It's a depressing fact that this is a viewpoint likely shared by many in Baltimore, and is a part of the reason why the GTTF got away with what they did for so long. All seven members were soon in handcuffs. ", Paul Schiraldi/Baltimore Police Department/HBO, Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. Amid controversies over the years, police brass would publicly disband the units, then reconstitute them with the same personnel under a different name. "This was a great abuse of the public trust," said Judge Blake. No single person was in a position to make unilateral discipline decisions.. "He's never been a true friend," Stepp says. Jenkins later alleged in official paperwork that Simon had pointed a weapon at Frieman and that he ran Simon down to stop the threat. Hill said in the interview that De Sousa reduced the punishment to verbal counseling in effect, no punishment at all. Contact me.". Donny made every piece of that up.". "Hi, ma'am," Jenkins says when I pick up. This partnership lasted for five years. "Life in prison with three small children. The unit began looking into a case involving Jenkins, in which he had run down a young man with his unmarked Dodge Avenger early in 2014. Marcus Taylor split up $20,000 in cash they stole in 2015. Credit: Kevin Richardson / Baltimore Sun, serving a federal sentence for tax evasion. "Right off the bat, we wasn't living lavishly. 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. 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. According to testimony from Ward and Hendrix, Jenkins played an outsized role in the schemes. Instead, they go out looking for illegal activity people exchanging drugs or displaying bulges under clothing that could be guns. Jenkins said hed tried to be nice, but now they were going to jail. 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 . After three weeks of astonishing testimony, the jury found the two remaining officers guilty. Then 34, he was already an admired leader of aggressive street squads and would go on to head the elite Gun Trace Task Force, one of the Baltimore. It took place as Jenkins and other officers were searching an apartment. "This is a saying we state: 'Don't let probable cause stand in the way of a good arrest,'" Jenkins says. At trial, Jenkins and his boss denied any knowledge of who attacked OConnor. 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. During his time on the streets of Baltimore Jenkins was involved. Any attempts to make the force become less of a warrior and more of a guardian was looked at terribly, he said. Yet another of Jenkins' friends said something I wasn't expecting. They walked far enough so they couldnt be seen from the street. Updated: Mar 1, 2023 / 02:16 PM EST. But they needed more information. He popped the trunk and carried the drugs into the garage. But Jenkins wanted to argue the details in his plea agreement, saying many of them weren't true. "I swear, I wish I would have known before I ever put anyone in here I wish I would have known the other side," he says at one point. The department valued their work too much to end this style of police work. I thought, How is he doing it? Jenkins had joined the force at 23 after serving three years in the Marines, where he took up boxing. Four years after the Gun Trace Task Force officers were arrested, he says he sees no difference on the streets of Baltimore. Jenkins was developing a reputation within the department as a cop whose aggressive style brought results. Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, along with Detectives Marcus Taylor and Maurice Ward, intercepted a drug deal at the Belvedere Towers in Baltimore and seized about 20 to 25 pounds of marijuana as well as $20,000 to $25,000 in a second bag. But the police departments Internal Affairs office still had an open file on the case. It was Jenkins, fresh off his heroics in West Baltimore. He had a criminal case to fight, and his freedom was more important. Just as she was completing her podcast series on the story, she got a very unexpected call from prison. It was surreal hearing his voice, talking to me. Over his tenure, he was. "How police act towards people ain't changed," he told me recently. In November 2012, Wayne Jenkins was promoted to the rank of sergeant giving him new authority and freedom. When I saw the video, Webb later told The Sun, it didnt corroborate what was in the statement of probable cause at all.. Video, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Read the full story of Baltimore's Gun Trace Task Force, Inside one of America's most corrupt police squads, Harry and Meghan told to 'vacate' Frogmore Cottage, Fungus case forces Jack Daniels to halt construction, Rare Jurassic-era bug found at Arkansas Walmart, China and Belarus call for peace in Ukraine, Ed Sheeran says wife developed tumour in pregnancy, NFL hopeful accused of racing in deadly car crash, Beer and wine sales in Canada fall to all-time low, Dozens of girls treated after new Iran poisonings. Wayne Jenkins, 37, pleaded guilty in January to robbery . But nothing more. The daughters of 86-year-old Elbert Davis also told the court about the 2010 car crash Jenkins caused while he was pursuing a man named Umar Burley. Jenkins winced as the