Baltimore Is Expected to Pay Freddie Gray's Family $6.4 Million

The city of Baltimore is all but certain to pay $6.4 million to the family of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old black man whose spine was fatally severed while he was in police custody this April. The deal, which would settle civil claims but not acknowledge wrongdoing by individual cops, is expected to be finalized when the city's Board of Estimates—which controls spending—meets on Wednesday.

Born into a house with dangerous lead paint, Gray frequently missed school as a kid and later lived off structured government settlement checks. On April 12, he was picked up by Baltimore cops after reportedly making eye contact with one of them. A video emerged of Gray groaning before he was put inside a police van, but he was unconscious when he arrived at the station. Days later, Gray succumbed to his injuries and died, leading many to suggest that he'd been jostled inside the van on purpose as a cruel form of police punishment, sometimes called a "rough ride."

The allegations were followed by protests and riots, a spate of gun violence, and, more recently, the firing of the city police commissioner. Six officers were charged and indicted in Gray's death, and last week a judge announced that each would get a separate criminal trial as a new wave of protests emerged to accompany the court proceedings. (In a statement, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake thanked residents for making them peaceful.)

The settlement unveiled Tuesday, which if approved will be paid out over two years, surpasses the one awarded to the survivors of both Eric Garner and Rodney King, as the Washington Post reported. (Those payouts were $5.9 million and $3.8 million, respectively.) The Gray settlement is also larger than the sum of the more than 120 payouts the Baltimore has made for alleged police brutality since 2011, according to the Baltimore Sun.

It's unclear why the money was paid out before a lawsuit was even filed, but the persistence of the Black Lives Matter movement and lingering concerns about local unrest almost certainly played role.

For her part, Mayor Rawlings-Blake said that any deal won't color the forthcoming trials.

"The proposed settlement agreement going before the Board of Estimates should not be interpreted as a judgment on the guilt or innocence of the officers facing trial," she said a statement, according to the Post. "This settlement is being proposed solely because it is in the best interest of the city, and avoids costly and protracted litigation that would only make it more difficult for our city to heal and potentially cost taxpayers many millions more in damages."

The criminal trials of the cops are expected to being in earnest next month, and a judge will rule Thursday on whether they'll be held in Baltimore or elsewhere.

David Jaros, an associate professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, says that the mayor's statement about the settlement not affecting the legal process is "accurate on the whole," but that the six cops' attorneys will be much more concerned about where the trials will be held. For instance, if it's Baltimore, the jurors might have to weigh concerns about possible riots and property damage against their decision.

"This will be one more thing the defense will point to and say, 'Now there has been press about they city admitting wrong, and this could be mistaken by the jury pool," Jaros told me. "I wouldn't be surprised if this gets mentioned on Thursday, that it's tainted the Baltimore jury pool, even though it's national news."

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