Judge Says State Violated Discovery Rules At Rice Trial

RadioOnFire.com - Judge Barry Williams has ordered that prosecutors cannot use 4,000 pages of training documents related to Lt. Brian Rice’s in-service training that occurred while he was a police officer. 

The judge said prosecutors violated discovery rules by not turning those documents over to the defense in advance of trial. In a hearing this morning, Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Schatzow told the judge that though prosecutors requested the documents from the police department late last year, but they did not receive the documents until Tuesday of last week, and only then did they turn over the documents to the defense. 

Judge Williams rejected a request from defense attorney Michael Belsky to dismiss the charges, but he did say prosecutors should have asked police supervisors to send the documents sooner, or asked the court to issue a subpoena. Schatzow said prosecutors did not want to seek a subpoena.

The judge also denied most defense motions today, including one to dismiss all charges citing defects in the prosecution and a separate motion to dismiss the separate reckless endangerment charge. Rice waived his right to a jury trial, and opted instead to have Judge Williams decide the case. 

Lt. Brian Rice is opting for a bench trial rather than a jury trial. He follows the lead of Officer Caesar Goodson and Edward Nero, both of whom were acquitted in bench trials

The defense had argued that the reckless endangerment law did not apply to police vehicles. 

The judge recessed proceedings until Thursday morning, when the trial is scheduled to begin.

Source WBAL