Judge Refuses to Drop Charges in Freddie Gray Case

Written motions finally evolved into verbal arguments this morning in Baltimore, where defense attorneys for two of the six officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray tried to have said charges dismissed and the office of State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby recused from the case—attempts that were both rejected by Judge Barry Williams, the Baltimore Sun reports. The defense attorneys argued, among other things, that Mosby had influenced the jury pool by "[adopting] and [encouraging] the public's cry of 'no justice, no peace'" when she publicly announced the charges against the officers in May.

Another complaint by the defense: Mosby's judgment was influenced by her husband serving as councilman for a local district that saw a "disproportionate amount of violence" in the days after Gray's death, the AP reports. Williams called that assertion "condescending" and said while he was "troubled" by some of Mosby's comments during her May 1 news conference, the defendants' right to a fair trial wasn't compromised by her statements, per the AP. The hearing is expected to continue this afternoon to determine whether the trial for the six officers should be split up. (In a unrelated story, members of Freddie Gray's family, including Gray himself, were victims of lead poisoning and may have been misled by a settlement company.)