RadioOnFire.com - Baltimore police Commissioner Kevin Davis and State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby offered statements of support Monday to the officers who testified in the case against a fellow officer.
Davis and Mosby said the testimony of Officers Keven Leary and Isiah Smith helped secure the conviction of Officer Wesley Cagle, who last week was found not guilty of attempted first- and second-degree murder, but guilty of first-degree assault and a firearm charge. Sentencing is set for Nov. 18.
Cagle, 46, was accused of shooting unarmed burglary suspect Michael Johansen on Dec. 28, 2014, after two other officers had already wounded him.
“Reporting misconduct now required by our new use of force policy is something our community has the right to expect from all police officers,” Davis said. “My team and the state’s attorney’s team are here today to support the vast majority of Baltimore police officers who routinely do the right thing day after day and call after call. There’s nothing more a good cop hates than a bad cop. “
Mosby said Leary and Smith, hired in 2001 and 2013, respectively, acted and did the right thing by testifying against Cagle, who did the wrong thing.
Mosby said after officers secured a non-resistant and unarmed Johansen on the ground and face up in a position where he was no longer a threat, Cagle walked up to him and shot him in the groin.
“Had it not been for these two officers coming forward and testifying about this incident, my prosecutors would not have been able to secure a conviction,” Mosby said. “The vast majority of officers in this city are good officers and I’m gratified that in this case, the good officers testified against the bad officer.
“As Officer Leary indicated at trial, ‘what’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong and what he did was wrong.’ We believe under this police commissioner this will become the rule rather than the exception and this case highlights our commitment together to work with one another. Commissioner Davis and his staff are working extraordinarily hard to create the type of police department that Baltimore residents deserve.”
Davis and Mosby’s statements took just a few minutes and the pair left without taking any questions from the media.
The appearance of the pair was the first together since Mosby offered critical statements of members of the police department and their handling of the cases of six officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray.
Although Mosby said Davis was cooperative throughout the Gray cases, she said some investigators were uncooperative during the process.
Mosby dropped charges against the three officers still facing charges in the case after Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams acquitted three others of all charges in separate trials.
Source WBAL
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