An Additional Illegally Prosecuted Baltimore Officer Sues Marilyn Mosby

A Baltimore PD Lieutenant who was illegally charged in the Freddy Gray case by Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, has filed a lawsuit against Mosby. This lawsuit is now in addition to the joint lawsuit that was previously filed by Sergeant Alicia White and Officer William Porter.

Kevin Rector with The Baltimore Sun reports:

Lt. Brian Rice, one of six Baltimore officers charged in the Gray case, filed his lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Maryland on May 2, the same day two of the other officers — Sgt. Alicia White and Officer William Porter — filed a joint defamation lawsuit against Mosby in state Circuit Court. Documents in Rice’s case were first unsealed on Monday.

Like White and Porter, whose lawsuit was unsealed in state court late last month, Rice is also suing Baltimore sheriff’s office Maj. Sam Cogen, who signed off on the charging documents in the Gray case. Also like White and Porter, Rice claims in his lawsuit that Mosby and Cogen knew that he had committed no crime when they brought charges against him — including manslaughter, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office.

“His illegal arrest was made without probable cause and demonstrated ill will, improper motivation and/or evil purpose,” Rice’s lawsuit says.

Rice’s lawsuit pretty much sums it up. Mosby has caused permanent damage to the lives of the six Baltimore PD officers that she had arrested and charged on manufactured charges that had no basis in reality; this was done in an apparent attempt to appease rioters.

In order for these lawsuits against Mosby to succeed, the officers will have to show that her intent in prosecuting the innocent officers was malicious. Mosby’s only reasonable defense in these lawsuits would have to be that she was too incompetent to know that these charges had no legal basis. However, Cogen isn’t a prosecutor and doesn’t enjoy the same level of protection as Mosby. In order for a lawsuit against Cogen to succeed, Lieutenant Rice should only need to prove that Cogen was negligent.

The permanent damage to the lives of every officer that was maliciously prosecuted by Mosby cannot be corrected by money, but it’s a good first step.