Freddie Gray case: Disciplinary board for Baltimore officerBy brian witte, associated press
BALTIMORE — Oct 30, 2017, 6:26 PM ET
A Baltimore police officer who was acquitted of criminal charges in the death of a suspect while in custody is now fighting an administrative procedure that could cost him his job.
Officer Caesar Goodson is facing a police disciplinary board hearing over the death of Freddie Gray, who sustained fatal spinal cord injuries while being transported in a police van in April 2015. Goodson was the driver of the van.
Attorney Neil Duke, who is representing the Baltimore Police Department, said on the first day of the hearing that Goodson should be fired after failing in his duty by not fastening the 25-year-old Gray in his seatbelt after he was arrested. Duke also said Goodson failed to interact with Gray and did not take him to a hospital, as Gray had requested.
The case, Duke said, boils down to whether Goodson followed police policies.
"The evidence will show that he did not," Duke told a three-member disciplinary board in opening statements Monday.
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The hearing is expected to last about five days. The board is made up of two members of the Baltimore Police Department and a chairman who is a member of a police department other than Baltimore's. The board will ultimately decide whether the officer should be disciplined and what the punishment would be.
Six officers were charged in Gray's death. Goodson had faced the most serious charge — murder. Goodson, Officer Edward Nero and Lt. Brian Rice were acquitted at trial last year. After the acquittals, prosecutors dropped the charges against the remaining three officers, Sgt. Alicia White, and officers Garrett Miller and William Porter.
Nero and Miller recently accepted disciplinary action, according to the police union attorney who represents them. Neither their attorney nor the department would say what kind of discipline they faced.
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