BALTIMORE (AP) – Baltimore police officers rarely, if ever, put seat belts on prisoners they transport in the department’s wagons, according to witnesses who testified on behalf of William Porter, one of six officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray.
Porter is facing manslaughter, assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment charges stemming from Gray’s death on April 19, a week after his neck was broken in the back of a transport wagon. Prosecutors say Porter was criminally negligent for ignoring departmental policy requiring officers to seat belt prisoners, and for failing to call a medic immediately after Gray indicated he needed aid.
Porter testified he saw no signs that Gray was wounded or injured, and that it was the wagon driver’s responsibility to make sure Gray was fastened in a seat belt before driving away.
On Thursday, the second day of defense testimony, police officers told jurors that although the policy says all detainees should be buckled into seat belts, officers working the streets of Baltimore rarely adhere to those rules.
And a Virginia police chief who previously was a high-ranking Baltimore police official testified as an expert witness that Porter’s actions were “objectively reasonable” on the day Gray was injured.