wayne jenkins baltimore

In June 2018, after pleading guilty on charges of. Ward and the other cop followed Jenkins into the woods. I have no idea what he wants to say, or why after four years, he's breaking his silence. Youve got to be willing to dig into their s--- and confront them, Barksdale said. He is serving the harshest sentence : 25 years . "I got 25 years. 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). Weeks later, I search these locations myself to see if I can find anything. Contact me.". It was billed at the time as the largest cocaine seizure in department history, one of Jenkins many large-scale seizures. He reminds me that the US Attorney's office found him more credible than Jenkins. While no one should forget for an instant that Jenkins and his officers caused untold harm to Baltimore citizens, I don't find it helpful to try to write him off as a "monster". Read about our approach to external linking. Jenkins was a rising star in the department, because of his ability to regularly bring in huge seizures of drugs and guns. They can let a suspect go, if they can lead to bigger fish. Today, he's a free man, living without restrictions with his spouse and young daughter in the eastern part of Baltimore County. 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 never aimed nothing at him . "It's nothing I've ever imagined. We Own This City airs Mondays at 9 p.m. Seething frustration was spilling into the streets that afternoon in 2015. The departments Internal Affairs chief at the time says then-Deputy Commissioner Darryl De Sousa intervened to prevent the punishment. He told the other officers to leave their cell phones and police vests in the car. "Everything I tell you, I will take a polygraph," Jenkins says near the beginning of that first phone call. Just in recent weeks, two officers have been criminally charged with misconduct. Jenkins entered a department steeped in zero tolerance a war on crime fueled by arrests for even minor infractions. The bag contained masks and other gear he used while stealing drugs and cash from people he and his team targeted. He started counting the money, $20,000 in all. Not long after Stepp flipped on his former friend, Jenkins pled guilty. He was getting suspects off the street, but his cases often werent holding up in court. De Sousa handled the discipline, and they had worked a deal, Hill said, according to a transcript of the interview. I just knew it was a lie, Ward recalls. We Own This City, an HBO Max miniseries out April 25, about a Baltimore Police Department (BPD) task force unit that went rogue, highlights some of the . He admitted to knowing . 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. They might not have been believed anyhow. "I'm in prison for 25 years, there's no reason to lie.". Human error to blame for train crash - Greek PM, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece. A reporter also reviewed videos of judicial proceedings stemming from the officers arrests. During his 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. All seven now sit in federal prisons scattered across the country. In the gloom I see the number of the bureau of prisons light up my cell phone screen. She said she found Hersl in particular to be very credible.. But during the subsequent investigation, Frieman told detectives that he never saw a gun in Simons hand and that rather than being in imminent danger he was around a corner and out of sight when Jenkins ran down Simon. His police department personnel file shows no punishment related to the case. Yes. Later on, he claims, they'd throw the drugs out the window or down a sewer grate. As the leader of the unit, he received the longest prison sentence and the federal authorities who prosecuted the squad viewed him as its most culpable member. The show briefly depicts Wayne Jenkins' wife in episode 5, and we are told that Wayne takes time off for the impending birth of his child. Former Baltimore Police Department Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, currently inmate number 62928-037 at a federal prison in Kentucky, is on the line. Jenkins was stationed in North Carolina but often made the long trip back home to Middle River. "I deserve to be punished. Wayne Jenkins was on a mission to find big dealers and steal their drugs and cash. You're taught that - the second someone gets in trouble we meet up, and we talk face to face," he says. It's going to happen again," he said. These units often operated with little supervision. So I kind of had a mental, like maybe a messed up moral code.". Prosecutors urged the judge to sentence him to the maximum 30 years, adding that the unit's corruption affected 1,700 criminal cases. Have we raised the possibility of a wire? Pineau asked. The ringleader, former Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, admitted committing multiple armed robberies and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in drugs. Another was to talk about how futile life inside the penal system is. "It was a front for a criminal enterprise," Stepp said of the Gun Trace Task Force. Wayne Jenkins in prison,. This is his senior portrait from 1998. At the trial four years later, Jenkins and his fellow officers claimed that the witness had been throwing bottles at them, but security camera footage shown at the trial proved what Jenkins claimed was not true. 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. The GTTF did not hold a monopoly on harm, of course. The first 15 minutes are over in a flash. 