Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby is now facing two more lawsuits from Baltimore police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray.
A federal judge unsealed court documents Tuesday that show Officers Garrett Miller and Edward Nero filed a joint suit against Mosby and Maj. Samuel Cogen of the Baltimore City Sheriff’s Office, the Baltimore Sun reports. The suit alleges false imprisonment, defamation and violation of constitutional rights, claiming the charges filed against the officers were trumped up in an effort to quell anger after the Baltimore riots.
In addition to that suit, Lt. Brian Rice filed suit against Mosby and Cogen for false imprisonment, defamation of character, and violation of rights. The suit, which was unsealed Monday, points to the press conference where Mosby made heated rhetoric about the case.
These new suits come after news broke that Sgt. Alicia White and Officer William Porter filed suit against Mosby and Cogen of the Baltimore Sheriff’s office for defamation and invasion of privacy. The suit alleges Mosby and Cogen knew the charges were trumped up, but filed them anyway to quell the riots that had ravaged the city.
Michael Glass, the lawyer for Porter and White’s suit, told The Daily Caller News Foundation that he plans to amend the lawsuit to include “likely a count of malicious prosecution, false arrest, false imprisonment, violation of the Maryland declaration of rights, article 24 and 26.” He said they’re currently working on modifying the complaint, and the changes will be official in the next few weeks, likely by the end of June.
“These six officers were essentially sacrificed,” Glass told TheDCNF. “Alicia White, she’s accused of murder, she never touched Mr. Gray.”
The barrage of lawsuits prove a complication in the case and an extra headache for Mosby and Cogen, who could turn against each other in an attempt to settle.
The officers argue that during the press conference announcing the charges, Mosby revealed her false motives. Mosby raised eyebrows by appealing to the angry residents of Baltimore, many of whom had just protested and rioted. “I heard your calls for, ‘No Justice, No peace,’” she said. “Your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man.”
Glass argues that when Mosby used this rhetoric and filed charges to quell the riots, she acted outside her role as a prosecutor and thus should not be protected by the immunity usually due to the position. He said he believes new facts obtained through the discovery process will reveal damning conversations exposing the motives behind charging the officers.
“We believe there were certain communications among some pretty key players that suggest that these charges were brought not based on the evidence but based on an agenda which was to quell the riots at a time when there was a lot of unrest and it was a pretty volatile situation,” Glass told TheDCNF.
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