Interesting news blurb update amid an otherwise memory-holed story now almost six months old.

TEXAS – […] Of the 135 people originally ordered to wear GPS ankle monitors, all but 22 have been allowed to remove them, the Waco Tribune-Herald reported Sunday. Their lawyers have reached agreements with prosecutors to modify the conditions of their pre-trial release.

After initially locking up more than 170 people in connection with the May 17 incident outside Twin Peaks restaurant, McLennan County prosecutors have not charged anyone with the shooting deaths of nine people. At least 20 others were hurt. (more…)

Porter was the only one not to attend the hearing.  It appears Marilyn Mosby is leveraging Porter against the other five defendants; perhaps that explains Porter’s absence in court.

(Via Baltimore Sun) The six Baltimore police officers charged in Freddie Gray’s arrest and death will be tried separately over the course of the next several months, with proceedings against Officer William G. Porter starting Nov. 30.
The new timeline, which pushes the trials back from a previously scheduled date of Oct. 13, was established during a hearing in Circuit Court on Tuesday afternoon, where five of the six officers appeared before Judge Barry Williams for the first time. Porter waived his right to attend the hearing.
[…] The delay in Porter’s trial came at the request of the defense which said it needed time for further investigation. The delays in the five other officers’ trials came at the request of the state and was granted by Williams over the objections of the officers’ attorneys. (more…)

I originally thought we had posted a story back in July about the initial incident, but I cannot locate it. The general short version was a man being arrested after a concert. As paramedics responded to an emergency call, there’s video of him being placed face down on a gurney, as he yelled he couldn’t breathe. He was hog-tied with his hands and legs behind him. His wife witnessed him being loaded into an ambulance. She was told upon arrival at the hospital he was dead. 
The entire story was sketchy from the outset.  Now the autopsy…
SOUTHAVEN, Miss. (FOX13) – After attending a concert on July 18, Troy Goode was arrested. He was hogtied by Southaven police and later died at Baptist Memorial Hospital.
His family has been hoping an autopsy report would shed some light as to why Troy died that night. But after receiving that document, questions remain unanswered.
“What really stands out to us is that there is not really a cause of death on there.” Kevin McCormack, the Goode family attorney, told FOX13. “There’s no finding of any toxicology. There’s not any findings of any abnormal heart condition, which makes sense because we know that Troy was a healthy 30-year-old man.” (more…)

Reporter Andrew Knapp attended the first pre-trial hearing today.  He filed the following reports:

UPDATE: Defense argued that Walter Scott got on Slager during a struggle and pummeled him. Attorney Andy Savage said Michael Slager looks forward to clearing his name. Prosecutor Scarlett Wilson, though, said Slager became executioner and planted evidence, lying to make it look like self-defense.
UPDATE: Michael Slager bond hearing is over. No decision by the judge in impassioned, emotional three-hour hearing for Michael Slager, the former North Charleston policeman charged with murder in Walter Scott’s shooting death. (more…)

Activist Judge Barry Williams gave activist Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby a big assist in her goal to convict six Baltimore police officers.  Williams ruled against a venue change motion while saying there’s no evidence they will be unable to seat an impartial jury.
The pre-trial hearings continue this afternoon.

(Via Baltimore Sun) A Baltimore Circuit Court judge ruled Thursday morning that the trials of six police officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray will stay in Baltimore, saying the defense had failed to prove that the officers cannot receive a fair trial in the city.

“The citizens of Baltimore are not monolithic,” Judge Barry Williams said in his ruling. “They think for themselves.”

(more…)

Keep in mind:  ♦ no wrongdoing has ever been found;  ♦ Marilyn Mosby’s private attorney is the same attorney as Freddie Gray’s family;  ♦ The Gray family never filed a lawsuit, so this is not a “settlement” per se’;  ♦ The possibility of any police wrongful conduct being found during trial is quite probably nil; ♦ The maximum payout under Maryland state law, if lawsuit filed – and if police misconduct could be identified, would have been $400k.

UPDATE:  The nine-page agreement, obtained Wednesday by The Baltimore Sun, shows that Gray’s mother, Gloria Darden, will receive $5.36 million. Gray’s father, Freddie Gray Sr., will receive $640,000. The remainder, $400,000, will be paid to the “Estate of Freddie Gray Jr.”
The city agrees to pay $1.8 million within 15 days, to be divided proportionately among the parities, according to the document. Another $1 million must be paid by Nov. 1.
The remaining $3.6 million will be paid out in the next fiscal year. (link)
(more…)

Mosby is a very lucky State Attorney. Maryland state law prohibits cameras and recording devices in court rooms. Her ineptitude, and the weakness behind the false construct of her case, will be masked without sunlight. Unfortunately, we are going to have to rely on reporters and media accounts for details.

Update 6:00pm – SEPARATE TRIALS – A judge on Wednesday ordered that six Baltimore Police officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray be tried separately.
The ruling was one of three that Judge Barry Williams handed down during the first pre-trial motions hearing in the case. Williams earlier denied defense motions to dismiss charges against the officers and to recuse State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby’s office from the case.
Prosecutors sought to have the six officers tried in groups, while defense attorneys had argued their clients should be tried separately.  Williams said trying the officers together would not be “in the interest of justice.”  (link) (more…)

This shooting is going to capture a LOT of attention.

There was a police shooting in Bexar Texas, a suburb of San Antonio, involving two police officers during a domestic disturbance call. The official version of the shooting is described by the Bexar County Sheriff’s office PIO Susan Pamerleau.
IMPORTANT – Watch the CNN affiliate KSAT report before proceeding:

What Pamerleau describes in that press statement segment is NOT what is shown in the video. (more…)

The shooting happened on Wednesday, and Saint Louis was yet again the scene of retaliatory violence by the community toward police.  On cue today CNN is stoking the issue, with their pontifications about an initial autopsy showing the bullet that killed Ball-Bey traveled from back to front, right to left.
Despite the CNN pitch, this does not seem to indicate much of anything.  If you were standing 20 feet away from someone and they shot toward you, your natural untrained instinct would be to you to turn your shoulder and slightly duck.  If you were simultaneously holding a firearm in your right hand, this type of movement would account for an entry wound to your upper right shoulder (back) traveling toward your left.

Ironically Mansur Ball-Bey did a video (screen grab above) depicting thug life and featuring the exact type of weapon used shortly before his death.  His ‘thug life’ social media is HERE
ST. LOUIS • An autopsy on Mansur Ball-Bey, whose death from police gunfire this week stirred protests, showed that he died from a single wound in the back, police officials said.
Chief Sam Dotson said the wound’s location neither proves nor disproves the contention of officers at the scene that Ball-Bey refused to drop a gun and pointed it at them before being shot Wednesday. (more…)

The Op-ed being discussed is available HERE