In Baltimore, Maryland, the highest officer acquitted in the Freddie Gray case is slated to receive approximately $127,000 in back pay.
The city’s Board of Estimates is set to give Lt. Brian S. Rice $126,916, reports the Baltimore Sun. Rice was exonerated of manslaughter and misconduct, among other charges in the Freddie Gray case. According to the board schedule, the sum “represents the amount of salary that Mr. Rice would have earned for the period of May 1, 2015 through July 18, 2016.”
“Being suspended without pay for over a year has been financially devastating to Lt. Rice and his family,” Michael Belsky, Rice’s attorney, told the Baltimore Sun. Rice has been suspended without pay since since May 1, 2015 when he was first charged, until July 18, when he was found innocent by the judge.
Department policy dictated that Rice and the three other officers charged be suspended without pay. Now that Rice is exonerated, he is entitled to back pay.
Prosecutors accused Rice and three other officers of being guilty of killing Gray, a 25-year-old black man. They said that because Gray was not properly buckled in, he received a neck injury from which he later died. Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams ruled that Rice was not guilty of Gray’s death.
The other two officers involved had the charges against them dropped by Marilyn Mosby, the State’s Attorney for Baltimore. Rice, along with four other officers, are currently suing Mosby for defamation and false arrest, among other things.
Last month, another officer acquitted in the Freddie Gray case received back pay as well. The driver of the van, Officer Caesar Goodson, received approximately $88,000.
Rice still needs to undergo an administrative review.
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