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 Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams found that
Officer William Porter and Sergeant Alicia White, two of the six
officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, had made their
statements without compulsion to internal investigators.
"Sergeant White had the opportunity to say no," Williams said,
ruling against defense motions to suppress the statements during a
pretrial hearing. A second day of the hearing was canceled.
Three of those charged - Lieutenant Brian Rice and Officers Garrett
Miller and Edward Nero - also agreed to drop motions to suppress
their statements.
Gray, 25, suffered a spinal cord injury after being arrested in
April and transported in a police van. His death triggered rioting
and looting in the largely black city and fueled a U.S. debate on
police treatment of minorities.
 Williams also imposed a gag order barring lawyers from discussing
the case publicly and ordered prosecutors to turn over documents to
defense lawyers by Oct. 28. Defense attorneys had sought prosecution
material about a man who had been arrested and put in the police van
with Gray.
The only officer to decline to give a statement, van driver Officer
Caesar Goodson, faces the most serious charge, that of second-degree
depraved-heart murder, suggesting he showed reckless disregard for
Gray's life.
White, Porter and Rice are charged with manslaughter, assault and
misconduct. White, Goodson and Porter are black, and the other three
officers are white.
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The officers are being tried individually. The first trial will be
Porter's, scheduled to start on Nov. 30. The last one is set to
begin on March 9.
Prosecutors have argued Porter is a key witness against Goodson and
White. Citing an internal police review, the Baltimore Sun newspaper
reported last month that Porter told Goodson that Gray appeared to
need medical assistance, but none was provided at the time.
In a case stemming from the April rioting, federal prosecutors said
they had charged Donta Betts, 19, of Baltimore, with trying to torch
a police cruiser and making a homemade firebomb out of propane
canisters during the looting of a CVS pharmacy.
(Reporting by Donna Owens; Editing by Ian Simpson, Mohammad Zargham
and David Alexander)
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