handcuffs were placed on his wrists, and US Marshals led him out of a back door of the courtroom. There is no love lost between these two former friends. Their work is not to be confused with undercover operations, in which police officers assume a different identity and worm their way into a criminal organization. The bag contained masks and other gear he used while stealing drugs and cash from people he and his team targeted. It feels a little bit like splitting hairs. By Josiah Bates. Far from it. The topic: Can we get Wayne Jenkins? The courtroom was also packed with Jenkins' family and friends. Justin Fenton takes listeners inside the investigation on the Roughly Speaking podcast. This kind of mindset assumes that the victims of the Gun Trace Task Force - many of them black and poor - deserved what happened to them. I have so many questions to ask, and I'm not sure if this will be my one and only opportunity to speak to him. Correction 11 June 2018: This article has been amended to make clear that prosecutors pointed to how 1,700 criminal cases have been affected by the unit's corruption. Wayne Jenkins' police vehicle when he was arrested in 2017. Burley was sentenced to 15 years in prison, which he was serving until federal prosecutors uncovered the task force's corruption and freed him. He woke up on a frigid city street with his jaw shattered, and couldn't eat solid food for months. But Whiting is not so optimistic. 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've been reporting on Jenkins, and the elite Gun Trace Task Force squad he once led, for nearly four years. Judge Blake ultimately decided to sentence him to 25 years, saying she was taking into consideration the fact that he pleaded guilty and co-operated to some extent with the prosecutors. Contact Justin Fenton at jfenton@baltsun.com. Jenkins is currently in prison. It turned out that federal agents had the unit under surveillance for months. Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton spent a year delving into the operations of Wayne Jenkins and his officers, both as members of the Gun Trace Task Force and before. That creates a culture its not unique to Baltimore, but its pronounced here that those guys should be given a pass, Davis said. Instead, while their cash and drugs were gone, the dealers were free men. The bottles were winged at us. Wayne Jenkins in prison,. 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 was difficult for me to understand and parse all of Jenkins' denials, now. But when the sun came up on 1 March 2017, the city awoke to a vastly different reality. Wayne Earl Jenkins tearfully told the court: "I've tarnished the badge", (L-R) Evodio Hendrix, Daniel Hersl, Jemell Rayam, (L-R) Maurice Ward, Marcus Taylor, Momodu Gondo, Prosecutors showed evidence of Jenkins' building up the tools needed to do full-fledged robberies, Elbert Davis' daughters speak after Jenkins' sentencing, Former GTTF member Momodu Gondo testified during the trial, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece. 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. "There was cameras everywhere, so I would never have took a dollar," he tells me. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. 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. A line prosecutor, Molly Webb, had been notified by a defense attorney of the footage footage that the police department hadnt submitted to her. 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. At the time, Stepp was running his own bail bond company, Double D Bail Bonds. The message read: "Greetings. His account and Jenkins claim that hed found the gun is evocative of testimony by two of Jenkins officers in the 2018 Gun Trace Task Force trial. But it's the big man upstairs," he says. Prior to this, they'd been lauded as some of the best gun cops in the city - seizing dozens of illegal firearms every month, and demonstrating a "a work ethic that is beyond reproach", in the words of one supervisor. You guys willing to go kick in the dudes door and take the money? Jenkins said. As in the past, a video had surfaced that conflicted with the written account of a drug arrest by Jenkins and another officer. Jenkins, who is serving a 25-year sentence in a federal prison in South Carolina, declined to speak with The Sun. It was still daylight, and Jenkins opened a black and red duffel bag. Wayne Jenkins, who led . Police who went rogue - Wayne Jenkins and Momodu Gondo, Jenkins, centre, before he took command of the Gun Trace Task Force, Clockwise from top left: Evodio Hendrix, Daniel Hersl, Jemell Rayam, Maurice Ward, Marcus Taylor, Momodu Gondo, Equipment that two of the GTTF officers testified was going to be used for home invasions, Donald Stepp inside Baltimore Police headquarters, in a photo taken by Wayne Jenkins, Shawn Whiting, centre, at a press conference held by victims of the GTTF. "I felt comfortable with it because all the police officers that I met, which were many during the card games, in my opinion, they owned the city," Stepp would later tell the jury at the GTTF trial. Jenkins started calling Stepp to the scenes of arrests, encouraging Stepp to try to get inside drug dealer's hideouts to steal whatever cash or narcotics he could find. You tried