotair.com/archives/201...ing-baltimore-mayor/

During remarks at the center-right American Action Forum in Washington, the Republican governor said he first called Rawlings-Blake last April offering help after an aide showed him footage of a burning police car.

He called again three hours later with two options: He would sign an executive order sending in the National Guard at her request, or he would sign one sending it in at his.

“I think it’s better for you and better for me if we go with the first one,” Hogan recalled telling the mayor. “But either way, we’re … taking over.”

Hogan said Rawlings-Blake told him she needed more time, and when he refused, she asked for 15 minutes to think over her options.

“She called me back, and she said, ‘Since you’re holding a gun to my head, and since you’re going to do it anyway, I guess I’ll ask you to come in,'” Hogan said. “And then we came in, saved the city, and we never got a thank-you.

Hogan said that when he first called the mayor, she assured him that everything was under control. He recalled telling her that “it doesn’t look like everything’s under control. It looks like the city’s on fire.”

He said that the National Guard’s “overwhelming presence had a chilling effect on the rioters. They all went scurrying home and didn’t want to cause any more violence because we had an overwhelming display of force.”

*******************
I wonder how much worse things would have been w/o Hogan stepping in?


Rawlings-Blake did not run for reelection as mayor of Baltimore.

The Dem primary for mayor was just held.

Marilyn Mosby's husband had dropped out of the race.

A BLM leader (DeRay McKesson) was running, but didn't get many votes.

Catherine Pugh won the Dem primary for mayor.

quote:

He said that the National Guard’s “overwhelming presence had a chilling effect on the rioters. They all went scurrying home and didn’t want to cause any more violence because we had an overwhelming display of force.”

This is the most relevant statement in the story. It is the only thing the animals that had previously been released (by the government in Baltimore) from their cages understood with any degree of competence.

And that message was- "The party's over, and if you try to continue it, you're going to get thumped".

Why should Rawlings-Blake thank Gov Hogan, he is the enemy, trying to quash the justified actions of the rioters.

Experts say Baltimore officer Nero likely planning for bench trial in Freddie Gray case

http://www.baltimoresun.com/ne...-20160505-story.html

All signs indicate that the next Baltimore police officer to go on trial in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray is planning to have his fate decided by a judge instead of a jury, legal experts say.

Police officers often choose to have a judge hear their case when the allegations turn on whether their actions were reasonable, experts said. In this case, Officer Edward M. Nero's defense team could be concerned about a jury reaching a verdict based on emotion rather than a calculated reading of the law.

While Nero's choice of a trial by judge or jury won't be made public until a hearing Tuesday, the court has not taken certain steps to prepare for a jury trial. For instance, it has not announced a schedule for jury selection, as it did previously when trials of officers in the Gray case approached.

"All the indicators suggest that Officer Nero has communicated to the court that he intends to proceed with a bench trial," said attorney Steve Levin, a former federal prosecutor who is not involved in the case.

An advisory issued by the court late Wednesday says a motions hearing for Nero will be held Tuesday, with his trial beginning the following day. All proceedings next week are scheduled for a room in Courthouse East, not the larger room in the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse that was used for jury selection in Officer William G. Porter's trial.

For Porter's trial, the court called on hundreds of jurors to appear, and lawyers argued extensively in pre-trial motions about how to approach the jury selection process. Neither prosecutors nor Nero's defense team have filed motions regarding jury selection.

"Nothing is official until it happens in the courtroom, on the record," said a judiciary spokeswoman, Angelita Williams, who also declined to discuss whether or how many jurors the court was preparing to call.

Nero is charged with second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and misconduct in office. He was one of the officers on bike patrol who spotted Gray and gave chase on April 12 last year, then arrested him and charged him with having an illegal knife

University of Maryland law professor Douglas Colbert said it is a "huge decision for an accused to choose one decision-maker, as opposed to 12."

Attorneys may look for signs that a judge could be more likely to rule in their favor. "From what I saw, I'm not sure that Judge Williams fits within that profile," Colbert said.




Officer Nero

sdy...thank you for your posts keeping this current...it is easy to let it slip away with everything else going on that is keeping the MSM "busy"...

This entire thing against the officers should have never progressed this far (if not for the political aspirations of those seeking to profit from it it Baltimore...it never would have).

