BALTIMORE (AP) – A $6.4 million settlement between the city of Baltimore and the family of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died a week after he was critically injured while in police custody, could play a role in whether a judge decides to move the trials for the six officers charged in Gray’s death out of the city.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced the settlement Tuesday, just two days before Judge Barry Williams will decide whether the trials should be moved to a different jurisdiction. Defense attorneys have asked for a change of venue, citing pre-trial publicity and concern that the officers will not receive fair trials if they are tried in Baltimore.
The settlement is expected to be approved Wednesday by the Baltimore Board of Estimates, a body that reviews city payments. The settlement appears to be among the largest settlements in police death cases in recent years, and was reached before the Gray family actually filed a lawsuit.
Although the city said in a statement that the settlement does not resolve any factual disputes, and expressly does not constitute an admission of liability on the part of the city, its police department or any of the officers, experts say the city’s willingness to pre-empt a lawsuit could have an effect on the officers’ ability to receive a fair trial in Baltimore – an issue Williams will likely decide Thursday.
“Damages would have been paid if the city went to trial and they’re willing to settle it. But they tell us it’s by no way an admission of fault by the police officers,” said David Harris, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh. “There’s no doubt that this will figure in to the hearing for change of venue. If I was an attorney for a defendant I’d be revising my motion right now to say the settlement was made to persuade the jury pool that the officers did something wrong.”