Marilyn Mosby announced today that all charges against the remaining officers in the Freddie Gray case. She was petty, mean and generally dishonest in her announcement. She tried to hide her incompetence by blaming the police and the judge for her own failings. From the very beginning, she was more interested in holding herself up as a black activist rather than an impartial prosecutor. Legal experts disagreed with her charges against the officers, who claimed that the charges would be impossible to support in court. That includes famed liberal Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz.
Mosby declared:
“While to this day we stand by the decisions, the legal theories, the charges, and assertions set forth in the statements of probable cause and during these proceedings, as officers of the court we must respect the verdicts rendered by the judge.”
Three of those officers were already acquitted in bench trials presided over by Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams. Mosby made it clear at her presser that she wasn’t thrilled that there were no juries involved. That’s because juries are more emotional than judges and that would have given her a chance to win with the poor cases she had.
Mosby shouted:
“What we realized very early on in this case is that police investigating police…was problematic.”
What she meant was that police are charged to investigate and she considered them to be her servants and she resented the fact that they found exculpatory evidence. Evidence her office tried to conceal from the defendants and which the judge admonished her office about. She is facing disbarment for hiding that evidence.
Prosecutors allegedly withheld statements from witnesses who said that Grey had been banging against the inside of the van and rocking it on the day of his arrest. It has also been asserted that prosecutors received evidence that Freddie Grey tried to hurt himself during previous arrests. Both of these items were withheld from defense attorneys, raising questions about the ethics of Mosby. Hiding exculpatory evidence is grounds for disbarment.
“There was a reluctance and an obvious bias that was consistently exemplified, not by the entire Baltimore police department, but by individuals within the Baltimore police department at every stage of the investigation.”
Mosby admonished the police for uncovering exculpatory evidence in favor of the charged cops. She told them to quit doing the defense’s work for them. The job of the police is to thoroughly investigate crimes not to facilitate prosecutions by withholding evidence.
“We do not believe that Freddie Gray killed himself. We stand by the medical examiner’s determination that Freddie Gray’s death was a homicide.”
What she fails to mention is that she did not give the coroner, Carol Allan all the information she possessed. After investigation, the police found that Freddie Gray was a con man who participated in “crash for cash” scams. meaning that some of his injuries came from that. Or the possibility that some of his injuries were old and aggravated during his trip to the jail. After a previous arrest, Gray injured himself so badly he required a hospital visit.
“After much thought and prayer it has become clear to me that without being able to work with an independent investigatory agency from the very start, without having a say in the election of whether our cases proceed in front of a judge or a jury…we can try this case 100 times…and we would still end up with the same results.”
That’s because she never had a case. She might have had she charged them properly instead of charging them with crimes well beyond her ability to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.
“As prosecutors we are ministers of justice, and it is our ethical obligation to always seek justice over conviction. As prosecutors we do not determine guilt or innocence of individuals.”
Withholding evidence against plaintiffs is not justice or the job of an honest prosecutor.
“And although we came close to convicting one of the officers when his case was tried before 12 Baltimore city residents, the judge has made it clear that he does not agree with the state’s theory of the case and does not believe that any of the actions or inactions of these officers rise to the level of criminality.”
She came close? The jury voted 11-1 to acquit the officer of involuntary manslaughter. They voted 10-1 to acquit for misconduct in office. They voted 8-2 to acquit on charges of assault with 2 jurors undecided. In what alternative reality does that amount to to a near conviction?
Personally, I think she was setting up a case to have herself found not guilty on the disbarment charges due to dimished capacity because obviously, she has lost touch with reality.