“A Baltimore police officer caught on tape last year beating a suspect went to prison this year. A veteran police sergeant filmed allegedly arresting, threatening and harassing innocent men faces a slew of charges. And more officers tied to the Gun Trace Task Force were charged or sentenced in federal court.
A violent 2019 in the city was also a busy year for prosecutors, internal affairs detectives and others charged with policing Baltimore’s police. Court records, sentencing memorandums and Baltimore Sun archives show that at least 20 Baltimore police officers — including some who are no longer with the department — were either charged, sentenced, or suspended during 2019.
The scope of the crimes and allegations are broad and follow a particularly notorious 2018, which included federal arrests and trials of officers of the GTTF, and another officer charged with drug trafficking. This year’s charges range from drunken driving to an officer being sentenced to five years in prison after nearly running over a man in a crosswalk, then drawing his gun after the man spilled tea on his car.
The public relations damage crested in October, when Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said she had a list of “hundreds of officers” with alleged credibility issues.
Baltimore police officials say they are working to address not only problems in the department, but also to become more responsive to members of the public. Police Commissioner Michael Harrison released a staffing plan last week that calls for more than doubling the number of internal affairs detectives to help reduce backlogs and respond more swiftly to complaints against officers.”
A young Tennessee cop already facing a barrage of disturbing allegations — including forcing a woman he arrested to be baptized and probing a black man’s anus on the side of the road — was just indicted on 44 criminal counts.
Hamilton County Sheriff’s Deputy Daniel Wilkey, 26, was arrested Tuesday on charges including rape, sexual battery, false imprisonment, extortion, stalking, assault, oppression, and reckless driving, according to court documents.
Wilkey has been on paid administrative leave since July, when dash-camera footage revealed he and his partner had beaten a black man on the side of the road before conducting an invasive body cavity search. That incident, which sparked widespread community outrage, was referred to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for further review, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. The resulting findings were referred to the local office of the Hamilton County District Attorney General, which brought Tuesday’s indictment.
The indictment doesn’t fully describe the circumstances surrounding each alleged crime, but the allegations, in part, mirror those featured in at least four lawsuits brought this year against Wilkey for alleged misconduct. Some of the charges mentioned in the indictment — reckless driving and stalking, for example — were not previously mentioned in lawsuits.
The lawsuits were brought by Robin Flores, a local civil rights attorney and former police officer who has agreed to represent several of Wilkey’s alleged victims, some of whom are minors alleging they faced invasive body searches from Wilkey. It’s not clear what happens to those civil lawsuits now that Wilkey is facing criminal charges.
“I want to reassure our community, each and every day the men and women of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office are to perform their duties in a deliberate, honorable, and professional manner. We are charged to protect this community and its citizens and this is a responsibility I take very seriously,” Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond said in a statement Tuesday night. “My staff and I will continue to follow the steps laid out by Civil Service and cooperate with the District Attorney’s Office throughout the course of this investigation.”
The Hamilton County attorney, meanwhile, did not immediately return a VICE News request for comment on the allegations against a county employee, nor did Wilkey’s personal attorney.
Here are some of the allegations Wilkey is facing:
Forced baptism
Wilkey was indicted on charges of extortion and false imprisonment relating to the February arrest of Shandle Riley. She’s currently suing Hamilton County, Wilkey, and his partner, deputy Jacob Goforth, alleging that her civil rights were violated. Riley is mentioned by name in Tuesday’s indictment.
Riley was on her way to visit her child and had just pulled into the driveway when Wilkey initiated a traffic stop, according to the lawsuit filed in October. Wilkey told Riley he pulled her over because he believed she had methamphetamine, ordered her out of the car, and allegedly began conducting an invasive body search. He also asked her to take off her bra and shake her bra and shirt out.
When he asked her whether she had anything illegal in her car, she mentioned she had a “roach” in her pack of cigarettes but that she didn’t have any other drugs.
It’s at that point that Wilkey allegedly called her a “piece of shit,” according to the lawsuit, and asked her whether she had been “saved” by Jesus Christ. Wilkey allegedly told Riley that he felt “the spirit” compelling him to baptize her, and asked that she go retrieve some towels. If she would agree to be baptized, he would let her off with a criminal citation for the marijuana, according to the lawsuit.
Wilkey allegedly asked that Riley get in her car and follow him to a nearby lake, which Riley felt she couldn’t refuse. Then Wilkey allegedly stripped down to his underwear and led Riley into the water so he could baptize her.
