Prosecutor: Untruthful GTTF testimony presented
May 1 goal to require shift in distribution, ramp-up of supply
In defending a gun conviction involving a discredited officer, a federal prosecutor told an appellate court that a witness gave untruthful testimony to the grand jury investigating the corruption involving the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Martinez told members of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Friday that prosecutors investigating the police misconduct case put forward a witness against former Det. Daniel Hersl without vetting his account.
Keyon Paylor’s “sworn admission of guilt [in his gun case] is the truth, his grand jury testimony was false,” Martinez said.
“So the government did suborn perjury in the grand jury?” Judge Stephanie D. Thacker asked. “The government had to think what he was saying in the grand jury was true.”
“I’m not going to speak to the mental state of the prosecutor who put Paylor in the grand jury,” Martinez responded.
Thacker seemed exasperated at Martinez’s argument, saying she was concerned that the government was “talking out of both sides of its mouth” and questioning whether its argument was in the “best interests of justice.” At one point, Thacker said, “What is going on?”
The appeal is being brought by Paylor, who was arrested in 2015 by a squad of officers including Hersl, who would go on to join the Gun Trace Task Force. Paylor maintained from the start that the gun found on his family home’s porch was planted, and that officers stole money from him. Prosecutors found recorded jail calls after his arrest in which he made those assertions to family members.
But Paylor opted to plead guilty, with his attorneys saying it was his word against the officers.
“He knew Hersl was a dirty cop, but he couldn’t prove it,” said Deborah Loevy, of the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School.
As the U.S. Attorney’s Office, led by prosecutors Leo Wise and Derek Hines, and the FBI started combing through cases in their racketeering investigation against Hersl and other members of the GTTF, they found Paylor’s jail calls, gave him immunity and brought him to testify before a grand jury.
Ultimately, Paylor’s claims were not charged, as he said he was too scared of the officers to testify in open court and said he would serve out the rest of his sentence.
A federal district judge, Ellen Hollander, previously denied Paylor’s request to have his conviction overturned, saying that he swore to tell the truth when he pleaded guilty.
“‘A guilty plea is a grave and solemn act ...’ and I cannot ignore the sanctity of an oath to tell the truth,” said Hollander, adding that she did not find there was enough evidence to support Paylor’s claim.
Martinez, who originally prosecuted Paylor and was not involved in the Gun Trace Task Force investigation, continues to stand behind Paylor’s conviction. He said Friday that it was supported by other officers who took part in the arrest, and that additional investigation was conducted that “eviscerates” Paylor’s claim, namely an account from Paylor’s stepfather.
“We had an obligation to get to the truth, and we did,” Martinez told the court.
Martinez argued that Paylor was put in front of the federal grand jury hastily, saying that he was interviewed and taken before the grand jury the same day. He said that move was not improper because the grand jury is a forum to memorialize testimony in a continuing investigation.
But Thacker pushed him, saying that the only reason to take Paylor’s testimony, which diverged from his original guilty plea, was because they believed his allegations that the gun was planted and money was stolen.
Martinez defended Hersl: “There was no wrongdoing by Hersl in this case. That is our position.”
Federal authorities have been reluctant to vacate convictions against the convicted officers, even as they continued to level more misconduct allegations. In the state courts, the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office has vacated hundreds of convictions involving convicted officers, but the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office only agreed to vacate two — involving planted drugs.
Hersl is serving 18 years in prison, after being convicted by a jury in a trial where his attorney admitted he took money during arrests but said that constituted a theft from the Baltimore Police Department, and not a robbery. Hersl has disavowed the trial defense, and maintains he never committed any crimes.
“His position is that he’s fully innocent and hasn’t done anything wrong,” Walter Timothy Sutton told The Sun this week, in response to a separate lawsuit being brought against Hersl. “He was trying to take bad guys off the streets.”
Baltimore prosecutors concluded police were justified last year when they shot and killed an armed man who was wanted in Pennsylvania on charges of attempted murder.
In a 28-page report issued Thursday, prosecutors found six police officers opened fire after Michael Marullo, 33, came out of an apartment complex in Northeast Baltimore with a loaded revolver in his hand.
“The hammer of the revolver was in the ‘cocked’ position,” prosecutors wrote. “The Involved Citizen pointed his gun at [law enforcement officers].”
Police identified the gunman as Marullo, who worked as a corrections officer in Maryland. An autopsy found he died of 17 gunshot wounds.
“It would be objectively reasonable for the officers to conclude their safety was at risk,” prosecutors wrote. “The decision to use force was justified under the Maryland law.”
