Too bad the city of Baltimore settled with the family out of court.
Via Daily Mail:
A disciplinary panel has found a Baltimore police van driver not guilty on all administrative charges related to his transportation of Freddie Gray, the black man whose death in custody sparked riots in the city.
The three-member board said Tuesday that Officer Caesar Goodson did not violate any department policies the day Gray was fatally injured in police custody.
Goodson smiled, appearing relieved, after the not-guilty verdicts on all 21 counts were read. His lawyers hugged each other and patted themselves on the back with loud thumps.
Attorney Sean Malone said outside the hearing room at the University of Baltimore that the verdict is vindication for a hard-working and soft-spoken officer. He also said that Goodson plans to keep working on the Baltimore police force.
Department lawyer Neil Duke had argued that Goodson should have been fired for failing to follow policy by not buckling Gray into a seatbelt, failing to get him medical attention and lying about the chain of events following Gray’s arrest in April 2015.
Gray died a week later of a spinal cord injury he suffered during the van ride, prompting civil unrest among people expressing outrage at the treatment of African-Americans by police in Baltimore’s inner city.
His death added fuel to the growing Black Lives Matter movement and caused turmoil in Baltimore.
None of the six officers charged criminally for their roles in Gray’s arrest were convicted. […]
Attorney Thomas Tompsett Jr. accused the department during the disciplinary hearing of trying to run over his client in ‘a bus without any evidence.’
‘Not every accident has a villain, but Mr Duke would have you believe that’s the case,’ Tompsett told the board, comprised of two Baltimore Police Department officers and an outside chairwoman, Maj Rosa Guixens of the Prince George’s County Police Department in Maryland.
Of the six officers, Goodson faced the most serious charge in criminal court: murder.
But he, Lt Brian Rice and Officer Edward Nero were acquitted at trial last year, and then prosecutors dropped charges against Sgt Alicia White and officers Garrett Miller and William Porter.
HT: Clayton Grant