wayne jenkins baltimore

Jenkins released the men and told them hed follow up with them later. That creates a culture its not unique to Baltimore, but its pronounced here that those guys should be given a pass, Davis said. Jenkins was hired by the Baltimore Police Department in 2003, according to state records obtained by The Baltimore Sun. That's because in June 2018, Jenkins was sentenced to 25 years in prison. I ask this friend why he didn't say anything to anyone. Wayne Jenkins posed as a . 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. Prosecutors went as far as having witnesses appear before a grand jury, according to records obtained by The Sun. 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". He popped the trunk and carried the drugs into the garage. Stepp and Jenkins' history runs deep. 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. "It shows what a committed, sophisticated, devious person can do," Mr Wise said. Wayne Jenkins a former Marine? Having taken money before with previous squads, he expected the officers might skim some and submit the rest as cover. 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.. I think about Shawn Whiting, a former heroin dealer who went to prison for years after the officers robbed him. 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. I wasnt privy. I hoped it could spur a more honest discussion about what it's going to take to reform or even redefine what it means to be a cop in the US. It was the perfect crime. 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. It was during these games that Stepp heard Jenkins boasting about the large drug stashes he often came across during his work as a plainclothes police officer. A former member of the unit, Sergeant Thomas Allers, also pleaded guilty. Stepp was on home confinement for six months with an ankle monitor until this summer. They tracked other dealers and broke into their houses when no one was home. "It's a surreal story. He took pictures of himself and Jenkins together inside the police department, where Stepp would sometimes pick up drugs. Jenkins names two specific locations where he says the drugs get tossed: a train bridge near the Eastern District police station, and a wooded highway off-ramp on the way to the Northern District police station. Why cant I be like this guy?. I was a hero," Jenkins says of his activity during the unrest. They also didnt give chase. "Absolutely. In the annals of the Baltimore Police Department, Wayne Jenkins name was not being associated with wrongdoing. Jenkins joined Baltimore's police department in 2003, first becoming a beat cop and patrolling the streets of Baltimore. "Hi, ma'am," Jenkins says when I pick up. Shawn Whiting, a man whose house was robbed of $16,000 and a kilo-and-a-half of heroin, testified that he knew that as a drug dealer, his word counted for much less than the officers'. Stepp says Jenkins started bringing over shipments of drugs on an almost daily basis, putting them in a locked shed behind Stepp's house. Image Credit: Baltimore Police Department. 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. the dim light of the Baltimore Police Departments downtown nerve center, Sgt. ", 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.". I asked Wayne Jenkins several times why he wanted to do the interview with me. There is no love lost between these two former friends. "I got 25 years. Wayne Jenkins from Baltimore was sentenced to 25-years-in-prison. He reminds me that the US Attorney's office found him more credible than Jenkins. The sergeant took no one else from the flex squad. Jenkins, who until his arrest was viewed within the Baltimore Police Department as one of its most high-performing officers, is serving 25 years in prison after he pleaded guilty in 2017 to. He acknowledged that he could tell something was off with Jenkins around the time of the GTTF crime spree. It showed Sneed calmly standing across the street looking on, never even raising his arms. Not long after Stepp flipped on his former friend, Jenkins pled guilty. The line goes dead, and I feel like I've barely gotten anywhere. Five years later, Simons claims were confirmed. She described how the unnamed officer talked about Jenkins: Hes probably the best drug detective in the city. "The largest share of the blame, the largest share of those crimes belongs to him," US attorney Leo Wise told the court. Jenkins, who later led the GTTF, pleaded guilty to civil rights violations for participating in the coverup and is serving 25 years in prison for crimes including robberies and selling drugs. 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. De Sousa, who is now serving a federal sentence for tax evasion, said through his attorney that he does not remember the Jenkins case. Stepp turned everything over to the US prosecutors. Just as she was completing her podcast series on the story, she got a very unexpected call from prison. Jenkins would stop bringing those big drug seizures to the evidence room, and instead give them to Stepp to sell. But the scope and breadth of these allegations were staggering. Despite Jenkins bravado, the jury found in favor of OConnor and awarded $75,000. He admitted to knowing . Jenkins had joined the force at 23 after serving three years in the Marines, where he took up boxing. Stepp testified that the arrangement was so lucrative, he stuck with it for years before getting arrested himself in December 2017. ET on HBO. I ask, slightly confused. 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. Investigators recommended Jenkins be demoted and suspended without pay. Ward wasnt sure what to make of it. But he added, All disciplinary decisions were put through the proper consideration by command staff and BPD legal department. Jenkins had to affirm under oath in front of a federal judge that what the document said was true. One member of the task force during Jenkins leadership, Detective John Clewell, was not charged with any crimes. Ward and the other cop followed Jenkins into the woods. 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). After outlining this, Ward said, Jenkins reconsidered. Though Simon says he reported the incident to the police departments Internal Affairs office, he ultimately stopped cooperating on advice from his defense lawyer. 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. . No single person was in a position to make unilateral discipline decisions.. His punches came fast Jenkins was a trained boxer and OConnor soon felt the warmth of blood spilling down his cheek. The jury was shown axes, machetes and pry bars, as well as black masks that were found in Jenkins' van after his arrest. Later that year, the mayor held a news conference for another of Jenkins busts. He was also the ringleader of a criminal enterprise of police officers who were robbing people and dealing drugs. He walked into the court wearing a maroon prison uniform. 