Officer charged in Gray death contends arrest was legal

BALTIMORE — One of the Baltimore police officers who arrested Freddie Gray wants the police department and prosecutor to produce a knife that was the reason for the arrest, saying in court papers that it is an illegal weapon.

The city’s top prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby, said Friday in charging the officer and five others that the knife was legal under Maryland law, meaning they had arrested Gray illegally.

The motion was filed Monday by attorneys for Officer Edward Nero in Baltimore District Court.

Nero is charged with second-degree assault, misconduct in office and false imprisonment — charges that can only be proven if Gray was wrongly arrested, said Andy Alperstein, a Baltimore attorney who has represented police officers but is not involved in the Gray case. If the knife was illegal, “there is no case” against Nero and another officer, he said.

Marc Zayon, Nero’s attorney, argues in his motion that the knife in Gray’s pocket — described in charging documents as “a spring assisted, one hand operated knife” — is illegal under both Baltimore’s switchblade ordinance and state law. Gray was charged under the city ordinance, which has a different definition than the state law of what constitutes a switchblade.

Police said officers chased Gray two blocks after making eye contact with him and subsequently found the knife in his pocket.

Nero and Officer Garrett Miller are charged with misdemeanors. Four others — Sgt. Alicia White, Lt. Brian Rice and officers Caesar Goodson and William Porter — are charged with felonies ranging from manslaughter to second-degree “depraved-heart” murder.