The judge was unequivocal as he explained why he found Officer Caesar Goodson not guilty of all charges in the death of Freddie Gray, whose neck was broken inside his transport wagon: prosecutors showed no evidence of a crime.
The acquittal of the police driver in the death of the 25-year-old arrestee is the most significant blow yet to their efforts to hold police accountable after protests and rioting in the troubled city. The failure raises the prospect of whether any convictions can be obtained, and if State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby should simply give up trying the case in criminal court.
Throughout the legal proceedings, prosecutors' tactics have been maligned, CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues reports.
In December, Officer William Porter walked free after a hung jury. Last month in another bench trial, Baltimore Judge Barry Williams found Officer Edward Nero not guilty. Both officers faced lesser charges than Goodson.
At the start of Goodson's trial earlier this month, Williams scolded prosecutors for failing to turn evidence over to the defense about another prisoner in the transport van with Gray.
Mosby was in court to hear the verdict, and appeared crestfallen as she hurried out of the courthouse, climbing into a black SUV that sped down the street, away from the crowd.
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said in a statement posted to Twitter that Goodson still faces a police administrative review.
"We once again ask the citizens to be patient and to allow the entire process to come to a conclusion," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2016 13:57 ||
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I'd like to see Mosby and Rawlings brought up on charges.
Unfortunately those types of tyrants get away with most anything.
Goodson had been charged with second-degree depraved heart murder, manslaughter, two counts of vehicular manslaughter, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and misconduct in office. He faced up to 30 years in prison.
This leaves State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby with a record of 0 and 3 in the "Freddie Gray" prosecutions, following the hung jury of Officer William Porter and the acquittal Officer Edward Nero in a bench trial.
The state has argued a revolving array of three different theories of the case for criminal liability of the officers: (1) "Murder by failure to seatbelt"; (2) "Murder by failure to provide timely medical care"; and (3) "Murder by rough ride."
In order to obtain a conviction on any of the criminal charges the prosecution must, of course, prove each and every element of that charge beyond a reasonable doubt. Over the course of the last three "Freddie Gray" trials, however, it has become increasingly apparent that the prosecution not only lacks sufficient evidence to meet that high burden, it may lack any direct evidence for any of its theories of the case.
In addition, prosecutors have been repeatedly found to have concealed exculpatory evidence from the defense, that the state's medical examiner originally believed Gray's death to have been an accident after testifying that she had always believed the death to be a homicide, and just yesterday it was revealed by the Baltimore Sheriffs Office that the "parallel" investigation purported conducted by that office on behalf of prosecutors never actually took place.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/23/2016 11:05 ||
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I read from some legal experts that if they can't make anything stick on Freddie, the whole case is done.
Looks like the charges are trumped up. Marilyn needs to be disbarred over this.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/23/2016 11:08 Comments ||
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#3
Caesar Goodson was the most probable to have anything stick, even as unlikely as it was. Her cases are going down faster than Monica Lewinsky. She's toast and will lose on teh retrial and other cases if they choose bench trials. Her only hope was to stack the deck with twelve angry BLM blacks
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/23/2016 11:12 Comments ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
06/23/2016 11:59 Comments ||
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#5
Her Mussolini face did not impress anyone, let alone make the "railroad" train run on time. But she has that Cholly Rangel / Marion Berry je ne sais qoi going for her still...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/23/2016 12:03 Comments ||
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[SLATE] Donald Trump’s Wednesday morning speech about Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as The Heroine of Tuzla and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Edward Stettinius, Jr. ... ’s record is probably the most unnervingly effective one he has ever given. In a momentary display of discipline, he read from a teleprompter with virtually no ad-libbing, avoiding digs at Bill Clinton ...former Democratic president of the U.S. Bill was the second U.S. president to be impeached, the first to deny that oral sex was sex, the first to have difficulty with the definition of is... ’s infidelity or conspiracy theories about Vince Foster’s suicide. Standing in a low-ceilinged conference room bedecked with square chandeliers in the Trump SoHo, a lawsuit-plagued hotel and condo development, Trump spoke for 40 minutes without saying anything overtly sexist. Instead, he aimed straight at Clinton’s most-serious weaknesses, describing her as a venal tool of the establishment. "Hillary Clinton gave China millions of our best jobs and effectively let China completely rebuild itself," he said. "In return, Hillary Clinton got rich!" He added, "She gets rich making you poor," and called her possibly "the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency."
