Strike Three for Disgraced Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby
Judge acquits Caesar Goodson Jr.
Is this the week the frivolous case against six Baltimore City police officers came to a screeching halt? Only time will tell, but the answer should be an emphatic yes. On Thursday, Caesar Goodson Jr., the driver of the van transporting Freddie Gray before he died of a neck injury suffered in transit, was acquitted by Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Barry G. Williams of seven charges, which absurdly included “depraved heart murder.”
Goodson is the second officer to be exonerated by Judge Williams. Edward Nero was acquitted in May. Meanwhile, a jury deadlocked in December in the trial involving Officer William Porter. After three strikes, you would hope that disgraced prosecutor Marilyn Mosby would get a clue.
As former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy has argued, the reason for Goodson’s acquittal is simple: “there is no criminal case here.” The evidence — from Gray’s noncompliance with police officers to his belligerent behavior after his arrest — overwhelmingly suggests that he has only himself to blame. As McCarthy notes, “The medical examiner conceded that there was no intent on the part of the police to harm him.”
It’s painfully clear that Mosby embarked on nothing short of a witch hunt. Concludes McCarthy, “Goodson was supposedly the most culpable of the cops, and Mosby had no case against him either. The remaining cases should be dropped … as should Marilyn Mosby.”
Keep in mind, Baltimore settled with Gray’s family — to the tune of $6.4 million — before the trials even began, which suggests some sort of culpability. But the courts have failed to find any sort of criminal wrongdoing. Sadly, it makes the Ferguson Effect that much more sad and meaningless. Race baiting is a red herring from which none should profit.