RadioOnFire.com - A federal grand jury has indicted Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, one of the nine current or former Baltimore officers already either indicted or convicted in the Gun Trace Task Force scandal, on charges related to allegedly planting drug evidence picked up by slain Detective Sean Suiter.
Federal prosecutors referred to an "Officer #1" in a release announcing the indictment, but The Baltimore Sun identified that officer as Suiter.
Suiter was due to testify before a federal grand jury the day after he was fatally shot with his own gun after a struggle with a suspicious person he approached in Harlem Park. Police thus far have said the encounter was spontaneous and had nothing to do with the pending testimony. A briefing is set for Thursday afternoon.
On April 28, 2010, Jenkins was driving an unmarked police car with an unnamed officer in the passenger seat. That vehicle and another unmarked car driven by Suiter were in a pursuit of a third vehicle driven by Umar Burley and Brent Matthews.
The subject struck a car entering the intersection of Belle and Gwynn Oak avenues, killing the elderly man behind the wheel of that car. The indictment claims there were no drugs in the pursued car before the crash. After the crash, Jenkins told the unnamed officer to call a sergeant who wasn't at the scene--Suiter--because he had the "stuff" in his car.
After paramedics arrived, the unnamed officer returned to Jenkins, who told the unnamed officer the "stuff" was in the subject's car and said he was going to send Suiter to the car to find it because he was "clueless." The unnamed officer saw Suiter searching the car. Suiter then signaled he found something which turned out to be around 28 grams of heroin allegedly planted by Jenkins.
Prosecutors allege Jenkins wrote a false statement of probable cause to support the purported seizure. Jenkins allegedly listened to recorded jail calls of the two suspects falsely arrested. He then allegedly told the unnamed officer that the two were saying the drugs had been planted and told the officer he couldn't testify if the case went to trial because “something had been put in the car."
Burley and Matthews pleaded guilty to federal drug charges. Federal prosecutors are now seeking to vacate the convictions in that case. Burley was sentenced to 15 years on the federal drug charge concurrent to a state conviction for vehicular manslaughter, but the Sun reports he was released in August, citing Bureau of Prisons records. Matthews was released to serve probation in 2013.
Jenkins is set to stand trial starting Jan. 16 for criminal racketeering and fraud charges. The new charges carry an additional 20 years in prison if convicted. Jenkins remains detained pending trial.
Source WBAL
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