A Baltimore Circuit Court judge dismissed Monday the second-degree assault charge against Lt. Brian Rice, one the six officers charged in the 2015 death of Freddie Gray.
Rice is the third officer to eschew a jury for a bench trial. Judge Barry Williams has presided over each trial thus far, acquitting the two other officers earlier this year. A fourth officer’s trial ended in a hung jury and a mistrial in December.
Gray, a 25-year-old Black man, died while in police custody after suffering a severed spine during a transport in back of a police van last April.
Rice still faces charges of manslaughter, reckless endangerment and misconduct. Another misconduct charge was dropped when the trial began last week.
Williams dismissed the assault charge midway through the trial after the prosecution rested, deciding that the state hadn’t sufficiently made its case.