All charges dropped against 9 arrested in Safe Streets raid

Arrests led to suspension of the grant-funded program

Baltimore prosecutors have dropped all charges against nine people arrested last year after a raid on the Safe Streets violence intervention program office in East Baltimore turned up seven guns and drugs.

The arrests in July led to a suspension of the program, and most of the defendants have been jailed for the past eight months. They were to be released after the charges were dropped Tuesday.

In a statement Wednesday, prosecutors said they received “exculpatory information that called into question the identity of the defendants.”

“We will continue to work with the Baltimore Police Department to investigate who is responsible for the robbery and the evidence found at the scene,” they said.

Marshall Henslee, an attorney for defendant Gerald Reed, 19, said his client had no prior record. He said he believed prosecutors made the right decision.

Tyler Mann, who represented Safe Streets employee Ricky Evans, 36, said “there was no evidence connecting my client to the illegal items recovered.”

Police said a robbery investigation led them to the East Monument Street office, where officers found guns, heroin, cocaine and other items used in the manufacture and sale of drugs.

Two of the guns were linked to at least two nonfatal shootings that had been committed earlier that month, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said in court documents. One gun was found hidden in the ceiling; others were found in a cabinet. A bag containing bullets was found in a plant pot.

Two Safe Streets employees who worked as “violence interrupters,” Artez Harris, 39, and Evans, were among those arrested.

Safe Streets, a grant-funded program under the city’s Health Department, uses ex-felons to help stem crime.

Charges were also dropped against Tavon Howard, 23; D’Aries Leggette, 22; David Warren, 23; and Sherri Jordan, 29.

Only Warren and Reed were able to post bond pending trial.