Every time I read this thread Im more sure the whole damn world has flipped upside down.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/ne...-20160508-story.html

Prosecutors are expected to test a novel legal theory this week in the trial of a police officer charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray — that the officer didn't have the authority to detain him and therefore committed an assault by putting him in handcuffs.

Hundreds of detainees in the city are released every year after being arrested without being charged.

Nero's attorneys, Marc Zayon and Allison Levine, wrote in a recent court filing that they couldn't locate a "single case" in which an officer had been criminally charged with assault on the basis that an arrest was made without probable cause.

When officers make arrests, prosecutors review the allegations and routinely throw out cases that they determine lack probable cause, or which they think are not worth pursuing. When police arrests peaked a decade ago, prosecutors were declining about one-third of those cases — or tens of thousands or arrests.

Arrests have plummeted, along with the number of rejected cases. Still, in hundreds of cases each year, prosecutors at Central Booking in Baltimore refuse to file charges.

And charges are not filed against the officers for making the wrong call, Nero's attorneys have said in court filings.

About three weeks before Gray's arrest, the state's attorney's office had asked police to target the intersection with "enhanced" drug enforcement efforts. Once officers caught up to Gray, he was restrained and handcuffed, and they found a knife on his belt.

A 2000 Supreme Court ruling, Illinois v. Wardlaw, has upheld that the combination of unprovoked flight in an area known for "high crime" provides sufficient suspicion for a stop. Another ruling from decades earlier found that police can stop someone without probable cause if they have "reasonable suspicion" the person has or is about to commit a crime, or may be armed and dangerous.

Nero's attorney has noted that Miller made the arrest and wrote the charging document, and that Nero relied on direction from Lt. Brian Rice, another officer charged in the case. Nero "cannot be legally responsible for the initial detention" or the arrest of Mr. Gray, his attorney contends.

"Defendant Officer Nero should be tried, and legally must be tried based upon his own actions, not those of any other officer or any other person," Zayon wrote.


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

Nero's case appears to be the weakest of the 6 cases. Actually the charges in all 6 cases are outrageously wrong. A witch hunt by an inexperienced but racially and politically motivated prosecutor.

The prosecutors (henceforth on all my posts Asshats) are going to continue to make shit up as they go along, until sooner or later they get someone convicted of something.

This whole trial is no better than the witch trials of Salem.

"I dont like you, so Im going to demonize you for an act that is repeated thousands of times a day every day across the nation."

Id like to see the entire damn department walk out of Baltimore in protest to the sham that is this criminal trial.

Funny this is heading to a boiling point as the weather improves and the riot seasons nears.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/ne...-20160509-story.html

Judge Williams is also expected to rule on subpoenas Nero's attorneys issued to several assistant state's attorneys in Mosby's office, seeking information on all cases reviewed in the first six months of 2015 by the office's charging division.

That unit evaluates cases brought by police and "makes decisions to release or charge offenders based on principles of law," according to the state's attorney's office's web site.

Nero's attorneys have said they want to show that prosecutors regularly find officers lacked probable cause to make arrests but do not file criminal charges against the officers , and that cases are regularly brought against individuals who possessed knives similar to the one found on Gray.

Prosecutors have said circumstances in other, unrelated cases hold no bearing and are irrelevant to the charges against Nero, and that claims of a "discriminatory prosecution" — judging one defendant differently from another — can be raised only in pre-trial motions for dismissal, not as evidence to be presented during trial.

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

So the prosecutors want to take this single case and treat the identical behavior different than thousands of other arrests.

I hope this part comes up in the trial:

"About three weeks before Gray's arrest, the state's attorney's office had asked police to target the intersection with "enhanced" drug enforcement efforts"

Court Hearings held today.

It will be a bench trial (no jury).

Trial to begin Thursday. Prosecutors requested a one day delay.

Baltimore Sun says Judge Williams ruled there will be no discussion of the knife Gray was carrying (not sure exactly what that means).

Officers Porter and Miller are expected to testify at Officer Nero's trial.

Nero only faces misdemeanor charges and has requested a bench trial. It won't surprise me if he is found not guilty on all charges. The prosecution's case is weak in all of these proceedings.