Wayne Jenkins, Baltimore's dirtiest cop, is sentenced: It still doesn't feel like justice Jenkins was supposed to get guns off the street in Baltimore but wound up running a vicious. Sneed's attorney Michael Pulver concluded, per Fenton, that the officers had "fabricated this story to hide the fact that they intentionally assaulted and falsely arrested and imprisoned Mr. According to testimony from Ward and Hendrix, Jenkins played an outsized role in the schemes. A few months after the OConnor incident, Jenkins was involved in another run-in where his sworn account was contradicted. In a recent interview, Simon told The Sun, I never had no BB gun. Last month, Mr De Sousa was indicted for failure to pay his taxes by the same prosecutors who brought the GTTF case. Prosecutors went as far as having witnesses appear before a grand jury, according to records obtained by The Sun. They ordered us to f--- them up; we f---ed them up, one of the responding officers, Robert Cirello, now retired, said later in an interview with The Sun. The bag contained masks and other gear he used while stealing drugs and cash from people he and his team targeted. "We said, 'You know, he's robbin' the pieces of shit of Baltimore that are the reason that me and my kids can't walk down the street and feel safe," he says. To single him out as a flawed individual in an otherwise perfectly functioning system is a way to avoid change in the police department, to shirk the responsibility of actually preventing this from happening again. It was in 2007 that Jenkins became a part of the GTTF, a new unit of plain-clothed officers focused on targeting suspected criminals believed to have big supplies of guns and drugs, in a bid to reduce the city's high murder rate. You tried catching me all day, and you cant, because Im telling the truth, Jenkins told the lawyer. All seven members were soon in handcuffs. During hia time in the department, Jenkins was involved in numerous arrests . His police department personnel file shows no punishment related to the case. He goes on and on gushing about Sergeant Jenkins, Assistant States Attorney Jenifer Layman said. His wife is also depicted earlier in the series when Wayne, in his early days, attends a barbecue with his colleagues from the Baltimore Police Department and is annoyed by how they have more money than him. His earliest admitted theft was in 2011. He's doing, as he likes to say, "rather swell". "It strikes at the foundation of our entire criminal justice system.". At the time, Stepp was running his own bail bond company, Double D Bail Bonds. It's going to take an almost unimaginable kind of effort to dig out the roots of corruption in the department, and it's much easier to just lock up the cops who get caught, and carry on with business as usual. "It's still hard though, because I get a lot of pain in my mouth at night. This call is from", A human voice breaks in: "Wayne Jenkins.". Still, a yearlong investigation by The Baltimore Sun found warning signs that Wayne Jenkins wasnt such a good cop. Jenkins, shown here with then-Commissioner Kevin Davis, was awarded a bronze star in April 2016 for his efforts to save injured officers during the unrest a year earlier. One was that he felt he'd been railroaded into his plea agreement by the US prosecutors (the Maryland US Attorney's Office declined to comment). But that day, Jenkins drove toward the edge of town, bobbing in and out of traffic and running red lights, until he pulled over near a wooded area off Liberty Heights Avenue. When I point out he already pleaded guilty to all these incidents, Jenkins tells me he only signed the agreement because he feared that if he went forward to trial, he could've wound up behind bars for life. You didnt catch me in nothing.. One member of the task force during Jenkins leadership, Detective John Clewell, was not charged with any crimes. When the man stopped his car and started to run away, Jenkins drove after him and into someones front yard, where he struck him. That while the homicide rate was on a historic rise, this elite, eight-officer team was getting guns off the streets at an astonishing rate. The tape disputed Jenkins sworn account. Today, he's a free man, living without restrictions with his spouse and young daughter in the eastern part of Baltimore County. He had been stationed in North Carolina and would frequently make trips home to visit his family and his high school sweetheart Kristy, the . Now, the recommended punishment was significant: a demotion, a transfer and suspension for 15 to 20 days, including a period without pay, Hill told the television network Al-Jazeera. But the scope of the corruption of Jenkins and his men remains a singular stain on the force. Just in recent weeks, two officers have been criminally charged with misconduct. "He is no more than a common criminal," Davis' daughter, Shirley Johnson, said of Jenkins. Maurice Ward, a former detective now serving a seven-year prison term for committing crimes with Jenkins, said he and other officers jockeyed to get on his team. In our conversation, Jenkins says that that's not true - members of the squad did steal money that day, but from somewhere else in the house. No one believed Oakley. Jenkins is currently in prison. Jenkins pleaded guilty in January and admitted taking part in at least 10 robberies of Baltimore citizens, planting drugs on innocent people and re-selling drugs he stole from suspects on an almost daily basis, including heroin, cocaine and prescription painkillers. Wayne Jenkins who was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for years of robberies, drug dealing and other crimes has asked a judge to release him just four . Of all seven men, the last person I thought would ever agree