Judge Drops Assault Charge Against Baltimore Cop Brian Rice in Freddie Gray Case

The judge presiding over the case of Brian Rice, the highest-ranking Baltimore Police Department officer charged in the 2015 killing of Freddie Gray, has dropped an assault charge against Rice, Fox 45 Baltimore is reporting.

Judge Barry Williams, who previously presided over the cases of Officers Caesar Goodson Jr. and Edward Nero, said that prosecutors failed to show that the van in which officers transported Gray before his death was used as a weapon of assault. The assault charge is the second charge dropped in Rice’s trial, following a misconduct in office charge that prosecutors dismissed on the first day of proceedings.* Rice still faces charges of manslaughter and reckless endangerment, as well as a second assault charge.

Williams found Nero and Goodson not guilty of all charges against them, and Rice opted for a bench trial over facing a jury of his peers after the judge delivered those acquittals. William Porter, the first officer to face trial in the Gray case, was the only one to opt for a jury. His trial ended in a mistrial because of a hung jury, and he will face a second trial in September.