Baltimore City state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby hopes to block the release of the autopsy of Freddie Gray and other documents related to the investigation into the 25-year-old’s April 19 death.
The protective order, filed Monday and reported by The Baltimore Sun, is raising accusations from an attorney for one of the six officers charged in the Gray case that Mosby’s request shows that the autopsy is her case.
When Mosby announced charges against the officers on May 1, she said that Gray sustained a broken neck while riding in the back of a police transport van. She also said his death was ruled a homicide and that officers failed to properly restrain him and to provide him with adequate medical attention.
Gray’s autopsy was released only to Mosby’s office, as required by state law. The Baltimore police department, which was conducting a parallel investigation at the same time Mosby’s investigators were conducting one of their own, was not provided the results of the autopsy.
If Mosby’s request for the protective order is granted, only the state’s attorney’s office and defense attorneys would be allowed to view the autopsy results and any other new filings in the case.
Ivan Bates, the attorney for Alicia White, the lone female officer charged in the case, told the Sun that Mosby’s motion indicates “there is something in that autopsy report that they are trying to hide.”
“Mrs. Mosby is the one who did an announcement discussing what she said the evidence was in a nationally televised speech, and now that it is time to turn over the evidence, to ask for a protective order is beyond disingenuous,” Bates told the Sun. “It’s as if she wants to do everything to make sure our clients do not get a fair trial.”
“Nobody would know anything but the state and the defense, so they would totally hide it from the public,” he added. “If your case is as good as you said it was, why don’t you just show the evidence?”
“You can’t holler and say, ‘I’m about accountability for the citizens,’ and then run around filing for a protective order.”
Mosby has been nothing if not a polarizing figure in the case. She drew accolades and criticism for saying during her public May 1 charging announcement that she had heard protesters’ cries of “no justice, no peace,” and that she intended to provide justice for Gray, who was arrested April 12 following a foot chase with police.
The six officers face a total of 28 charges in the case. Caesar Goodson Jr., the driver of the van transporting Gray, faces a second-degree depraved-heart murder charge and a manslaughter charge. Three other officers, including White, face several manslaughter charges as well.
Mosby has not publicly explained what warrants the second-degree murder charge or the manslaughter charges.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2015/06/03/marilyn-mosby-seeks-protective-order-to-block-release-of-freddie-grays-autopsy/#ixzz3c97x6Ggz
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