Detective interviewing Sergeant Alicia White called her ‘sarge’ and laughed with her, court hears after death in April of 25-year-old African American man

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Statements given during an internal police investigation by five Baltimore officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray from an injury in police custody were made admissible in court on Tuesday.

Ruling against a defense motion, Baltimore city circuit court judge Barry Williams found that Sergeant Alicia White and Officer William G Porter, two of the six officers charged in the death of Gray, had spoken without compulsion to internal investigators about his death.

Three of those charged – Lieutenant Brian Rice and Officers Garrett Miller and Edward Nero – also agreed to drop motions to suppress their statements. The others charged are Officer Caesar R Goodson Jr, Porter, and White.

Gray was a 25-year-old African American man who died on 19 April, a week after suffering a spinal injury while in police custody. The officers are facing individual trials, with starting dates scheduled from 20 November to March 2016.

Three of the six officers charged are African American, three are white. Gray’s death led to rioting, looting and arson in the city.

All six of the officers charged arrived at the court via a side door. Officers who interviewed them were also in attendance.



The hearing could last two days. Five of the six officers asked to have their statements thrown out, contending they were improperly obtained. One officer, Caesar Goodson, did not give a statement.

In court, the state’s attorney for Baltimore city, Marilyn Mosby, sat behind her deputy and assistant attorneys as attorneys for officers Miller and Nero, along with those for Rice, discussed their motions to suppress statements given to detectives. Ultimately, those motions were withdrawn.

Detectives from the Baltimore police department’s force investigation team who interviewed White on 12 and 17 April gave testimony indicating that White had initially been viewed as a witness, was never compelled to give statements, and signed waivers regarding her Miranda rights and her rights under the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights.



Deputy state’s attorney Janet Bledsoe offered video of White signing those waivers. The second detective indicated that another interview had been scheduled, “based on inconsistencies”, before White’s counsel raised an objection.

Interviewing White as a witness on 12 April, the court heard, Detective Michael Boyd had called White “sarge” and laughed with her. Sergeant Tashawna Gaines, the supervisor of the force investigation team, testified that she initially met White on 12 April and had discussed “certain facts of the case”, but had not taken notes.

Defense motions for the suppression of White’s two statements were denied. Williams found that detectives accurately depicted both situations to her and never compelled or coerced her to make a statement.

When the court reconvened at 2pm, the defense called Detective Syreeta Teal, who testified that she had interviewed Porter as a witness in the Gray case on 17 April. She testified that she did not threaten, restrain or in any other way compel him to give testimony, and said he was made aware of his rights prior to waiving them and offering a statement. Video evidence appeared to corroborate this.

Williams also ruled against the defense motion to suppress Porter’s statements.

And he said he would hold one of Porter’s lawyers, Gary Proctor, in contempt of court for his “snark” while asking Teal if she was “familiar” with the Merriam-Webster Dictionary when she used the words “I need you to tell me what happened” in a phone conversation with Porter.

Williams said that Porter’s statements were “not done with undue influence” and seemed to accept that Teal’s use of the word “need” was as part of a request.

Williams finished the day’s hearings by issuing what was in effect a gag order, saying to counsel: “Do not discuss my rulings, do not discuss this case” with anyone but clients and fellow counsel from now on. Williams also ordered that the prosecution must furnish the defense with all evidence by 28 October and cancelled motions hearings scheduled for 14 October.



Earlier, as journalists and law enforcement officers lined up outside the Baltimore circuit court, sheriff’s officials erected a small barricade in front of the area where the public would line up to witness a fifth motions hearing for the officers.



A police helicopter circled overhead as a dozen or so journalists stood in their own line for entry to Williams’s courtroom.

At a scheduling hearing on 29 September, individuals attending court for other cases had to wait outside and take tickets alongside spectators for the Gray case. There was no ticketing on Tuesday.

Protesters have gathered outside the courthouse in recent weeks for multiple cases, including the cases of those who were arrested in the protests and riots that followed Gray’s death. At least three individuals have been arrested near the courthouse since hearings began.

The defense argued in a previous motion for the case’s removal from Baltimore that an impartial jury could not be found in a city whose population, it alleged, would fear renewed large-scale protest. Judge Williams ruled against this motion, pending jury selection.

As motions hearings have continued, the presence of demonstrators has noticeably lessened.