The point is not that this is true; as political analyst David Gergen said on CNN, the speech was slanderous. But the lies in the speech, many taken from Peter Schweizer’s book Clinton Cash, were not obviously self-refuting. At one point, Trump said, citing Schweizer, "Hillary Clinton’s State Department approved the transfer of 20 percent of America’s uranium holdings to Russia, while nine investors in the deal funneled $145 million to the Clinton Foundation." This has been debunked many times over, including by FactCheck.org.
To explain why it’s not true, though, you have to go into details about Clinton’s role on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which approved the sale of a Canadian-based energy company with American mining stakes to Russia’s nuclear energy agency. It’s a very different sort of lie than the one Trump told at a meeting of evangelicals on Tuesday when he said there’s "nothing out there" about Hillary Clinton’s religion--in fact, her Methodism is extremely well-known even to her political enemies.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2016 00:00 ||
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The point is not that this is true
Since when has the truth been of any use for the Left and its media minions? For the Progressives, power is the only truth. OMG, he's using their own play book.
You know, the sort that isn't any kind of falsehood at all. Or, in the vernacular, "a fact". Damnable things, facts.
as political analyst David Gergen said on CNN, the speech was slanderous.
You know, "slander", defined in Washington circles as "something that makes me look bad and reveals my actual behavior and interests in a light unflattering, and to my allies' discomfort".
Posted by: Charles M. Hagmaier ||
06/23/2016 8:43 Comments ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
06/23/2016 11:00 Comments ||
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#6
I can think of two outright lies told by the mainstream media right off the top of my head.
First, when ABC and others made such a big deal about Trump's response to a hypothetical question about abortion with Chris Matthews. Matthews asked, if abortion is banned should a women be punished for getting an abortion? Well, duh, if it's banned and there is no punishment what is the point of a ban? So Trump said "Yes". ABC jumped on it claiming simply that Trump wants women to be punished for getting abortions. They showed about two seconds worth of him saying yes without any context whatsoever and completely ignoring the fact that Trump will not ban abortions.
Then last night when CBS aired a story about Brexit they showed Nigel Farage in front of a bus with a picture from when all those young men from Syria and elsewhere were walking into Europe toward Germany. The reporter said the ad showed an "imaginary horde". Dude, that horde was real. I remember watching the video, not on CBS of course. CBS lied. Big time.
#8
I missed who was terrified. Hidabeest? then there was some truth in it. The media? They'll just have to work the out-of-context a little harder, no big deal.
If the GOPe was terrified, that's good, right?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/23/2016 14:01 Comments ||
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#9
There's a lesson here: don't be afraid to tell the truth about the progressives, because they aren't afraid to lie about you.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/23/2016 15:29 Comments ||
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There's a lot about the Donald that I don't particularly like. But you show me another Pub presidential candidate who would have gone there like he did. I don't know whether he'll stick with it or whether he'll become unglued. But as Lincoln once said of Grant: “I can’t spare this man; he fights.”
The Hillary Clinton foreign policy has cost America thousands of lives and trillions of dollars – and unleashed ISIS across the world. No Secretary of State has been more wrong, more often, and in more places than Hillary Clinton. Her decisions spread death, destruction and terrorism everywhere she touched. Among the victims is our late Ambassador, Chris Stevens….She started the war that put him in Libya, denied him the security he asked for, then left him there to die. To cover her tracks, Hillary lied about a video being the cause of his death.
Perhaps the most terrifying thing about Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy is that she refuses to acknowledge the threat posed by Radical Islam…. I only want to admit people who share our values and love our people. Hillary Clinton wants to bring in people who believe women should be enslaved and gays put to death.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/23/2016 00:00 ||
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By history, the Policy + consequences of POTUS Obama's "Minimalism" in FP will likely carry over into his successor's administration until proven otherwise, as China has given itself from 2019 - 2021 to take Taiwan back.