Such a review by the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office is routine in cases of police shootings.
The report found no “criminal culpability” by the officers who fired. If they were found to violate department policy, they still could face internal discipline. Police departments keep such discipline confidential. Two officers were wounded in the encounter: one shot in his leg; the other, in his leg and belly. Officials identified the officers as Baltimore Police Officer Robert Adams and Baltimore County Officer First Class Swinney. Baltimore County does not release the full names of its officers.
While prosecutors did not expressly write that these officers were wounded by friendly fire, they found Marullo did not fire his revolver. The gun still held six live rounds.
Upon a tip from Pennsylvania police, some 16 officers converged on the apartment complex in the 5900 block of Radecke
Ave. near the city-county line. The officers included members of city, county and state police and federal agents working together in a regional fugitive task force. None wore body cameras; the fatal encounter in February 2020 was not captured on video.
“As a part of the agreement between local and federal law enforcement agencies, task force officers are not permitted to wear body worn cameras during joint operations,” prosecutors wrote.
Attorney Thomas Maronick, who represented Marullo in the past, still has questions about the encounter.
“He’s the last guy you would think of doing something like this,” Maronick said.
He wondered what was said in the moments before Marullo emerged with a loaded gun, and if the man felt threatened.
One month before the shooting, Marullo resigned as a Maryland corrections officer. He had been locked in a legal fight with an ex-girlfriend.
The day before his death, Marullo allegedly fired shots at the grandfather of his two children after a dispute over how Marullo was disciplining the kids.
Pennsylvania police filed charges against Marullo including attempted homicide, assault, reckless endangerment and gun charges.
A Pennsylvania judge issued a warrant for his arrest, and police tracked him to his home at Gardenvillage Apartments in Northeast Baltimore near Rosedale.
The officers approached the front door of the apartment building when they saw Marullo run inside. Within seconds, he emerged holding a silver revolver, prosecutors wrote.
“The Involved Citizen then raised the gun and pointed it at one or more [law enforcement officer], at which time multiple LEOs opened fire, striking and killing the Involved Citizen,” they wrote.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Governors largely cheered President Joe Biden’s declaration that all Americans should be eligible for coronavirus vaccinations by May 1, but the goal will require a shift for states that have been methodical in how they roll out the shots.
California, the nation’s most populous state, hasn’t set a timeline for giving vaccines to the general public, instead prioritizing older adults, teachers and people in vulnerable neighborhoods. Oregon planned to open eligibility for front-line workers and all adults with disabilities, not the broader population, by May 1.
Alaska, meanwhile, is already allowing everyone to sign up for a shot. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said before Biden spoke Thursday night that all adults could be eligible by next month, while Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced Friday that everyone will be there by mid-April. Governors in Wisconsin, Louisiana and North Carolina said they’re ready to open the floodgates May 1.
But several governors cautioned it must come with a dramatic increase in vaccine supply.
“In order for widespread and comprehensive vaccination to work, the federal government will need to come through with increased doses and infrastructure,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement.
Jeffrey Zients, the White House’s coronavirus coordinator, told reporters Friday that May 1 is an “absolute deadline” and that the nation will have enough supply between the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines to give shots to all adults by the end of that month. Now, an average of 2.2 million doses are being administered per day.
As long as supply ramps up, the goal seems reasonable, said Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an epidemiology professor. But she warned it could create challenges around equity and set unrealistic expectations among Americans that they will immediately be vaccinated come May.
Some states may not have the infrastructure to quickly ramp up doses for such a broad pool.
“It could be a delay for people to actually get a vaccine because of the operational constraints,” she said.
California, home to nearly 40 million people, says it has the capacity to vaccinate 3 million people per week but is getting about half that number of doses. By April 1, the state plans to ramp up weekly shots to 4 million people. But so far, vaccines are still limited to people 65 and older, educators, farmworkers, emergency service workers and, starting Monday, an estimated 4.4 million people with disabilities and certain health conditions.
California officials did not immediately answer questions Friday about how Biden’s declaration would alter their plans.
Tim Jin, a 46-year-old Orange County resident with cerebral palsy, said he understands Biden’s desire to get the country back to normal. But opening up vaccinations to all adults in May will crowd out people with disabilities, who are just becoming eligible for the vaccine in California, he said.
“The first thing that I thought about was how much harder it’s going to be for people with disabilities to get the vaccine because they are pretty much eliminating the priority list for us,” Jin said.
Kiran Savage-Sangwan, executive director of the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network and a member of the state’s vaccine advisory committee, said Biden’s plan should not undercut California’s equity goals as long as the state maintains its commitments, such as sending more doses to underserved areas. California is dedicating at least 40% of its vaccine doses to people
in roughly 400 low-income ZIP codes.
