White Prosecutors Claim Baltimore Cops Sabotaged Freddie Cases

From [HERE] After a string of high-profile defeats, the prosecutors who were unable to win convictions of police officers in the death of Freddie Gray defended themselves on Thursday and sharply accused the city’s Police Department of undermining them.

At a news conference the day after their boss, Marilyn J. Mosby, the state’s attorney for Baltimore, announced she was dropping charges against the three officers who still awaited trial, the lead prosecutors — both seasoned lawyers — said the police had failed to serve search warrants for the officers’ personal cellphones. The lawyers also echoed a charge made in court that a detective assigned to the case was sabotaging it. 

They disputed a contention by critics that they rushed to bring charges, and said they never doubted their theory of the case — or whether they had the evidence to win. 

“There was sufficient evidence for a rational juror to convict,” Michael Schatzow, deputy chief state’s attorney, told reporters crowded into a conference room in Ms. Mosby’s downtown suite. “We believed in these cases, and we were prepared to fight very hard for these cases.” 

The appearance by Mr. Schatzow and Janice Bledsoe, a deputy state’s attorney, was the first time the prosecutors — who like all the lawyers, defendants and witnesses had been subject to a strict rule of silence imposed by the judge — spoke publicly, outside the courtroom, about a case that has torn apart this city and drawn national attention.

The two appeared worn out and at times exasperated — “When it comes to frustration, I plead guilty,” Mr. Schatzow said — but offered a remarkable look into their thinking, and the potential conflicts between the police and prosecutors who usually work together. 

It is “extraordinarily unusual” for prosecutors to publicly criticize the police, said David Jaros, a law professor at the University of Baltimore. He said the trials highlighted the need — as Ms. Mosby suggested at her news conference on Wednesday — for independent investigators and prosecutors to handle police misconduct cases.

“There is something problematic,” Mr. Jaros said, “when police officers are asked to investigate themselves and when local prosecutors are involved in these highly politicized, high-profile prosecutions.” [MORE]