It was a bad day for Black Lives Matter in the insane confused mess that the Freddie Gray case had become. A black judge, Barry Williams, forcefully tore apart the sham case against a black police officer, Caesar Goodson,
Despite the claims of racism, this came down to a black judge facing down pressure from the black left and standing up for justice for a black police officer.
With precision, confidence and the no-nonsense style for which he is well known, Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry G. Williams today destroyed the state's case against Officer Caesar Goodson, exposing it as a vessel of clay and smashing it to bits.
When Williams was finished reading his verdicts, there was nothing left.
In fact, the way the judge saw it, there was nothing there to begin with.
The judge's conclusion: The death of Freddie Gray from spinal cord injuries sustained in the back of a police van was not caused by the criminal conduct of the Baltimore officer who drove that van. It was not murder. It was not manslaughter. It was not reckless endangerment. It didn't even rise to misconduct under Maryland law.
There was no evidence, Williams said time and again, that Goodson knew or should have known that Gray needed medical attention on the morning of April 12, 2015, when Goodson was assigned to drive Gray to the Western District police station after his arrest.
This is a rebuke to Mosby who has now become a laughingstock after her politically motivated cases fell apart. But it's also a rebuke to the media which aggressively pushed a bizarrely false narrative.
But "dismantle" does not do Williams justice. The judge really did smash the case to bits. It was clear less than halfway through the reading of his verdicts that Williams was thoroughly unimpressed with the state's assertions and clever speculations about Goodson's behavior during the ride through West Baltimore.
That bit about Goodson stopping the van to check on Gray, perhaps concerned that his alleged "rough ride" had caused more injury to Gray than Goodson intended?
There was nothing to it. The stop only lasted 11 seconds, Williams said, hardly enough time for Goodson to assess an injury, and hardly the kind of "evidence" that shows malicious intent.
As in many instances in the state's case against Goodson, there was more insinuation than evidence. To hear the judge tell it, this wasn't even a close call.
And this wasn't the first time Williams smacked down these shenanigans. He had done it in the case of Officer Nero, who is white.
Judge Barry Williams' line of questioning in the trial of Baltimore police Officer Edward Nero foreshadowed the outcome.
Days before taking 20 minutes to read his not-guilty verdict Monday, Williams aggressively challenged prosecutors' claim that the takedown and subsequent arrest of Freddie Gray without probable cause amounted to a criminal assault. He questioned the state's assertion that Nero and other officers assaulted Gray by touching him without reasonable suspicion or probable cause."You are saying an arrest without probable cause is a misconduct-in-office charge -- is a crime?" the judge asked. "So you say if you arrest someone without probable cause, it's a crime?"
To those who know Williams, his fairness and broad range of experience -- from years prosecuting cases in the same courthouse where he now presides, to his investigation and prosecution of police misconduct cases for the U.S. Justice Department -- uniquely prepared him to deliver the first verdict in the closely-watched Freddie Gray case.
And yes, the judge is sticking around.
Williams is overseeing the cases of four officers awaiting trial: Officer Garrett Miller, Lt. Brian Rice, Sgt. Alicia White and Officer Caesar Goodson Jr. The trial for Goodson, the van driver, will start June 6. Rice's will start July 5, Miller's July 27 and White's on October 13. Officer William Porter will likely face a retrial on June 13.
We already know how Goodson's case turned out. And the rest don't look good.
There's a clear poetic justice in having the BLM fraud torn apart by a black judge.