Police: Indicted Baltimore officers ‘1930s-style gangsters’
BALTIMORE — Seven Baltimore officers were so unfazed by U.S. Justice Department scrutiny of abusive policing that they kept falsely detaining people, stealing their money and property, and faking reports to cover it up, according to a federal indictment.
Federal prosecutors announced charges Wednesday against seven officers in Baltimore, where a consent decree approved in the final days of the Obama administration obligates police to stop abusive tactics and discriminatory practices, including unlawful stops of drivers and pedestrians.
U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein said the investigation began about a year ago, and his office has “quietly dropped” five federal cases brought by one or more of the officers. In a statement, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said the charges will have “pervasive implications on numerous active investigations and pending cases.”
The announcement comes just one day after newly minted Attorney General Jeff Sessions indicated intense federal scrutiny of police might hinder their crime-fighting ability. Sessions suggested his Justice Department might “pull back” from civil rights investigations involving police departments.
Rosenstein has been nominated for deputy attorney general.
“I know the attorney general is committed to prosecuting criminals, whether they’re in police organizations or anyplace else, so I’m confident we have his support,” Rosenstein said.
The indictment describes a criminal enterprise that began in 2015, when the city was rocked by civil unrest after the death of a young black man, Freddie Gray, in police custody that April. Weeks later, the Justice Department began a “pattern and practice” investigation of the city’s police force. Intense reform efforts followed, including the expanded use of cameras to record police interactions.
In August 2016, the Justice Department released a scathing report detailing systemic failures, including excessive use of force, illegal stops, inadequate oversight and a dearth of training.
By then, federal agents had spent months following officers assigned to the Gun Trace Task Force, a squad formed to reduce violent crime by tracking and removing illegal guns from the streets.
The officers charged with racketeering are detectives Momodu Gondo, Evodio Hendrix, Daniel Hersl, Wayne Jenkins, Jemell Rayam, Marcus Taylor and Maurice Ward. Gondo also is charged with participating in a drug conspiracy. All were arrested, suspended without pay and jailed overnight pending detention hearings Thursday.
These officers “arrogantly” ignored clear directives, Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said.
In September 2016, Gondo was recorded telling Rayam he had switched off his body camera before hitting a cellphone out of a woman’s hand.
“I turned the camera off,” Gondo said.
“Oh yeah, f—— that s——,” Rayam said. “So, basically it’s like you were never here.”
The explosive indictment reads more like a Hollywood movie script than a routine charging document, as the feds followed what they described as a squad of renegade officers committing brazen robberies and staging cover-ups to avoid detection by their supervisors.
“These officers are 1930s-style gangsters,” Davis said. “They betrayed the trust we’re trying to build with our community at a very sensitive time in our history.”