The government is paying one of the Freddie Gray cops $127,000 for all the time he didn't work

Lieutenant Brian Rice, the cop who was acquitted in the murder of Freddie Gray, will receive $127,000 in back pay after a year of suspension without pay.

(Image credit: Baltimore Police Department via Getty Images)

published 11 August 2016

Since all six trials in connection to the 2015 death of Baltimore's Freddie Gray ended in mistrial, acquittal, or dropped charges, the officers involved will now return work in Baltimore's police force, pending administrative review.

The four who were charged with felonies will also receive tens of thousands of dollars in back pay for the time they were suspended from work while under investigation. The most money — nearly $127,000 — will go to Lt. Brian Rice, the highest-ranking officer tied to Gray's death, to cover the salary he would have earned had he been working for the 13 months he was suspended.

The payment was authorized by Baltimore's Board of Estimates, which has already approved $87,705 in back pay for Caesar Goodson Jr., the officer who was driving the van in which Gray sustained spinal cord injuries leading to his death. The panel is expected to likewise allot back pay to the other two officers who faced felony charges.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.