Judge Barry Williams on Wednesday refused to dismiss charges against six Baltimore police officers in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year old Black man who suffered a severe spinal cord injury and died while in police custody.

The judge also denied a motion to recuse Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, reported the Baltimore Sun.

The rulings were made during the first pretrial hearings of officers Caesar Goodson, Garrett Miller, Edward Nero, Alicia White, Brian Rice, and William Porter, who are all charged with second-degree assault, misconduct, and reckless endangerment.

Rice, White, and Porter have also been charged with manslaughter.

Defense attorneys had argued that Mosby should be recused from the case after her remarks in announcing the charges against the police officers and alleged conflict of interests. While the judge found some of her statements “troubling,” he also said that the defense “didn’t come close” to proving Mosby should be recused.

Williams addressed the defense attorney’s allegation that Mosby’s marriage to Nick Mosby, a Baltimore city councilman, constituted a conflict of interests.

“Why? Is the implication that she can’t think for herself?” Williams asked, reported the New York Times. “Frankly, I do find that assertion troubling and condescending.”

Andrew Graham, defense attorney for Goodson, argued that during Mosby’s announcement of the charges she tainted the jury pool by adopting the rhetoric of those protesting police brutality. “She handled this as though it was some sort of pep rally,” Graham told Williams, reported the Baltimore Sun.

“To the people of Baltimore and the demonstrators across America, I heard your call for ‘no justice no peace,’” Mosby said during the announcement of the charges. “Your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man.”

“None of these conflicts represent real conflicts that require recusal of anyone, let alone the entire State’s Attorney’s Office,” Williams said, reported the Baltimore Sun. Williams said that he did not have the authority to determine whether Mosby had broken Maryland Lawyers’ Rules of Professional Conduct, and that only the Attorney Grievance commission has the authority to make that decision.

“Every state has rules of professional responsibility that governs attorney conduct, even prosecutors,” according to Jessica Mason Pieklo, Rewire’s legal analyst. “And while those ethical rules do things like describe conflicts of interest and explain how attorneys should or should not talk to the press about their cases, the rules themselves do not provide for any specific legal remedy if they are violated.”

“Even if her statements went beyond what the ethical rules consider appropriate, the remedy isn’t recusal, but a complaint with the ethics board,” Mason Pieklo continued. “What we are seeing instead from the defense team is a strong-arm litigation tactic designed to change the topic from the inexcusable conduct of their client that led to an innocent man’s death to Mosby’s demeanor as prosecutor. In addition to playing on racial stereotypes of the angry black woman, the recusal motion suggests the defense would rather do anything than talk about what happened to Freddie Gray.”

Protesters gathered in the street outside the courthouse during Wednesday’s hearing. Activists chanted, “Indict, convict, send those killer cops to jail. The whole damn system is guilty as hell,” and “Tell the truth and stop the lies, Freddie Gray didn’t have to die,” according to reporting by the Associated Press.

Baltimore experienced mass protests after Gray’s funeral in April. That was followed by a militarized law enforcement response similar to the response to protests in Ferguson after the death of Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer.

“Our message is pretty obvious. Do not drop the charges. No change in venue. Do not recuse Marilyn Mosby,” Sharon Black told the Baltimore Sun. Black is a member of the Baltimore People’s Power Assembly, which had organized protests outside the downtown courthouse.

“Our demands are pretty simple,” Black said. “We want to keep the attention on those three issues.”

Baltimore law enforcement agencies have prepared for the protests during the hearings and trial of the six officers charged. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake told reporters that they hope to avoid the same events that happened during the protest in April. “We’re going to treat a protest like a protest and a riot like a riot,” Rawlings-Blake said, reported the New York Times.

The pretrial hearing continued Wednesday afternoon, as attorneys debated whether the officers should be tried separately or as a group, reported the Washington Post. Prosecutors are asking for four trials—one for Nero, White, and Goodson, and separate trials for Rice, Porter, and Miller.

Goodson, who is charged with second-degree “depraved-heart” murder, is the only officer to ask for a separate trial.