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Protesters, National Media Storm Baltimore For Freddie Gray Hearing

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(Lynh Bui)  The first circuit court hearing for six officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray is scheduled to start Wednesday morning, drawing protesters and national media back to Baltimore.

The proceedings are expected to offer a first glimpse into how prosecutors and defense attorneys — who have mostly been communicating through a flurry of biting legal filings — will interact with each other in court as the case makes its way to trial. The hearings and the demonstrations that come with it could also be a test for the city that has been recovering from riots that ignited the day of Gray’s funeral in April.

Lawyers Wednesday will tackle three legal questions: whether any charges against the officers should be dismissed, whether Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby and her prosecutors should be recused from the case, and whether the officers should be tried separately.

Arguments related to moving the trial out of Baltimore are set for next week. It’s unclear when the judge assigned to the case would issue decisions in these matters.

The hearings come more than three months after Gray died from a severe spinal injury he suffered while in a police transport van. Gray’s case enflamed national debate over the death of young black men in police custody. It also sparked riots that prompted Gov. Larry Hogan (R) to call in the National Guard and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (D) to implement a citywide curfew.

Several protests are planned throughout the city Wednesday, with activity likely to center outside the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse in downtown Baltimore.

Although hundreds had signed up on Facebook to participate in demonstrations organized by the Baltimore People’s Power Assembly, only a few dozen had gathered outside the courthouse by 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Baltimore police have prepared for possible crowds, department spokesman T.J. Smith said. There were at least four sheriff’s deputies posted on each corner outside the court building.

Prosecutors filed charges in May against officers Caesar R. Goodson Jr., William G. Porter, Edward M. Nero and Garrett E. Miller, Sgt. Alicia D. White and Lt. Brian W. Rice.

Goodson, who drove the van that transported Gray, faces the most serious charges,­ including second-degree ­depraved-heart murder, involuntary manslaughter, and other counts. Porter, Rice and White have been charged with involuntary manslaughter and other related charges. All six are charged with misconduct in office, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment.

The attorneys for all six officers will be at Wednesday’s hearings, but the officers themselves have filed waivers that allow them to be absent, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Defense attorneys Wednesday are expected to argue that Mosby and her colleagues should be recused from the case due to several alleged conflicts of interest. In court filings, attorneys for the officers said that Gray family attorney Billy Murphy is a close friend and financial supporter of Mosby’s. They also argued that Mosby hastily filed charges against the officers in April partly because her husband, Councilman Nick Mosby (D), would benefit personally from seeing riots quelled in his political district.

“Rarely in the history of any criminal case has a prosecutor so directly maintained so many conflicts of interest,” defense attorneys wrote in May.

But Mosby’s office countered that attorneys for the police officers have leveled accusations simply to drum up media coverage and influence the future jury pool. Murphy has no involvement in the criminal trial and the charges against the officers were based on findings of probable cause, prosecutors said.

“The notion that Mrs. Mosby would bring baseless criminal charges with the entire nation watching just so that Mr. Murphy might have some advantage in the civil case is ludicrous,” prosecutors wrote in one filing.

Defense attorneys also argue that the case against their clients should be dismissed, alleging Mosby’s press conference in May announcing charges against the officers overstepped rules of professional conduct for laywers in Maryland.

They said her speech, in which she “preached like a profit and reveled like a rock star,” revealed her bias against officers.

Mosby stood by her remarks. She said seven out of 11 pages of her speech were simply a reading of the charges. The rest was “a plea to end the rioting and violence” after “the torching of businesses and buildings lit up the night sky.”

“Surely such a plea is a legitimate task for the chief prosecutor of a city under siege,” filings from Mosby’s court filings state.

Lawyers Wednesday will also argue whether the officers should be split up for trial. It’s unclear how exactly the trials would be separated if approved. But Miller and Nero are the only two officers who weren’t charged with manslaughter or murder. Their attorneys may argue that Miller and Nero should be tried separately over worries that a jury could judge their clients more harshly after hearing evidence related to the officers facing more serious charges.