After verdict, the sentences
Eight officers, eight others in task force case face jail terms; one still to be tried
Now comes the punishment. The conviction Monday of two Baltimore police detectives on racketeering charges — six others pleaded guilty without a trial — opens a new phase in the federal prosecution of the city’s formerly elite Gun Trace Task Force.
U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake will hand down prison sentences for eight officers, a five-man drug crew, one bail bondsman and two other civilians. All were linked in a web of crime that stretched from peddlers of deadly heroin in Northeast Baltimore to a celebrated unit of plainclothes police.
One Philadelphia officer still awaits trial Thomas Allers Momodu Gondo in Baltimore. Prosecutors said Eric Troy Snell, a former Baltimore cop, partnered with the rogue cops to sell cocaine and heroin they seized from Baltimore’s streets. Snell remains jailed; his trial has not yet been scheduled.
The six officers who pleaded guilty admitted to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in drugs, cash and jewelry from people they encountered on the streets. Some officers nearly doubled their salaries by billing the city for overtime hours they didn’t work. They admitted to lying on reports to cover up the schemes.
The six men who pleaded guilty face maximum prison sentences ranging from 20 to 40 years. Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, one of the task force commanders, is scheduled for sentencing on April 12. He faces as much as 30 years in prison. The other five have not yet been scheduled for sentencing.
Detectives Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor chose to fight their charges in court. A jury convicted both on Monday of racketeering conspiracy and robbery, but acquitted them of possessing a gun in a violent crime. They each face as much as 60 years in prison.
Five men have been found guilty of operating the heroin ring that led federal investigators to the corrupt police. One detective has admitted to running interference for the drug dealers. Daniel Hersl
The five men all await sentencing. Antonio Shropshire, Antoine Washington and Alexander Campbell could be sentenced to life in prison. Glen Kyle Wells and Omari Thomas, a former running back for the Baltimore Cobras semi-pro football team, face as much as 40 years in prison. They have not yet been scheduled for sentencing.
Three civilians have pleaded guilty to crimes committed with the officers. Thomas Robert Finnegan and David Kendall Rahim admitted to helping the officers rob a South Baltimore couple of $20,000. They both face as much as life in prison. They are scheduled for sentencing March 9.
Bail bondsman Donald Stepp pleaded guilty to drug charges last month. The Baltimore County man admitted to selling cocaine and heroin supplied by one of the officers. He’s scheduled for sentencing April 6. He faces the possibility of life in prison.
Hersl’s older brother Steve sobbed against a railing outside the courthouse, then defended his brother to reporters. He said Dan Hersl had told family members he wanted out of the unit.
“Danny Hersl was not a monster. He was put in with some monsters, but he wasn’t one of them. He wasn’t a part of this group, and I am 100 percent positive of that,” Steve Hersl said.
Steve Hersl said Police Department leaders were complicit, and should be held accountable as well.
Taylor showed little emotion throughout the trial, and was stoic as the verdict was read. His family and attorneys left without commenting.
Hersl and Taylor opted not to take the stand.
After the indictments, then-Commissioner Kevin Davis disbanded the department’s plainclothes units — known on the streets as “knockers” — and put those officers into uniform. DeSousa says he is rethinking that decision. The agency has said it will implement a fingerprint scanning technology to thwart overtime fraud, and will start ordering random polygraph tests on members of specialized units.
City prosecutors had dropped charges or asked courts to vacate convictions in 125 cases that involved the officers as of December. The public defender’s office says thousands of cases are compromised.
After the verdict Monday, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said “Baltimore is in need of significant reforms within our criminal justice system.”
Others have said police and prosecutors were given repeated warnings about some the officers but failed to act.
“Neither City Hall, BPD’s Internal Affairs, nor the State’s Attorney’s Office was able to uncover and hold accountable the officers at the heart of this criminal conspiracy,” Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACPLegal Defense and Education Fund, said in statement. “Residents deserve new procedures, practices, regulations, safety valves, and training across city agencies — including the State’s Attorney’s office — to ensure that this cannot happen again.”
Lt. Gene Ryan, president of the local police union that represents rank-and-file officers, said that while Hersl and Taylor “got their day in court, the jury spoke, and they felt the evidence was there” for convictions.
“This just goes to show you that nobody is above the law,” Ryan said. “If you break the law, you’re going to have to pay just like everybody else. “I wish they had been caught a lot sooner.” Alex Hilton sat inside the courthouse Monday waiting for a verdict.
Hilton, 38, was arrested multiple times by Hersl. He said he has been haunted by memories of Hersl targeting him, and even moved from the east side of town to the west hoping to get away from him. Hilton said he filed a complaint after one arrest, saying Hersl took his keys, went to his home and took money and other belongings, but nothing came of it.
“Every time I see a police car or a knocker car,” he said, “I’m looking to see if he’s in there. I can’t get his face out of my mind.”