RadioOnFire.com - Charges related to the arrest of a pair of Baltimore citizens who were found to be in possession of heroin and marijuana during a 2016 traffic stop have been dropped thanks to the surfacing of body camera footage that appears to show an officer planting evidence.
The incident happened in Southeast Baltimore last November. According to police reports, a 35-year-old woman was pulled over after a passenger in the vehicle appeared to make a drug transaction. The suspects were approached by seven officers who bore witness to one of their partners crouching down to search the driver's side floor, before coming up empty handed. Moments later, another officer walked over and crouched down, this time rearing back into the view of a body camera recording that shows him with a bag filled with the illegal substances. As things develop, the male suspect rails on about having been targeted by the officers before, while slinging accusations of misconduct against them.
“What’s most concerning about this particular video is that it appears that officers are working in concert with each other,” Baltimore Public Defender's Special Litigation Section head Debbie Katz Levi told CBS about the incident. As of press time, two of the officers involved in the arrest are currently under investigation. According to state attorney Marilyn Mosby, 70 cases that have raised speculation of similar forms of corruption taking place in the department are under review.
It is the second time in two weeks that investigators have been able to unearth footage of a Baltimore officer planting drugs to make an arrest. In late July, the Public Defender's office released a video that showed an officer planting drugs in a yard as two other officers look on. Citing a lack of credibility, prosecutors subsequently dropped 34 cases in which testimony is provided by officers involved in the bust.
Source: blacksportsonline.com
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