Freddie Gray: Prosecutor criticized after officer acquittal

BALTIMORE (AP) — After two trials and no convictions, Baltimore's top prosecutor is facing criticism that she moved too quickly to file charges against six officers in the death of Freddie Gray without first ensuring there was enough evidence to bring them to bear.

Even the judge overseeing the cases — in his verdict Monday acquitting the latest officer to stand trial in the death of the African-American man — said the state failed to prove its case on any of the charges.

Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams acquitted Officer Edward Nero of the assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment charges in connection with Gray's arrest last year outside a West Baltimore housing complex.

After announcing charges against the officers last May — one day after receiving the police department's investigation while a tense city was still under curfew — Mosby did not shy from the spotlight.

David Weinstein, a Florida attorney and former federal civil rights prosecutor, said the verdict will probably serve as a "wake-up call" for prosecutors.

The state's attorney was trying to balance what she had with the public outcry and call to action given the climate in Baltimore and across the U.S. concerning policing, and I think she was overreaching.

Harvard University professor Alan Dershowitz said he believed the judge's verdict was an example of the legal system looking at the facts of the case without being influenced by race or community pressure.

Prosecutors had argued that Nero and colleague Garrett Miller illegally detained and arrested Gray without probable cause, and that Nero was reckless when he failed to buckle Gray into a seat belt during the van's second stop blocks from the arrest.