Thursday, June 30, 2016

Marilyn Mosby Might Not Be Above The Law

Prosecutors seem to get away with lawlessness themselves these days. Marilyn Mosby rode roughshod over the officers involved in the Freddie Gray death, and made outrageous statements to the black community. The entire episode is ongoing, and has affected law enforcement in many cities outside Baltimore. Cops became afraid of prosecution and prison if something goes wrong with a bust.

Now Mosby has been the recipient of a complaint to the Bar Association regarding her false allegations and persecution of the officers. The official complaint is HERE. According to the complaint, Mosby violated a number of the Maryland Lawyer's Rules of Professional Conduct.

Not the least of her failures was to prosecute without adequate evidence of a crime. Two of the officers, including the driver of the van, have had their cases dismissed. The complaint against Mosby includes this:
The case against Officer Goodson is also especially important because it seemed to many quoted observers - and also upon an independent examination - to be the strongest case the prosecutors have against any of the officers. For example, it involves the most serious of all the charges (“depraved indifference”), and apparently the most charges: (1) second-degree depraved-heart murder; (2)involuntary manslaughter; (3) grossly negligent act; (4) assault; (5) manslaughter by motor vehicle;(6) grossly negligent driving; (7) criminally negligent manslaughter; (8) misconduct in office, by corruptly failing to do an act that is required by the duties of his office; and (9) reckless endangerment.

Thus their failure to present sufficient evidence to sustain even one of these many charges - and, in the opinion of Judge Williams, to even come close to doing so - shows that the prosecutors should have known that they lacked probable cause for many if not all of the charges, and that the evidence was insufficient to support a conviction on many if not all charges. And, if this is in fact their strongest case, it would follow that they likewise lack probable cause and sufficient evidence to sustain a conviction regarding the other still-to-be-tried (or retried) cases against other officers.

A third reason why the findings regarding Officer Goodson are especially important is that Goodson,as the driver of the van, was the central figure in this matter; the single person around which all of
the other defendants interacted. Thus, in a very real sense, any criminal liability of the other defendants would appear to be derivative from, and/or interconnected with, that of Goodson. In other words, if with regard to Goodson there is no probable cause for most if not all of the charges against him, and if there is insufficient evidence to sustain these charges against him, it would appear even more strongly that the same would apply with greater strength to the other remaining officers.

A final reason why the Goodson decision is so important is that it clearly established - in what would appear to now constitute the “law of the case” with regard to all officers - that several legal theories upon which the prosecutors were heavily relying for their cases against other officers were not valid. For example, the court firmly rejected the suggestion that the mere failure to use seat belts - even if it might constitute a violation of a new rule - would rise to the level of a crime and/or support convictions of crimes such as “misconduct in office.”
Mosby is a terrorist using her power against the police.

1 comment:

CJ said...

Now,I am decidedly NOT a lawyer, but let's see...

"(1) second-degree depraved-heart murder; (2)involuntary manslaughter; ... (7) criminally negligent manslaughter;"

There was only one death. Can one be charged thrice for a single crime?

"(9) reckless endangerment."

Perhaps the laws of Maryland are somewhat different, but my understanding is that "reckless endangerment" applies when life is threatened by reckless or negligent behavior, but no loss of life results. So that "reckless endangerment" and any of the three murder/manslaughter charges are mutually exclusive.

Sounds to me like the prosecutor is just throwing sh*t at the wall trying to get something to stick. Unfortunately for her, most of it did -- to her grasping fingers.