Steve Burns
WMAL.com
BALTIMORE – (WMAL) The second of six officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray will be going on trial starting this week in Baltimore. Officer Edward Nero is charged with reckless endangerment and assault. Pre-trial motions in the case are set to be heard on Tuesday.
Nero’s assault charge is seen by legal observers as a bit more unconventional. The State claims Nero committed assault through the action of handcuffing Gray, as Nero did not have probable cause to arrest him.
“(The State) is jeopardizing the safety of the public, and they’re supposed to be there to enhance public safety,” legal analyst Warren Brown told WMAL. “It’s going to have a chilling effect on officers who look at this and say, ‘Wow, even if I’m making a good-faith arrest and later on the State’s Attorney determines there was no probably cause and I might get charged, then I’m not making any arrests.’”
Brown said if this type of charge becomes common, “you’d probably be without a police force.”
Nero is also getting charged with reckless endangerment for failing to strap Gray into the police van.
“I think there, the judge may be inclined to find him guilty,” Brown said. “It’s a misdemeanor.”
Nero is expected to request a bench trial rather than a jury trial, leaving the judge to determine the legalities of the arrest.
Brown saw the assault charge as political grandstanding by State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby.
“Nero was the face of this, because he was the one on video (arresting Gray). So you have to charge him, in the State’s mind, with something.”
Nero’s trial follows Officer William Porter’s trial in December that ended in a hung jury. Porter is set to be re-tried later this year following a set of appeals about whether Porter can be compelled to testify in his fellow officers’ trials. Maryland’s highest court ruled he can be sent to jail if he refuses to testify. He will be granted immunity, however, meaning his testimony cannot be used against him in his own trial.
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