to an interview was Jenkins, the fallen "golden boy" of the Baltimore Police Department. The leader of a rogue Baltimore police unit sobbed as he was sentenced to 25 years in prison in a corruption scandal prosecutors called "breathtaking". "I still maintain my innocence. He started to worry. Or harm you or even kill you.". For the first three years of his sentence, Jenkins was doing time at the federal prison in Edgefield, South Carolina . In his plea deal, Jenkins admitted he planted heroin on Burley to try to justify the fatal collision. He also says that he only made roughly $75,000 off of the narcotic sales, as opposed to the figure put on it by Stepp. I'm staring at my cell phone in the dark. Wayne Jenkins, who led the Gun Trace Task Force, was sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges including racketeering, robbery and falsifying records. "My dad would be alive today would it not be for his actions that day. Hes given us all hes going to give us, Glenn said. FOX45 looks at the 8 former officers of the Gun Trace Task ForceThe ring leader of the squad Wayne Jenkins is currently serving the longest sentence out of the members federally indicted on . Such questions over integrity have in the past prompted prosecutors to stop calling an officer as a witness, forcing the departments hand to take him off the streets. Stepp says Jenkins started bringing over shipments of drugs on an almost daily basis, putting them in a locked shed behind Stepp's house. Many plainclothes units would work out of a satellite office inside a trailer in Northwest Baltimore. The bondsman would take care of selling them, then split the profits with the police sergeant. Wayne Jenkins, who led . It was there that the full extent of the officers' misconduct became public. Although she did not address the court, in a letter to Judge Catherine Blake, Jenkins' wife Kristy asked for leniency. It was his first public appearance since he was arrested along with six other officers last year. Baltimore detectives convicted in shocking corruption trial Stepp grew up in Middle River, where he was friends with Jenkins's older brother. Current and former officers said he was generally regarded favorably as a cowboy type who found big cases through a frenetic pace of citizen stops, which sometimes yielded information leading the way up a chain of drug dealers. I asked him if he thinks that another scandal is inevitable. In an interview from prison, he said it wasnt uncommon for the officers to take contraband and submit it to evidence control without arresting someone. They drive unmarked vehicles. I did give drugs to Donny for the last couple of years I was police, but I didn't take people's money because then they would know you were dirty. Baltimore leaders have agreed to pay a $6 million settlement to the family of a driver who was killed during a 2010 police chase involving Gun Trace Task Force officers. Justin Fenton takes listeners inside the investigation on the Roughly Speaking podcast. Plenty of times he's gone behind me and found them.. Wayne Jenkins eyes darted from screen to screen, taking in the surveillance images. When the officers circled back later, the two were still outside holding beers. A lot of what he told me was much more systematic. "It shows what a committed, sophisticated, devious person can do," Mr Wise said. In a 26 page letter hand written from his cell at the Federal Corrections institution in South Carolina, former Baltimore Police Sergeant Wayne Jenkins tells a judge that he saved a . Prosecutors investigated and even presented evidence to a grand jury but concluded they didnt have enough evidence to obtain an indictment. Detectives Maurice Ward, Evodio Hendrix, Momodu Gondo and Jemell Rayam all pleaded guilty. "He's never been a true friend," Stepp says. The three prosecutors concluded the officer admired Jenkins work even as he may have been trying to protect the sergeant. "I'm finally trying to get my life back on track," he told me. A two-year federal investigation into the GTTF resulted in all eight officers, and one Philadelphia officer, getting charged with several offenses, including racketeering, in 2017. And were not getting Jenkins.. Updated: Mar 1, 2023 / 02:16 PM EST. This just begun.". The two police officers came over because they had nothing else to do.. But the suits triggered no internal punishment by the police department. A loyal friend. His supervisors and others either failed to see the red flags or chose to ignore them. He gave me a few reasons. Jenkins admitted that he stole drugs from work and delivered them to Stepp, who would turn around and sell them. "Everything I tell you, I will take a polygraph," Jenkins says near the beginning of that first phone call. The longest sentence was handed down to Jenkins: 25 years. This partnership lasted for five years. I wish I would never have stopped that vehicle," he said. Federal prosecutors displayed the contents of a bag found in the trunk of Sgt. There's no telling how many other people were affected, but were too afraid to come forward. He reminds me that the US Attorney's office found him more credible than Jenkins. Wayne Jenkins' police vehicle when he was arrested in 2017. He has covered the Baltimore Police Department and crime in Baltimore since 2008. Wayne Jenkins, who led the Gun Trace Task Force, was sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges including racketeering, robbery and falsifying records. Jenkins was a member of the Baltimore police department's Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF), a plain-clothed unit tasked with finding guns and drugs in bulk in a bid to tackle the city's high murder. Wayne Jenkins Image Credit: Baltimore Police Department/Associated