catching me all day, and you cant, because Im telling the truth, Jenkins told the lawyer. They said that while they had their backs turned, someone had clocked OConnor and taken off. . Outside on the sidewalk, he saw a bunch of cops and yelled an expletive at one he knew who happened to be Jenkins supervisor. ", Despite this happening more than once, Jenkins remained in his superiors' good books and when Fries was promoted in 2007 he decided to also give Jenkins a boost because he was "the best officer [he] had working under [his] command.". One officer recalled Jenkins taunting colleagues waiting in line to submit evidence at police headquarters, bragging about how many guns he was getting off the street. Relatives say he liked to visit his high school sweetheart, Kristy, who would become his wife. It is simply not true., U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake denied Oakleys motion to suppress the evidence. He was arrested along with almost every member of the unit in March 2017. The GTTF did not hold a monopoly on harm, of course. Back then, Jenkins escaped scrutiny again. Become a subscriber today to support investigative reporting like this. He ordered a detective to drive them to the hospital and joined the front lines. None of the cases led to any police department discipline for Jenkins, his personnel records show. BALTIMORE One of the main players in the Baltimore Police Department's Gun Trace Task Force corruption scandal is asking for compassionate release from prison. Victims like Bumgardner and Whiting had the courage to speak out. If I could take everything back in my life, I would have been a prosecutor," he says. Command created the monster, she said, and allowed it to go unchecked.. In the annals of the Baltimore Police Department, Wayne Jenkins name was not being associated with wrongdoing. The three prosecutors concluded the officer admired Jenkins work even as he may have been trying to protect the sergeant. When I tell this to Stepp, he's angry. 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. The important difference, however, is that the drug dealers never swore an oath to serve and protect. "The largest share of the blame, the largest share of those crimes belongs to him," US attorney Leo Wise told the court. Maurice Ward, the former detective now in prison, also remembers De Sousa coming to the rescue and reducing the punishment, though he believes Jenkins was still suspended. But the scope of the corruption of Jenkins and his men remains a singular stain on the force. For the past four years, Jessica Lussenhop has been reporting on the rise and fall of a corrupt squad of Baltimore police officers. She said she found Hersl in particular to be very credible.. In the gloom I see the number of the bureau of prisons light up my cell phone screen. You will not be charged for this call. "Everything I tell you, I will take a polygraph," Jenkins says near the beginning of that first phone call. Five years later, Simons claims were confirmed. Jenkins says that the veteran goaded him into taking money. It's going to happen again," he said. Then they could enter the house and take the money, only later calling county officers to say they were executing the warrant. 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. But, he added, I think that if I am held responsible for my actions, then the same should be with the officers for their wrongdoing.. He started to worry. 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 weren't being paid by the taxpayers to keep the city safe, and weren't operating with all the power and protections that police have. All this happened over nothing, one of the brothers, Charles Lee, recalled recently. 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. On an oddly balmy January night, Jenkins and Fries were working the McElderry Park neighborhood in East Baltimore when they noticed two brothers drinking Steel Reserve beers on the sidewalk outside their rowhouse. Credit: Baltimore Police Department, Its a Viking mentality: You go out into the field among the bad guys, and you bring back a bounty. . Five of the former officers, including Jenkins, pleaded guilty. He couldn't get anyone to believe him at the time, and to this day, he fears law enforcement. For the most part, these defendants decided it wasnt in their interest to tell government authorities that. "I'm so sorry for what you're going through. Jenkins must serve three years of supervised release after his custodial sentence. For example, I asked him about the robbery of a man who lived in a large mansion in the suburbs of Baltimore - a robbery he pled guilty to in his plea agreement. They tracked other dealers and broke into their houses when no one was home. Wayne Jenkins will be played by Jon Bernthal, the same actor who portrayed "The Punisher". His earliest admitted theft was in 2011. In 2018, Jessica wrote a piece which detailed the explosive trial at a Baltimore federal courthouse that revealed the unit's crimes, She then turned that story into a new seven-part podcast series called Bad Cops which you can listen to in its entirety below. Were gone, the city awoke to a vastly different reality sorry for what 're. 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