A Baltimore judge will decide whether Officer Edward Nero is innocent or guilty.
According to UPI, Judge Barry Williams accepted Nero’s request for a bench trial at a hearing on Tuesday morning. That means he will not face a trial by jury, but instead opted to put the case in Williams’ hands.
As the Baltimore Sun reports, that all but guarantees the first verdict in a trial of a police officer accused in Gray’s death. The first trial in the case ended in a mistrial in December.
The trial is set to begin Thursday. That start date was also the result of a ruling from Williams on Tuesday, as the state asked for a one-day delay because of a power outage at State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s office over the weekend.
Nero was one of the officers on bicycle patrol who tried to engage with Gray before he ran away. He is charged with second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office. The trial is expected to focus largely on the legality of Gray’s arrest, rather than how he was injured in the back of the police van. That means the next week will likely be filled with a lot of legalese.
