Posted on 05/20/2015 9:50:28 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The office of Baltimore City state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby has added a new wrinkle to the Freddie Gray case, alleging in a court filing that the 25-year-old was illegally arrested by Baltimore police officers even before they recovered a knife on his person.
In the motion, filed Monday, deputy state’s attorney Michael Schatzow rebuts a May 8 motion for dismissal and recusal filed by attorneys for the six officers charged in the case. Schatzow calls the attorneys’ claims that Mosby has numerous conflicts of interest “premature, frivolous, illogical.”
Schatzow also addressed Gray’s knife, which became a central part of the case when Mosby announced charges against the officers on May 1. Gray was arrested on April 12 and died a week later. His death was ruled a homicide, and he was determined to have sustained a broken neck while riding in the back of a police van.
During her press conference, Mosby stated that Gray was illegally arrested and that his knife was “legal under Maryland law.”
But in a May 8 motion for dismissal and recusal, attorneys for the officers disputed Mosby’s knife claim. They argued that while Gray’s “spring-action” knife was legal in Maryland, it was illegal in Baltimore.
In his response, Schatzow disputed the notion that Mosby argued that the legality of Gray’s arrest hinges on the knife.
Instead, he asserted that the statement of probable cause against the officers “makes clear that Mr. Gray was arrested well before the arresting officers knew he possessed a knife.”
“Mr. Gray was handcuffed at his surrendering location, moved a few feet away, and placed in a prone position with his arms handcuffed behind his back, all before the arresting officers found the knife,” Schatzow stated.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
I would bet if nothing happened to the guy and this went to trial, the judge would toss the knife charge because there wasn't sufficient reason for the initial stop.
Yep. This is really laughable. Mosby's office is making it up as they go along.
I'm not certain but that certainly would not surprise me with a suspect who has resisted by fleeing.
She'll only be there if she can have Prince in the courtroom, and the cameras are rolling.
The Supremes have decided that fleeing the cops is sufficient grounds to stop, detain and search a person.
Right or wrong, that was the decision.
I’m not sure that’s correct. I believe that you are technically under arrest if they do not permit you to leave.
Based on the amount of pride, her fall is gonna be a humdinger
Has there ever been a disclosure of the knife, brand and model?
I can see no reason that information is being kept secret.
It’s outrageous, egregious, preposterous
They’re real and they’re spectacular!
Fleeing cops in an area known for drug trafficking has been upheld as proper detainment, all the way to the Supreme Court. This man was a convicted drug dealer out on bond from his most recent arrest.
“Who is this guy, Jackie Chiles?”
Or for us “older folks,” Algonqin J. Calhoon! (Amos N’ Andy’s Lawyer)
I reserve the right to disagree with SCOTUS. Not that it means anything objective, of course.
Remember, SCOTUS once concluded that state-legal homegrown produce could be seized in a violent “dynamic raid” because its existence reduced demand in illegal interstate commerce.
Marilyn Mosby is toast, burnt toast.
Right. Of course the quote refers to the person being cuffed as “an arrestee.” Which was pretty much my point.
I assume they can be unarrested quickly as the situation is figured out.
As I understand it, if I’m being detained I am by definition under arrest. If that’s wrong I’d apprecite being straightened out.
And she passed a bar exam??????
A good officer will generally tell you "You're not under arrest, but I'm going to handcuff you for my safety/your safety/both of our safety," or something, unless the situation is just moving too fast for that. But if it's moving that fast, you should have a pretty good idea why you wound up in the back of the car in the first place.
However those claims are not "wrong", "false", or "incorrect".
That.
.... Now everything boils down to whether this was a proper “Terry” stop.
******************
Even in Baltimore, the prosecutor is not going to get away with criminalizing the cops simply for lacking probably cause for a search; so the issue is going to turn on whether the prosecutor has met her burden of proving, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the cops killed, or failed to tend to, Gray while he was in the van.
This has very little to do with the law, and a whole lot to do with salvaging her political ambitions and the mayor's career.
Yeah, she'll be ridiculed by Greta and all the other legal analysts on the news, and it won't make one bit of difference to the people on the streets of Baltimore. She and the mayor will be the beacons of hope who stood up and fought in the face of an skewed and racist justice system.
She'll be a winner. The outcome of the trial has no bearing on that.
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