BALTIMORE _ Baltimore is on the hook for an estimated $7.47 million for the trials of police officers charged and acquitted in the death of Freddie Gray, city officials said.
Of the $7.47 million estimated costs, about $7 million was accrued by police, and nearly $450,000 by the state's attorney's office, said Anthony McCarthy, spokesman for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.
On Wednesday, prosecutors dropped all remaining charges against the officers, ending the clock on the high-profile trials that began in December.
Officer William Porter's trial ended with a hung jury and mistrial. Officers Edward Nero, Caesar Goodson and Lt. Brian Rice were acquitted.
Baltimore City alone will foot the bill, McCarthy said.
Gov. Larry Hogan has called the prosecutions a waste and time and money. Hogan, a Republican, has publicly doubted the continued cases after Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby failed to win convictions in four trials.
Officers Porter, Garrett Miller and Sgt. Alicia White were due in court when the charges were dropped Wednesday.
Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the city's NAACP chapter said she was "very disappointed" in the outcome of the trials. "I've been advocating that the cases should move forward," she said.
Still, she understands the decision to drop the charges "based on (Mosby's) rationale about money and feeling that she was not going to get any convictions, that it would be a waste of the court's time," Hill-Aston said.
But the trials were not the only costs. In September, the city approved a $6.4 million payout to the Gray family, accepting all civil liability. The West Baltimore man suffered fatal spinal injuries while being transported in a police van.
The prosecution costs and overtime pay for police has reached six figures in other high-profile cases.
_The five-week trial in Florida for George Zimmerman _ the neighborhood watch volunteer acquitted in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin _ cost the public at least $902,000, The Orlando Sentinel reported in 2013. Most of that money, $425,000, was spent by the local sheriff's office on providing security, planning and logistics, according to the newspaper. A second expense _ about $183,000 _ was spent on police overtime.
_In Boston, police spent about $750,000 in overtime costs during the trial for marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Globe reported last year. Officers worked 13,236 hours from January to May 2015, as the trial spanned from jury selection to sentencing.
_Costs had risen to more than $2.2 million in the case involving the 2012 Colorado theater shooter James Holmes before the trial had even started, The Associated Press reported last year. That figure includes $517,000 in overtime for police and city workers. Another $435,000 had been spent on courtroom security and other costs ahead of the trial's opening day. Holmes was found guilty of murder in July 2015.
