During opening statements prosecutors told a Baltimore judge that the defendant, Officer Edward Nero, disregarded his police training when he chased Freddie Gray and arrested him without probable cause, and was callously indifferent to the 25-year-old man's wellbeing when he failed to secure him in a seatbelt.
Chief Deputy State's Attorney Michael Schatzow spent about 20 minutes laying out the state's argument during the first day of Nero's trial. He faces assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office charges stemming from Gray's arrest. Gray died on April 19, a week after his neck was broken in the back of a police van.
Nero is the second officer to stand trial.
Schatzow told Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams that Gray's arrest was unlawful and that Nero, who prosecutors say along with two other officers chased Gray, secured him in cuffs and loaded him into the van, should never have touched the man. Prosecutors also say Nero acted in a reckless manner when he failed to buckle Gray into a seatbelt.
