Law Professor Seeks To Have Prosecutors In Gray-Related Cases Disbarred

One day after the acquittal of Baltimore Police Lt. Brian Rice on all charges related to the death of Freddie Gray, a George Washington University law professor who filed complaints against State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, is now seeking to have the prosecutors who argued the case disbarred.

Professor John Banzhaf has filed the formal complaints with the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission against Chief Deputy State's Attorney Michael Schatzow and Deputy State's Attorney Janice Bledsoe.

The allegations raised are the same as those raised against Mosby, that prosecutors deliberately withheld evidence from defense attorneys and that prosecutors continued a case that a prosecution should proceed only if there is sufficient and admissible evidence to support a conviction.

Banzhaf cites the opinions by Judge Barry Williams in the cases of the three officers acquitted so far, including the Rice case, where Williams ruled that the state had not presented evidence to show criminal liability on the part of Rice. Banzhaf says those actions violated the Maryland Lawyer's Rules of Professional Conduct and the U.S. Constitution.

The next officer to go on trial is Officer Garrett Miller, and his trial begins one week from tomorrow.

Schatzow and Bledsoe will not be prosecuting that case, or the retrial of Officer William Porter in September. That's because both Miller and Porter testified under immunity at some of the other officers' trials, and the state must prove that none of what Miller and Porter said at the other officers' trials will be used against them.

Assistant state's attorneys Lisa Phelps and Sarah David will lead the prosecution in the Miller and Porter trials.

At the trial of Officer Edward Nero in May, Miller testified that it was he, and no other officer who took down Freddie Gray as he was being chased, and put handcuffs on him at his arrest on Pressbury Street, on April 12, 2015.

Gray died one week later from injuries suffered in a police van.

Porter's first trial ended with a hung jury in December. He testified at Rice's trial, and at the trial of Officer Caesar Goodson last month. In both trials, Porter testified that he checked on Gray at the van's fourth stop, asked Gray if he wanted to go to the hospital, and then told Goodson. He also testified that Gray had moved off the bench of the van between the van's fourth and fifth stops.

A number of defense attorneys and other people who have been watching this case have called on Mosby to drop the remaining cases. On Monday, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3 President Gene Ryan repeated that call to Mosby.

Also on Monday during a stop in Montgomery County, Gov. Larry Hogan told the Washington Post that the remaining charges.

"It's a waste of time and money," Hogan told the newspaper, adding "but that's up to the court system to decide."