The prosecutor who charged six Baltimore cops in the death of Freddie Gray had already "made up her mind" before all the facts were in, a former Baltimore deputy state's attorney tells
Newsmax TV.
Page Croyder — who spent 21 years in the state's attorney's office now headed by Marilyn Mosby — said Thursday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" that Mosby moved much too quickly.
"I was very surprised that she charged two weeks from Freddie Gray's death. This was a very important investigation," Croyder said.
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"It was very important with the state of issues we've had across the country that this investigation be correct, that the charges that come out are supported by the evidence," Croyder said.
"And that she'd only had the police report the day before she announced the charges suggested to me she'd already made up her mind and she had made up her mind without even having the autopsy report."
Gray, a 25-year-old African-American man, died April 19 of a spine injury he reportedly suffered while in police custody a week earlier. It sparked riots and unrest over race and policing similar to those last summer in Ferguson, Missouri, after the death of Michael Brown.
Some assertions Mosby made in her press conference announcing the charges against six police officers — one of whom was hit with murder — are already being contradicted. Contrary to one claim, for example, police found Gray was carrying an illegal, "spring-assisted" knife in his pocket.
Croyder believes Mosby did not get all the facts before proceeding with indictments and arrests.
"How can we have confidence that these charges are actually based on evidence … because that's what you're doing as a prosecutor," she told Steve Malzberg.
"It is to lead where the evidence takes you no matter where it takes you, whether that's charging police or saying the police were not culpable …"
Croyder explained the way she would have handled the probe.
"[Mosby] could have … said, I've just gotten the police report, I'm going to review it … I've just gotten the autopsy report, I'm going to review it; I'm going to take everything into the grand jury, we're going to look at every single piece of evidence, we're going to put witnesses under oath. We're going to examine this case in front of citizens just like you and at the end of it, we will take this wherever the evidence leads us," she said.
"That would have given her time to do it properly, to study the autopsy report, to consult with other experts, to have time to see a toxicology report."
Croyder said that according to Mosby's own probable cause statement, her theory is "death by no seatbelt" and "death by the officers failing to recognize that he had a broken neck."
"She doesn't say that they knew he had a broken neck, she says they just didn't respond to his request for assistance," Croyder said.
"One might also gather from that very same information that they were repeatedly checking on him, and yet whatever it is that they checked on didn't give them any reason to think he would have a broken neck and was dying.
"It's not the same thing as being in a pool of blood … Her own probable cause statement reads like gross negligence, which is not second degree murder. It's more than that. It's like somebody taking a loaded gun, going out, and shooting it off."
Croyder said what Mosby achieved by rushing the case is also troubled by giving "people reason to believe that this is not a prosecution based on the evidence."
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