Baltimore judge upholds charges against police officers in black man Freddie Gray's death

A local judge on Wednesday refused to drop charges against six Baltimore police officers charged in the death of an African-American young man from an injury in police custody.

After Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams rejected the defense motion to dismiss the charge, the trial would move ahead as scheduled for next month.

During Wednesday's pre-trial hearing, Judge Williams also rejected the defense's request to remove the prosecutor, also an African-American, from the case that convulsed the seaport in the U.S. state of Maryland with riots and chaos early this year.

Defense attorneys had long sought to drop the charges, ranging from second-degree assault to second-degree depraved-heart murder, based on the asserted prosecutorial misconduct on the part of State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby.

Mosby was accused by the defense team of issuing "reckless and unprofessional" comments after filing charges in May that were equated to "pep rally calling for payback."

Freddie Gray, 25, suffered a severe spinal cord injury while in police custody on April 12 and died a week later. The death was ruled by medical examiner as a homicide.

Like the death of another young African-American man in Ferguson, Missouri last year, protests over Gray's death soon deteriorated into chaos, with hundreds of rioters in northwest Baltimore looting stores and setting ablaze cars and buildings.

The death of Gray also put police brutality in the local law enforcement in spotlight and triggered a nationwide debate on race tensions. Endit