State expert: Unclear whether Freddie Gray had ‘rough ride’ in police van [View all]

[Calista241]

Source: Washington Post

The state’s expert on police policy and practices testified that he could not say definitively that Freddie Gray got a “rough ride” the day he suffered a fatal spinal injury in the back of a van on the way to jail.

Former Baltimore City police commander Stanford Franklin struggled to clearly define “rough ride” during his two hours on the stand Wednesday and said most of his expertise on the matter is rooted in anecdotal stories he heard from citizens during his time in law enforcement.

Franklin’s testimony came shortly before prosecutors rested their case on the fifth day of proceedings in the trial of Officer Caesar Goodson Jr., the only one of six officers in the Gray case to face a murder charge.

Prosecutors are attempting to convince a judge that Goodson is responsible for Gray’s death by failing to put Gray in a seat belt and ignoring his requests to go to a hospital. They say Gray got a “rough ride,” bouncing around in the back of the van with his hands and feet shackled, as Goodson drove recklessly.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/trial-set-to-continue-for-officer-charged-with-murder-in-freddie-gray-case/2016/06/14/6b268fa0-3265-11e6-8ff7-7b6c1998b7a0_story.html

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The prosecution of Caesar Goodsen in the Freddie Gray case is going down in flames.

In addition to this abject and complete failure of their own witness to confirm the "rough ride' theory, their medical examiner has pretty well been impeached. The defense is sure to call witnesses who heard her say (and recorded in their notes) that Freddie Gray's injuries were an accident, after swearing in open court that she never said such a thing. Without her testimony that Freddie Gray's injuries happened before stop 5, rather than after stop 5, the state has no case (which was pretty tenuous even before the Defense begins to impeach her).