China will NOT cease its claims on Taiwan + China Sea(s) - SAVE YOUR BEST POPCORN FOR THE EAST CHINA SEA, TAIWAN + KOREAS.
HILLARY'S "STATUS QUO" = TRUMP'S "US ALLIES MUST PAY FOR US SECURITY" = CHINA WON'T STOP FOR ANY.
TOO BAD JOHN WAYNE IS DEAD, + CHUCK NORRIS IS RETIRED.
Brought to your attention because we've been following the story, and because it's hilarious in a sad way...
Hillary Clinton IT specialist Bryan Pagliano invoked the Fifth more than 125 times during a 90-minute, closed-door deposition Wednesday with the conservative watchdog Judicial Watch, a source with the group told Fox News. The official said Pagliano was working off an index card and read the same crafted statement each time.
And that's how you do it -- don't answer a single question, just read the card.
“It was a sad day for government transparency,” the Judicial Watch official said, adding they asked all their questions and Pagliano invoked the Fifth Amendment right not to answer them.
Pagliano was an accessory a central figure in the set-up and management of Clinton’s illegal personal server she used exclusively for government business while secretary of state. The State Department inspector general found Clinton violated the law government rules with that arrangement.
He was deposed as part of Judicial Watch's lawsuit seeking Clinton emails and other records. A federal judge granted discovery, in turn allowing the depositions, which is highly unusual in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The judge cited "reasonable suspicion" Clinton and her aides were trying to avoid federal records law.
Pagliano’s deposition before Judicial Watch is one of several interviews with high-profile Clinton aides, taking place as the FBI separately is continuing its federal criminal investigation. A federal court agreed to keep sealed Pagliano’s immunity deal struck with the Justice Department in December, citing the sensitivity of the FBI probe and calling it a “criminal” matter.
The next Clinton aide to testify is Huma Abedin. In an earlier deposition, lawyers for senior Clinton aide Cheryl Mills, during a nearly five-hour deposition in Washington, repeatedly objected to questions about Pagliano’s role in setting up the former secretary of state’s illegal private server.
According to a transcript of that deposition which Judicial Watch released, Mills attorney Beth Wilkinson – as well as Obama administration lawyers – objected to the line of questioning about Pagliano.
“I'm going to instruct her not to answer. It's a legal question,” Wilkinson responded, when asked by Judicial Watch whether Pagliano was an “agent of the Clintons” when the server was set up.
A transcript of the Pagliano deposition will be reviewed and is expected to be released next week.
Clinton could also be deposed in the Judicial Watch lawsuit.
There was no immediate comment from Pagliano's attorney.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/23/2016 00:00 ||
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So the Clinton Foundation or other Hillary supporter's money found its way to Pagliano for shutting up? He took the 5th every 1.4 minutes in this deposition. Waste of time other than to cast more suspicion on the Hildabeest and her cover up. It's about time for a special prosecutor to clean up this mess since Loretta Lynch has been shown to be a partisan hack who's not interested in justice but only doing the bidding of the Party and her boss. Once again the people get the shaft.
#2
Alternatively, even with the well publicized and anticipated immunity, Pag dodged any/all substantial questions suggesting to the public narrative that HE was the root of the email issues, not Hilarity.
#6
Last words of Dylan Thomas: "Eighteen whiskys. A new record!"
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/23/2016 12:26 Comments ||
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Pagliano can just give his 5th amendment card to Huma. My bet is she will do the same. On the other hand, she might develop a severe case of amnesia.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
06/23/2016 12:46 Comments ||
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I thought he was granted immunity. If so, wouldn't this require him to answer the questions to retain that immunity? Obviously not, but just in case . . . .
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The judge was unequivocal as he explained why he found Officer Caesar Goodson not guilty of all charges in the death of Freddie Gray, whose neck was broken inside his transport wagon: prosecutors showed no evidence of a crime.
Hillary Clinton
