By Danielle E. Gaines
The Frederick News-Post
FREDERICK, Md. — In his second jury trial this week, a man charged with assaulting a Frederick County jail guard was acquitted partway through proceedings Thursday.
Judge Mary Ann Stepler acquitted Justin David Freland after ruling that the state had not met its burden of proof in the case.
Freland had pleaded not guilty to second-degree assault and asked for a jury trial.
After issuing the decision, Stepler met with jurors to explain what happened and dismissed them.
In his opening arguments, defense attorney Stephen Musselman said Freland was not guilty.
“This case is disturbing, very disturbing,” Musselman said. But “there was no crime committed here.”
Freland was charged with second-degree assault after correctional officers said he fought with them as they tried to take him to a closed-circuit bail review hearing on Dec. 28, 2010.
Assistant State’s Attorney Kirsten Brown said Freland bent back the hand of an officer who was trying to handcuff him and then spat and urinated on the officer.
“Mr. Freland, instead of going to his bond review, wanted to fight,” Brown said.
After his arrest on Christmas Eve 2010, jail authorities struggled for two days to get Freland to a bail review hearing, which is conducted in an office at the jail via satellite connection with the courthouse.
On the first attempt, Freland would not identify himself for the judge and the hearing was postponed.
On Dec. 28, Freland would not agree to be cuffed through a hole in his cell door, so several officers entered his cell to restrain him and bring him to the hearing.
In a video played Thursday, the officers ask Freland to lie facedown on his bed before they entered and he did not. The group of guards then entered the cell. One officer testified that things were calm until Freland grabbed Cpl. Virgil M. Swope III’s hand and bent it backward. He also kicked at the officers and grabbed a stun gun after it was used on him. Freland can be heard shouting something repeatedly during the encounter.
After he was removed from the cell, Freland was strapped into a restraint chair and a “spit mask” was put over his mouth. When he was brought to the office for the hearing, Freland moaned loudly in front of the camera and writhed in the chair, prompting the judge to quickly postpone the hearing.
After hearing testimony from some of the officers involved, Stepler determined that Freland could not be found guilty according to state law. The law for second-degree assault requires “impairment of physical condition, excluding minor injuries,” when the person assaulted is a law enforcement officer.
Stepler said the state had not proved anything beyond minor injuries.
Stepler, who retired in 2003, occasionally hears cases.
Though pleased with the judge’s decision, Freland’s father expressed concern outside the courtroom Thursday.
Jail authorities, who were familiar with Freland from past arrests, should have given him prescribed medications; if medicated, his son wouldn’t have acted out in such ways, Jeff Freland said.
He said he was deeply upset about his son’s lack of mental health treatment at the jail and that he believed the officers used excessive force to take him to the hearing.
A jury found Freland guilty Monday of assaulting a different jail guard. In that case, the officer testified that Freland spat in his face.
Sentencing in that case has been postponed until Nov. 5, the same day Freland’s final trial, for attempted second-degree murder and other charges, is scheduled to begin.
Freland was arrested Dec. 24, 2010, after he stabbed a family member more than 30 times and then bit two arresting officers, police said.
Freland is being held at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, a maximum-security psychiatric hospital, until his November trial date.