Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby will face a slew of new counts, including malicious prosecution and false arrest in a lawsuit brought by two Baltimore cops according to the DCNF.
Sgt. Alicia White and Officer William Porter, two officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, filed suit May 2 against Mosby and Maj. Sam Cogen of the Baltimore Sheriff’s office for defamation and invasion of privacy. The suit alleges Mosby and Cogen knew the charges were trumped up, but filed them anyway to quell the riots that had ravaged the city.
Michael Glass, the lawyer for the officers in the suit, said that he plans to amend the lawsuit to include “likely a count of malicious prosecution, false arrest, false imprisonment, violation of the Maryland declaration of rights, article 24 and 26.” He said the they’re currently working on modifying the complaint, and the changes will be official in the next few weeks, likely by the end of June.
“These six officers were essentially sacrificed,” Glass said. “Alicia White, she’s accused of murder, she never touched Mr. Gray.”
The officers argue that during the press conference announcing the charges, Mosby revealed her false motives. Mosby raised eyebrows by appealing to the angry residents of Baltimore, many who had just protested and rioted in the last few days. “I heard your calls for, ‘No Justice, No peace,’” she said. “Your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man.”
Glass argues that when Mosby used this rhetoric and filed charges to quell the riots, she acted outside of her role as a prosecutor and thus should not be protected by the immunity usually due to the position. He said he believes new facts obtained through the discovery process will reveal damning conversations exposing the motives behind charging the officers.
Banzhaf told TheDCNF the suit may target both Cogen and Mosby to pressure them to give up information about one another. He said the suit could be to get one defendant to turn on the other.
“If enough pressure is put on [Cogen] he may say ‘can we settle mine and I may tell you some conversations I had with Mosby,’” Banzhaf told TheDCNF. “Provided they have a bona fide claim against him, even if they don’t think its strong or if they don’t think they win it, the motivation may be to get him to turn over evidence.”
