Six Cops Charged in Freddie Gray's Death Will Be Tried in Baltimore

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A judge on Thursday denied a request to move the trial of six police officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray Jr., who died in police custody in April, out of Baltimore.

The defense lawyers for the police had previously requested that the trial take place elsewhere, arguing that it would be impossible to convene a fair jury in Baltimore due to the intense publicity and politically charged nature surrounding Gray's death.

"The citizens of Baltimore are not monolithic," Judge Barry Williams told a packed courtroom, after announcing that the trial would take place in the city. "They think for themselves."

The judge also said changing the location "would open the flood gates" for others to pursue the same request.

Williams' decision was met with cheers from protesters outside the courthouse. The hearing comes a day after the Gray family was awarded a $6.4 million wrongful death civil settlement. The Fraternal Order of Police criticized the settlement awarded to Gray's family because it had been reached before the officers' cases were heard.

The official cause of Gray's death was attributed to a severed spinal cord, but questions remain over the circumstances surrounding the incident. After chasing Gray on foot, police took him into custody and into a police van, where he then slipped into a coma. He died a week later on April 19. Eyewitnesses say police used excessive force arresting Gray even though he did not appear to resist arrest, and that they ignored his requests for medical attention.

Gray's death sparked protests and riots in Baltimore over the use of force by police and treatment of minorities in the city. The protests prompted National Guard troops to be sent in and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake imposed a curfew on the city.

The six officers — Edward Nero, Garrett Miller, William Porter and Goodson, and Lt. Brian Rice and Sgt. Alicia White — were suspended after Gray's death and face charges ranging from second-degree depraved heart murder to assault and misconduct. Three of the officers are white and three are black, including one woman. They will all be tried separately in the next month.

It is relatively uncommon for a judge to move a trial to a different city on the basis that it would be impossible to conduct a fair one. Earlier this year, a judge denied a request by the lawyers for the Boston Bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, to move his trial out of Boston.