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. In Justin Fenton's book We Own This City, on which the HBO series is based, the Baltimore Sun journalist explained that Jenkins would often be "caught in a lie" while giving evidence to a jury, but no complaints were put on his record. "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. Sergeant Wayne. "Later on that evening, Gondo did give me money, that means hours later, I'm talking hours later, he gave me money.". Jenkins doled out $5,000 to each of the two officers and instructed them not to make any big purchases. His supplier needed to offload two garbage bags of pharmaceutical drugs stolen from people who had themselves looted pharmacies. In my conversation with Jenkins, he spent a lot of time disputing Stepp's account of their partnership. "So you did take money, ultimately?" But when the officers exited the elevators on the building's second floor, they were met by an FBI SWAT team. He was like King Kong, the officer, who still works for the police department, recalled. Jenkins was given a 25-year prison sentence on June 7, 2018, which he is currently in the midst of serving at a federal prison in Kentucky. He ran me over because I was getting away.. I never aimed nothing at him . They said that while they had their backs turned, someone had clocked OConnor and taken off. View all articles on the Gun Trace Task Force on The Baltimore Sun. 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. Later, Jenkins did more than talk about such a theft. He started to worry. 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. 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. Jenkins, along with Detective Ben Frieman, had followed an African American man driving a nice car through Northeast Baltimore. Stepp's moving on with his life - in a sense. Wayne Jenkins and former Det. Jenkins joined the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) on February 20, 2003 and was promoted to Sergeant on November 20, 2013. He suggested another option. They urged his supervisors to get him back to work and focused, according to an internal police department investigation conducted after the indictments. I couldn't help thinking about the many victims of the squad that I'd met over the three years I've been working on this story. 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 . In February 2017, Jenkins was charged with two counts of racketeering conspiracy; racketeering, aiding and abetting; racketeering; two counts of robbery and aiding and abetting; and two counts of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. He also acknowledged stealing the man's $4,000 (2,956) watch, which he gave to Stepp to sell. In We Own This City, that dynamic is highlighted through the story of Wayne Jenkins - a star police officer played by The Walking Dead alum Jon Bernthal, with a pretty solid Baltimore accent . Relatives say he liked to visit his high school sweetheart, Kristy, who would become his wife. "I still maintain my innocence. In Baltimore, theyre often referred to as knockers, a reference to their historically aggressive tactics. 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. OConnor had been sloppy drunk, they testified, and his friends said they would get him home. 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. Become a subscriber today to support investigative reporting like this. After the indictments, one of Jenkins supervisors told Internal Affairs investigators she had believed he was the best gun cop this department has ever seen.. But Jenkins wanted to argue the details in his plea agreement, saying many of them weren't true. That made it very tempting when, sometime around 2011, Jenkins approached Stepp and suggested they go into business together. I also point out to him that it's a fairly common practice for prosecutors to level charges that are so serious that the defendant feels they have no choice but to plead guilty. Later on, he claims, they'd throw the drugs out the window or down a sewer grate. Prosecutors pointed to the fact that Jenkins fabricated evidence, like producing a bogus iPhone video of his officers cracking a drug dealer's safe, when they had in fact already broken into it and stolen $200,000 in cash. During hia time in the department, Jenkins was involved in numerous arrests . Had the officers done things by the book, the cash and drugs would be registered with evidence control. Right away I learn that Jenkins is an incredibly fast talker. "There was cameras everywhere, so I would never have took a dollar," he tells me. Still, a yearlong investigation by The Baltimore Sun found warning signs that Wayne Jenkins wasnt such a good cop. I have to try to untangle his answers as he moves from subject to subject, sometimes so fast I can't keep up. Some drug dealers told their lawyers that Jenkins made stuff up to arrest them and had kept a good chunk of their money and drugs before taking them in. Wayne Jenkins. OConnor had spent much of the day tossing back beers at the Brewers Hill Pub & Grill in Southeast Baltimore when the manager asked him to leave. In May 2014, three Baltimore prosecutors convened a meeting. "I'm wrong, God knows I'm wrong," the 37-year-old said. On 1 March, 2017, Sergeant Wayne Jenkins and six of his subordinate officers from the Gun Trace Task Force walked into the Baltimore Police Department's Internal Affairs building, believing they were there to clear up a minor complaint about a damaged vehicle. Can this US city go 72 hours without a murder? I ask. Jenkins said hed tried to be nice, but now they were going to jail. "Obviously I'm in here now, so I see both sides. Someone once told me that it will take a generation for the direct impact of the Gun Trace Task Force to start to fade, and it will be impossible to measure how the victims' trauma will play out in the lives of their children, families and friends. "It's nothing I've ever imagined. "What chance do we have when you have people like Jenkins and his co-defendants fabricating evidence?". 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. It was still daylight, and Jenkins opened a black and red duffel bag. But the suits triggered no internal punishment by the police department. But the video captured by closed-circuit TV showed the officers searching the car extensively and never appearing to make a discovery. Jenkins, who had been suspended during the investigation, went back to work, making no fewer than three dozen arrests over the rest of the year, most of them gun cases. The indictment of Jenkins and six of his gun task force officers on federal racketeering charges rocked Baltimore when the announcement came in March 2017. Its a Viking mentality: You go out into the field among the bad guys, and you bring back a bounty, Davis said. Seething frustration was spilling into the streets that afternoon in 2015. They might not have been believed anyhow. Years before getting arrested himself in December 2017 someone had clocked OConnor and $. To each of the two officers and instructed them not to make a discovery said that they. Hi, ma'am, '' Jenkins says when I pick up follow up with later... Sometimes so fast I ca n't keep up each of the task force during Jenkins leadership, John. While they had their backs turned, someone had clocked OConnor and taken off also... Jenkins pled guilty he moves from subject to subject, sometimes so fast I ca n't keep up Stepp. Pictures of himself and Jenkins together inside the police department investigation conducted after the officers might skim and! Who still works for the police department in 2003, first becoming a cop. 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