Freddie Gray Case: Defense Wants Trial Postponed.
COSTELLO: Attorneys for six Baltimore police officers facing charges in the death of Freddie Gray will soon appear in court. Defense teams trying to postpone the first trial date in the case, claiming new material has created several discovery issues. Officer William Porter's trial is set to begin next month. Prosecutors calling him a, quote, "necessary and material witness" in their cases against the other officers. Jean Casarez is in Baltimore ahead of this hearing. She has more. Good morning, Jean.</s>JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. You know, it's suddenly gotten so noisy here. But we're in Baltimore City a right at the courthouse. Important hearing today, scheduling hearing. So, you say, OK, scheduling hearing. Well, the first trial is set to begin about two weeks from now, October 13th. And the defense is saying we need more time. We can't start in two weeks. We don't think it is going to be a long continuance or postponement if the judge allows it. I hope you can still hear me, an ambulance. But the last hearing several weeks ago, I was in the courtroom and I heard the defense argue that the prosecution because they said that they had their own investigation, that they should be entitled, the defense, to exactly what that investigation includes. The judge appeared to agree with that. But wanted a narrowly tailored motion of what exactly you want. With that discovery now changing hands, that is going to create an issue where the defense is going to say we need to go through these pages and they have 7,000 pages as it is. Now, who's going to go first is a very big issue. That we believe is going to be Officer William Porter. In open court, we heard that William Porter made a statement to the driver, Oscar Goodson, and maybe some of the other officers about Gray. What was it? Well, the "Baltimore Sun" got some snippets of those statements and they say that it's Porter said Gray needs medical attention. And he said to Goodson, if you don't take him to the hospital because central booking isn't going to take him. He needs medical attention. Prosecutors are saying that was ignored, an omission. And because of that, that is what ultimate then caused the death of Gray. So, the prosecutors have said in open court we need Porter to go first because of this statement. And that statement then can be used against other officers a as the other trials proceed. So, Oscar Goodson is facing the most time here. He's charged with second degree depraved heart murder. That is 30 years maximum. Many of the other officers are charged with manslaughter, which is up a to ten years and numerous other charges, Carol, felonies. One misdemeanor, misconduct in office but many charges that effect the lives of these officers for years to come and of course, Freddie Gray, is no longer with us.</s>COSTELLO: Jean Casarez reporting live from Baltimore, thank you. And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.