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. As adults, they ran into each other again at an underground card game frequented by Baltimore Police officers. Back then, Jenkins escaped scrutiny again. Four years after the Gun Trace Task Force officers were arrested, he says he sees no difference on the streets of Baltimore. But the scope and breadth of these allegations were staggering. "It's a surreal story. But it's the big man upstairs," he says. They had the autonomy to catch and release suspects and develop informants. And that is what they want, German said, according to an Internal Affairs report. He also apologised to Burley, who was not in the court, to his wife and to his father, and begged the judge for the opportunity to get out in time to be a grandfather. He was arrested along with almost every member of the unit in March 2017. "I'm finally trying to get my life back on track," he told me. While researching the We Own This City true story, we confirmed that the real Wayne Jenkins had spent three years in the Marines before joining the Baltimore Police Department in 2003. Wayne Jenkins eyes darted from screen to screen, taking in the surveillance images. The department valued their work too much to end this style of police work. Theres been plenty of times where the suspect has said, The drugs are in the car, and I go and I cant find them. Because believe me, I'll stand my ground in a second.". He walked into the court wearing a maroon prison uniform. But Stepp had an ace up his sleeve - for months, he'd been documenting their crimes on his cell phone. His punches came fast Jenkins was a trained boxer and OConnor soon felt the warmth of blood spilling down his cheek. According to the Internal Affairs file, the only times Jenkins had been disciplined by the department was for twice failing to appear in court. By Justin Fenton June 12, 2019 More in the series Part 1 The rise of Wayne. He tells me that the first time he ever stole money, he was just a rookie. Stepp's moving on with his life - in a sense. The officer they talked to didnt seem like a candidate for that, the lawyers said. A strange back and forth with a man who used to be Jenkins' cell mate ultimately ended up with me in my closet waiting for that call. 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 . In September 2021, Jenkins spoke with BBC journalist Jessica Lussenhop from behind bars, and he claimed he never took money from Baltimore citizens. 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. They tracked other dealers and broke into their houses when no one was home. Justin Fenton takes listeners inside the investigation on the Roughly Speaking podcast. Several of the former officers also took the stand - now wearing prison jumpsuits instead of uniforms - and detailed the tactics encouraged by their leader, Jenkins. The idea that the Gun Trace Task Force went rogue simply because their sergeant was uniquely evil ignores all the systemic ways in which he was encouraged to operate the way he did, and the larger policing culture that supported him (it should also be noted that several of the squad's members started stealing money long before they joined the GTTF). He's opening a consulting service called Stepp Right Consultants, to give guidance and insight to men and women who are about to enter the federal penal system. If Wayne Jenkins asked you to come work for him, you felt honored, Ward said. Wayne Jenkins from Baltimore was sentenced to 25-years-in-prison. 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. Within days, prosecutors issued a letter to police saying they were declining to charge Jenkins with a crime. HBO's new true-crime drama stars Jon Bernthal as Jenkins, with the show examining Jenkins' rise in the city's police department and eventual arrest after a two-year federal investigation into the GTTF. All this happened over nothing, one of the brothers, Charles Lee, recalled recently. Jenkins was a decorated cop and had a reputation for his role in several high-profile drug busts. . When Jenkins was on paternity leave, commanders groused that his squads productivity dropped. Wayne Jenkins Image Credit: Baltimore Police Department/Associated Press. At that time, it was within De Sousas purview as the deputy commissioner in charge of administrative matters to intervene to resolve a discipline case, according to another former deputy commissioner, Jason Johnson. I think about Shawn Whiting, a former heroin dealer who went to prison for years after the officers robbed him. But already he was working in a plainclothes flex unit that rewarded dynamic officers and gave them freedom to roam. What if one of the men who was robbed turned out to be a federal informant? Becoming Wayne Jenkins: Jon Bernthal's Deep Dive Into We Own This City 's Corrupt Cop For the HBO miniseries, the actor went on nightly ride-alongs and spoke at length with the imprisoned. "I never had [theft complaints] because I never took money off individuals. "This is a saying we state: 'Don't let probable cause stand in the way of a good arrest,'" Jenkins says. Attorneys in the integrity unit had approached another officer involved in the arrest, asking him pointed questions about whether Jenkins had lied about the drugs. But two pronounced their innocence and went to trial, which I covered for the BBC. Jenkins had told his squad hed heard over wiretaps that Belvedere Towers, a high-rise apartment complex in North Roland Park, was the scene of large drug deals. One afternoon, he took two officers there and they wound up stopping a drug deal in progress. When Jenkins called him to a house the GTTF was investigating, Stepp took pictures of the officers going in and out. And that's what I did.". Wayne Jenkins grew up in Middle River and is a graduate of Eastern Technical High School. Jenkins released the men and told them hed follow up with them later. He goes on and on gushing about Sergeant Jenkins, Assistant States Attorney Jenifer Layman said. 