Press. The important difference, however, is that the drug dealers never swore an oath to serve and protect. Ex-police sergeant Wayne Earl Jenkins apologised in court for the crimes he committed while heading an elite squad called the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF). It was nicknamed The Barn an apparent homage to the offices of a corrupt police unit on the television series The Shield. The show, modeled after a 1990s Los Angeles Police Department scandal, featured a strike team that roughed up suspects, lied about their investigations and took a cut of their drug busts. Wayne Jenkins was living a double life. This series was supported by the Pulitzer Center. Arrest him, too, Jenkins yelled at the responding officers. The ringleader, former Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, admitted committing multiple armed robberies and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in drugs. "I did, yes. In the annals of the Baltimore Police Department, Wayne Jenkins name was not being associated with wrongdoing. Donny made every piece of that up.". "Nobody still knows the truth about what's going on in the city," Taylor told the judge. Instead, while their cash and drugs were gone, the dealers were free men. He idolizes this guy, said Shelley Glenn, another prosecutor. He said together, they'd sold about $1m worth of narcotics. But he added, All disciplinary decisions were put through the proper consideration by command staff and BPD legal department. Hill could not be reached by The Sun for comment. In January 2018, a long list of victims took the stand - many of whom had ties to the drug trade - and told harrowing stories of how they were robbed by the officers during car stops and searches of their homes. "I'm wrong, God knows I'm wrong," the 37-year-old said. In fact, it's highly likely - if not certain - that many of the people Jenkins' put in prison himself had those tactics used on them by prosecutors. "It's that simple.". What Detective Wayne Jenkins wrote in his affidavit for the search warrant was a complete fabrication, Oakley said. In June 2018, after pleading guilty on charges of. "I never took nothing from a looter, so help me god. I sold drugs as a dirty cop," he says. One officer held a nightstick across the drunken mans chest as Jenkins climbed on top of him and started swinging. VideoAt the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Havana Syndrome unlikely to have hostile cause - US, How 10% of Nigerian registered voters delivered victory, Sake brewers toast big rise in global sales, The Indian-American CEO who wants to be US president, Blackpink lead top stars back on the road in Asia, Exploring the rigging claims in Nigeria's elections, 'Wales is in England' gaffe sparks TikToker's trip. Wayne Jenkins is the leader of the rogue police unit in Baltimore who was sentenced to 25 years of prison in a corruption scandal prosecutors called "breathtaking". I ask this friend why he didn't say anything to anyone. Stepp was on home confinement for six months with an ankle monitor until this summer. The officer they talked to didnt seem like a candidate for that, the lawyers said. "I'm so sorry to the citizens of Baltimore.". But Davis, Baltimores police commissioner from 2015 to 2018 and a veteran of two other departments, calls plainclothes units necessary and critical to the crime fight. They go looking for guns and drugs, he said, and often are successful. From 2006 to 2009, Jenkins was the subject of at least four lawsuits alleging misconduct. When his case went to trial on January 5, 2018 Jenkins pled guilty to one count of racketeering, two counts of robbery, one count of destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in a federal investigation, and four counts of deprivation of rights under color of law. In January, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh fired her police commissioner and replaced him with former Deputy Commissioner Darryl De Sousa, who promised sweeping reforms to the department. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. While Jenkins most serious crimes the drug dealing, the robberies appear to have been well hidden, it is not surprising they flourished within Baltimores permissive plainclothes culture. The drop-offs included marijuana, cocaine and MDMA, all of which Stepp did his best to sell. They wanted to tell me that Jenkins was a dedicated father, a good football coach. All seven now sit in federal prisons scattered across the country. The second declined to comment. Later, Jenkins did more than talk about such a theft. Jenkins doled out $5,000 to each of the two officers and instructed them not to make any big purchases. BALTIMORE The Baltimore City Board of Estimates paid out a $6 million settlement Wednesday to the family of a bystander who died during a police chase by the . "I'm so sorry for what you're going through. After he was sent to federal lock-up, I wrote Jenkins a letter once a year - along with many other journalists, book authors, producers and documentary filmmakers - requesting an interview. The plaintiffs prevailed in three of them, either through a jury verdict or the citys decision to settle the case. Credit: Baltimore Police. On Friday, both detectives Evodio Hendrix and Maurice Ward were sentenced to seven years in prison. She said she found Hersl in particular to be very credible.. In federal court, Mickey Oakley argued that the officers who arrested him including Jenkins and future Gun Trace Task Force member Daniel Hersl had lied about the circumstances leading up to the arrest and had illegally searched his home. However, he was also sued for misconduct before his arrest in 2017. ET on HBO. 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