Donta Allen, man in the van with Freddie Gray, back in the spotlight as driver's trial begins
By Kevin Rector | The Baltimore Sun | June 9, 2016, 1:13PM ET
During the crucial last leg of Freddie Gray's ultimately fatal transport in the back of a Baltimore police van last year, there were only two other people present: the driver, Officer Caesar Goodson Jr., and Donta Allen, an arrestee placed on the other side of a thin metal divider from Gray.
Given his unparalleled proximity, Allen since has been a figure of considerable intrigue in the criminal cases brought against Goodson and five other Baltimore officers in relation to Gray's transport and death. That's in large part due to contrasting statements he has made — one to police in which he said he believed Gray was "trying to knock himself out" in the back of the van, and others to the media recanting that statement.
On Thursday, Goodson's trial began with an extended discussion on a motion by the defense, unsealed Wednesday, requesting that the entire case be dismissed because prosecutors had failed to disclose another, extended proffer session they had with Allen a year ago, not long after the charges against the officers were brought.
Andrew Graham, Goodson's attorney, said Allen repeated his initial statement to police at that meeting, and that the evidence was therefore exculpatory and required to be handed over by prosecutors. Short of a dismissal of the case, Graham asked that Allen's statement to police be allowed into evidence regardless of whether he takes the stand. He said such an allowance was warranted in part because prosecutors had already been reprimanded for not disclosing evidence in the case twice before.
Judge Barry G. Williams denied the motion and rejected the request to allow Allen's statement into evidence. But he also excoriated Chief Deputy Michael Schatzow and other prosecutors for failing to disclose the information, giving Schatzow until Monday to produce any and all exculpatory evidence that has not already been handed over in Goodson and the other officers' cases.
He repeatedly slammed Schatzow, Baltimore's second highest ranking prosecutor, for insinuating that Allen's statements during the proffer session were not exculpatory. "I'm not saying you did anything nefariously, I'm saying you don't know what exculpatory means," Williams said.
Schatzow argued that Allen provided nothing at their meeting in May 2015 that required disclosure to the defense, and described Allen's comments there as entirely unreliable and contradictory — so much so, in fact, that they don't intend to call him as a witness.
Schatzow also said Thursday that the state believes Allen was coached on what to say in his initial statement to police by another police officer, Officer Zachary Novak, who the state granted immunity in order to testify before the grand jury — where he denied the coaching accusation.
Very lengthy article.More at link:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryla ... story.html
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