BALTIMORE — Protesters demonstrated outside Baltimore Circuit Court on Wednesday morning as the first court hearing began Wednesday in the case of six police officers charged in the death of a black man who died a week after suffering a spinal cord injury while in custody.

Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams began hearing arguments Wednesday on a motion to dismiss the charges due to prosecutorial misconduct.

He limited the arguments to 15 minutes per side. Williams says he also will hear arguments on a motion for State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby to recuse herself due to what defense attorneys characterize as conflicts of interest.

Journalists and spectators filled most of the approximately 160 seats in the wood-paneled courtroom.

The defendants were not present. Mosby was in the courtroom but did not sit at the state’s table with four assistant prosecutors.

Gray was a black man who died a week after suffering a critical spinal injury in custody. Charged in connection with his death are Officers Edward Nero, Garrett Miller, William Porter and Caesar Goodson, as well as Lt. Brian Rice and Sgt. Alicia White The 25-year-old Gray suffered a severe spinal cord injury on April 12 while in their custody. He died a week later.

Dozens of protesters rallied outside the Baltimore courthouse to express their anger and indignation over Gray’s death. Many of them then marched in the street to the city’s Inner Harbor area, where they blocked a main road briefly. Police lined up behind them, and directed them out of the road. Police handcuffed one protester while he was on his stomach in the street.

The officers face charges that range from second-degree assault, a misdemeanor, to second-degree “depraved-heart” murder. Gray’s death led to protests in Baltimore and a riot that prompted National Guard intervention and a city-wide curfew.

Protester Lee Paterson said he’s concerned charges could be dropped.

“You know, this whole thing is bigger than Freddie Gray,” Paterson said. “It’s about poverty.”