In the second trial in connection with the death of Freddie Gray, officer Edward M. Nero and his defense team decided on Tuesday that a judge, not a jury, would determine his verdict. One of three bicycle officers involved in Gray’s arrest, Nero told Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry G. Williams that he would prefer a bench trial, which is set to begin on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. and could last five days.
“When the jury’s composition may identify with the person who allegedly was a victim of police wrongdoing, the defense may prefer a sympathetic and empathetic judge,” said University of Maryland law professor Douglas Colbert. “Plus, there’s no question that a bench trial will move more expeditiously and with fewer delays than a jury trial.”
Nero has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and misconduct in office, related to Gray’s initial detention on April 12, 2015. The maximum penalty for the assault and endangerment charges is 15 years. There is no maximum penalty for the misconduct charge.
At a pre-trial hearing on Tuesday, Williams ruled on 13 motions. For example, he excluded medical testimony on the fatal spinal cord injuries Gray suffered while in police custody. The judge also barred prosecutors from bringing up the legality of the knife, which was clipped to Gray’s pants pocket the day of his arrest.
“The message I believe the prosecution is sending is there have been far too many arrests in Baltimore that have occurred without probable cause,” Colbert said. “In turn, the defense will mitigate Nero’s role, saying he did what a so-called ‘reasonable’ police officer would do based upon police practice, which they say would takes precedent over a police commissioner’s directive.”
Essentially, prosecutors in the case will argue that Nero, 30, and the other officers had no probable cause to arrest Gray, and the fact that the officers didn’t restrain Gray with a seatbelt in the back of the police transport van establishes reckless endangerment. On the other hand, Marc Zayon and the rest of Nero’s defense team will argue that their client was justified to stop Gray in a high-crime area, particularly due to his decision to run and the fact that he possessed a knife.
“Freddie ran because that is what African-American men and young boys do in that community,” Baltimore NAACP president Tessa Hill-Aston told The Washington Post. “You can’t throw everybody down and then say, ‘Let’s see what they got.’ It doesn’t happen in the white neighborhoods.”
The other five officers, including William G. Porter (whose first trial ended in a hung jury) and Caesar R. Goodson Jr. (driver of the van whose trial was delayed) are scheduled to be tried consecutively over the next six months.