Mosby lawsuit proceeds
Most of the accused officers who were put on trial in the Freddie Gray case are suing the prosecution and the sheriff:
A federal judge is allowing key parts of a lawsuit against Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby, brought by five of the six police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, to move forward.
U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis ruled that claims including malicious prosecution, defamation, and invasion of privacy can move forward against Mosby and Assistant Sheriff Samuel Cogen, who wrote the statement of probable cause.
Mosby’s attorneys had said she has absolute prosecutorial immunity from actions taken as a state’s attorney. But Garbis noted that her office has said it conducted an independent investigation.
“Plaintiffs’ malicious prosecution claims relate to her actions when functioning as an investigator and not as a prosecutor,” Garbis wrote.
Other counts, such as false arrest, false imprisonment and abuse of process, were dismissed, as Garbis had signaled he would do at an October hearing. All claims against the state were also dismissed.
This isn’t just about Mosby, either:
Ellin [an attorney for one of the plaintiffs in the suit] said he expected that Mosby’s attorneys will appeal. He said he wouldn’t be surprised if the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court because of the questions it poses for prosecutors who take a more active role in investigations.
“The ramifications of this case are huge, and nationwide,” Ellin said.
It appears that, if Mosby and company hadn’t launched their own investigation, they would have been protected against all of this. What’s more:
The fact that prosecutors said they conducted an investigation that was independent from police also played a role in the criminal trials, with Circuit Judge Barry Williams ruling that they had to turn over documents that would normally be protected from the evidence discovery process.
However, the temptation to do the sort of thing Mosby did—and to garner the intense publicity she received—remains very great, and but for the independent investigation the prosecution also launched, there probably would have been little redress for these defendants.
I hope Mosby is required to cough up a pretty penny to each plaintiff.
From the article excerpt:
Neo wrote:
It appears that, if Mosby and company hadn’t launched their own investigation, they would have been protected against all of this.
I’ve often heard that prosecutors are entrusted with awesome powers. But the above sounds like they can do just about anything so long as they’re acting within the normal bounds of prosecution (whatever that means).
What are the rules here? Why was the despicable Mike Nifong disbarred?
Nifong should have spent a lot of time in jail for trying to railroad the lacrosse team members. The supposed rape victim told half a dozen different stories, the taxi cab driver said he didn’t see anything wrong with her, there was no physical evidence of rape, she couldn’t identify the rapists until she was shown photos of the lacrosse team members and Nifong hid exculpatory evidence from the defense. Other than that it was an exemplary prosecution.
Lack of accountability inevitably fosters corruption. That is as true of those in governance and corporate echelons, as it is of the private individual.
Since US didn’t use to be a corrupt country (in comparison with the usual level of corruption in most countries in the World), and I don’t think laws have changed in that regard, that means that this lack of accountability is a new phenomenon.
Of course, accountability in US was more likely a social mechanism until now. Since society is changing and that mechanism is vanishing, now you’re likely asking for some kind of legal accountability.
Good luck with that.
You will discover that a law is a very poor substitute of a social accountability. I know, because that kind of laws already exist in countries where corruption is a more common political feature. And they don’t work very well since proving intentions is an almost impossible task, most of times those laws becoming political weapons to throw towards the adversary.
Take your time. You will discover that in the near future.
Over-reach and abuse of the law is more common than we think.
It is only from extreme cases like this one, overcharging George Zimmerman (he might well have been successfully prosecuted on lesser charges), the Wisconsin John Doe laws, etc. that we get visibility to it.
There is a lot of good fortune in encountering those in the LE community who are of good character (or maybe that should be misfortune in meeting the bad characters, as the vast majority probably are good characters), since there is plenty of room to operate for those who are not, given accountability is a problem, and given the great incentive to sweep problems under the rug.