“Having more vaccine is absolutely what we want and what we need, and if we still don’t have enough to meet the demand, then we still need to prioritize,” she said.
Elsewhere, governors met Biden’s goal with enthusiasm.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said the state “will absolutely step up” to hit the goal. About 13% of residents are fully vaccinated, according to state data, among the highest rates in the country.
Now, all West Virginia residents 50 and over are eligible
for the vaccine. The state’s coronavirus czar, Dr. Clay Marsh, said officials may be able to expand eligibility to everyone earlier than May.
“But we want to maintain our commitment to discipline and to make sure that we’re immunizing the people most likely to be hospitalized or to die first,” he said.
According to federal health officials, U.S. deaths from COVID-19 are falling again as the nation continues to recover from the devastating winter surge, a trend that experts are cautiously hopeful will accelerate as more
vulnerable people are vaccinated.
While new coronavirus infections and hospitalizations have plummeted, the decline in deaths from a January peak of about 4,500 hasn’t been quite as steep. But, now, after weeks of hovering around 2,000 daily deaths, that figure has dropped to about 1,400 U.S. lives lost each day to coronavirus.
“I am encouraged by these data, but we must remain vigilant,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Friday.
Dear Readers: Every year during this time I step away from my column to work on other creative projects. I hope you enjoy these (edited) “Best Of ” Q&As from 10 years ago. Today’s topic is: birthday bashes.
I’ll be back with fresh columns in two weeks.
Dear Amy: We just celebrated my daughter’s first birthday with a wonderful party at a catering hall. We had live entertainment, food, an open bar for the adults, flowers, balloons, favors, you name it!
I spent months planning for this party to make it a perfect event. This is my third child, and every party has been a big event like this one.
My problem is rude guests. I had more than half of the party (20 families) respond several days past the RSVP date. They showed up one to two hours late with no apology, and some left early.
These guests took it upon themselves to sit wherever they wanted, even when I had place cards with assigned seating. As much as I love to throw parties for my children, in the end, I feel disappointed, insulted and used.
Should I stop having these parties, or should I continue doing what my children and I enjoy and ignore the rudeness?
— Frustrated Mother
Dear Frustrated: It’s somewhat refreshing to learn that even in this tough economy there are still people who throw cotillions for 1-year-olds.
You need a reality check. You also need a reality show. If you had your own show, your guests’ rudeness — and your reaction — would be highlighted for the amusement of the rest of us.
Every time you host one of these extravaganzas you emerge with the same frustrations, so you should do an objective postmortem to figure out what you could do differently in order to have a different result.
I suggest that you adjust your expectations somewhat regarding timely RSVPs, consider doing away with your seating chart, and adjust the length of your event. Your only other option is to get different guests.
Dear Amy: It all started last year when a male co-worker had a birthday.
I decided to give him a gift. I wrapped it and surprised him with it. I was on my break, talking to my husband, when my friend walked in and waved a “thank you,” but later he asked me, “What’s the catch? Is it a re-gift? I want to see the receipt.”
I told him he was hurting my feelings and demanded the “gift” back. He refused to give it back and nonchalantly apologized for what he had said.
I went into his lunchbox without his knowledge and took the gift back.
The next day I got him a chocolate cake to make up for what I had done. I went to give it to him, and he rudely told me to leave.
You bet I took the cake! I ate it, too! It’s been a year since this happened, and we haven’t spoken since. What do you think?
— Curious Co-worker
Dear Co-worker: People sometimes compare the workplace to high school. In your case, it’s more like kindergarten. You are not a grown-up. You are a thief. Consider yourself lucky your co-worker didn’t notify management (or security) when you went into his lunchbox.
You can assume he was embarrassed by your generosity when he made wisecracks about the gift you gave him. His behavior was rude. Your behavior afterward defies explanation.
Dear Amy: Every December, my son gets invited to his friend “Brian’s” birthday party. We always get him a gift that we know he will like.
I recently said to his mother that he must get a lot of presents in December with his birthday and Christmas so close together. She told me, “Oh, I have him choose half of his birthday presents to give to Toys for Tots. He only gets to keep half.”
I feel that not only am I funding her charitable donations, but also her parenting.
— Scrooged
Dear Scrooged: While it is possible that any gift you give any child could ultimately end up anywhere, this mother’s admission that they always give half of these gifts away was insensitive. The way she has arranged her charitable gesture is disingenuous and not fair to the young guests.