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 dim light of the Baltimore Police Departments downtown nerve center, Sgt. The sergeant took no one else from the flex squad. Turmoil has continued at the Baltimore Police Department, an agency that saw four commissioners in little more than a year among them De Sousa, now in prison for tax fraud. Gillian Whitfield recalled Jenkins as sweet and always willing to lend a hand. He was convicted on multiple counts including racketeering, robbery and falsification of records. Nobody said yes or no, instead expressing ambivalence. Sneed was chased and caught, and his jaw was broken in the process. They said that while they had their backs turned, someone had clocked OConnor and taken off. On the off-ramp, I find four empty dime bags scattered along a section of sidewalk with no foot traffic. OConnor, a house painter who missed weeks of work because of his injuries, sued Jenkins and put forward witnesses who backed his account: After OConnor yelled at Fries, officers had pulled him to the ground, and Jenkins walloped him. Over his tenure, he was. He says something that I've never heard anyone admit out loud. His supervisors and others either failed to see the red flags or chose to ignore them. The jury was shown axes, machetes and pry bars, as well as black masks that were found in Jenkins' van after his arrest. Later, Jenkins did more than talk about such a theft. Barksdale, the former deputy commissioner who crafted department strategies from 2007 to 2012, leaned heavily on plainclothes units. Some defense attorneys say their clients told them Jenkins had robbed them. The prosecutors characterised both men as having less culpability in the GTTF's schemes and that Ward in particular had provided valuable information that lead to additional charges against other officers. Wayne Jenkins, Gun Trace Task Force officer, The woods of Powder Mill Park, where Det. Jenkins pleaded guilty in court on January 5, 2018, for numerous counts of four of these charges. ", Paul Schiraldi/Baltimore Police Department/HBO, Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. Wayne Jenkins fist felt like a hammer to Tim OConnors face. This series was supported by the Pulitzer Center. 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. The fallout of the squad's crimes is still rippling through the city and undoubtedly made Baltimore a less safe place for everyone who lives there. Yes, I did," he says. 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. It's propped up on top of a suitcase sitting on top of a plastic tub, and I'm holding my recorder and microphone at the ready. He took pictures of himself and Jenkins together inside the police department, where Stepp would sometimes pick up drugs. It wasn't the first time I've heard that word to describe Jenkins. The same video led to a rare police department disciplinary case against Jenkins, who was internally charged with misconduct in 2015, according to a copy of the case file reviewed by The Sun. Jenkins and Fries would later say in sworn depositions that Sneed had been yelling expletives about police and throwing glass bottles at them. He said together, they'd sold about $1m worth of narcotics. For example, in January 2006, Jenkins and Sergeant Michael Fries had an altercation with brothers Charles and Robert Lee after they continued to drink beer on the front step of their grandmother's home when the policemen had told them to stop. "Immediately, we get together and you go over your story. "He perverted the criminal justice system.". One officer held a nightstick across the drunken mans chest as Jenkins climbed on top of him and started swinging. Then the feds found him. "I just go through this on a daily basis, scared of police, wondering when they gonna stop you, trying to plant drugs on you or something like that. Why cant I be like this guy?. Maurice Ward says he, Sgt. 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". Read about our approach to external linking. He was also the ringleader of a criminal enterprise of police officers who were robbing people and dealing drugs. Jenkins had joined the force at 23 after serving three years in the Marines, where he took up boxing. Jenkins, along with Detective Ben Frieman, had followed an African American man driving a nice car through Northeast Baltimore. "I've tarnished the badge," he said through tears. "I could have spoken up.". 2023 BBC. They claimed they didnt see who did it. When the man stopped his car and started to run away, Jenkins drove after him and into someones front yard, where he struck him. But he says he was also struggling with a gambling addiction and dealing large amounts of cocaine. He is very remorseful.". Over the course of four phone calls (courtesy of some traded bags of crisps), Jenkins paints a picture of the Baltimore Police Department as a place where indoctrination into corruption starts almost immediately. Wayne Jenkins and former Det. But most people who worked with him police and prosecutors asserted to The Sun they had no idea he and his officers were involved in criminal behavior. After three weeks of astonishing testimony, the jury found the two remaining officers guilty. I did give drugs to Donny [Stepp, who testified he and Jenkins sold $1 million worth of narcotics] 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. "And I remember taking the $10,000.". Many plainclothes units would work out of a satellite office inside a trailer in Northwest Baltimore. Jenkins joined Baltimore's police department in 2003, first becoming a beat cop and patrolling the streets of Baltimore. But I did call them, and the Baltimore Police Department, to see if anyone would respond to this laundry list of allegations. 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. At that time, I didnt think they were officers, Simon said. "Nobody still knows the truth about what's going on in the city," Taylor told the judge. "He always had large sums of money in his pocket. All of the other officers would have to be inaccurate in their testimony if it is to be believed that Detective Jenkins was manufacturing information for the affidavit, she said. "I'd rather be a prosecutor so I don't overkill people. 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