“Plaintiff was shivering uncontrollably, and felt horribly violated,” according to the lawsuit. The other deputy, Goforth, was present but did not participate in the baptism, nor intervene.
Roadside body cavity search
Wilkey was charged Tuesday with rape and obstruction for a July 10 incident that’s not described in detail in the indictment. However, the date of that incident and unlawful arrest matches the date in a lawsuit filed by Flores over the alleged roadside beating and body cavity search of the black man, James Mitchell.
Wilkey allegedly pulled over Mitchell for over-tinted windows, and because he smelled of marijuana, according to the lawsuit against Wilkey, Hamilton County, and Deputy Bobby Brewer. Wilkey ordered Mitchell and his girlfriend out of the vehicle. Wilkey allegedly handcuffed Mitchell and began searching him, at which point Mitchell told Wilkey he had an untreated and large hernia and the search was causing him pain.
Wilkey and Brewer then beat Mitchell with “fists, knees, and feet,” according to the lawsuit. Then they removed Mitchell’s pants, bent him over the hood of his car, and “conducted an anal cavity search” without consent on the side of the road. The female passenger, Mitchell’s girlfriend, of the car was forced to watch, according to the lawsuit, and feared she’d be dealt the same punishment, or that Mitchell would be killed. Instead, he was transported to jail on multiple charges — including resisting arrest — made bail, and went to the hospital for tears in his anus, contusions, and the aggravated hernia, which later required surgery. The charges against him were dismissed.
Are you surprised that he lied about it? Why shouldn’t he, he is after all a “sworn officer of the court” . He lied because he could; he lied because he had blue privileged. As long as “They go home safe”…. Right. Any time you are in contact with LEO you are in a lot more danger than they are. You are about to be subjected to an armed power monger and it can go very badly if it doesn’t go your way. Maybe he will feel like being the nice guy that day and you drive off…. Or maybe not. Maybe you will get to meet the man behind the badge and find out why he chose to exert control over people for a living. Think about that the next time you have cherries flashing in your rear view.
“Philadelphia Police Sgt. Jason Reid — who a judge said committed “outrageous” misconduct by assaulting a man and covering it up — was arrested Wednesday morning and charged with assault, tampering with public records, false reports, and obstructing the administration of law.
Reid, 42, a 16-year veteran of the force who spent much of his career in the Highway Patrol unit, was suspended from the department with intent to dismiss after 30 days, according to a police spokesperson, who declined to comment further.”
” District Attorney Larry Krasner said the arrest followed an Internal Affairs investigation of an incident that took place June 8.
On that day, Reid placed Ronald Wallace in handcuffs in the back of a police car — and then, body camera footage showed, held Wallace’s head with one hand and punched him in the face with the other. Reid then arrested Wallace for threatening an officer and resisting arrest. In paperwork, he reported that Wallace’s injuries resulted from Wallace repeatedly hitting his own head against the car window.”
“According to court records, at least five other people had previously filed complaints with Philadelphia police saying Reid punched them in the face or head — but none of those complaints was sustained by the department’s Internal Affairs unit.”
“The charges echo repeated allegations made by defense lawyers over Reid’s unusually long history of citizen complaints, including 10 allegations of physical abuse, and uses of force, including the shootings of six people in the course of duty. None of the complaints against him were sustained, according to the documents. All of the previous uses of deadly force were deemed to be within department guidelines.
In May of this year, Reid received an official commendation for his role in a traffic stop: a Medal of Bravery “for the performance of an outstanding arrest where the officer’s effort is met by an armed and dangerous adversary.” That was the January 2018 arrest of 22-year-old Stefon Crawley, whom Reid and another officer, Timothy Stephan, shot a total of five times after finding a gun in his possession during a traffic stop.”
Sure thing they do, they are regular heroes. You know, just like this guy. So, for you cop loving naysayers out there; Are you still saying”I don’t have anything to worry about because I don’t do anything wrong” Maybe you should do a little reading on this website and see what pops up when you put something like “rape” in the search bar. Wow ! If you still feel safe, there is something wrong with your situational awareness.
Any time that you have any interaction with any LEO you are risking having it be one of the people on these pages
“LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles police officer is under investigation after a random review of body camera footage showed him fondling a dead woman’s breasts, according to a person briefed on the incident.
The Los Angeles Police Department officer and a partner had responded to a report of a body at a residence, the person said. The officer fondled the corpse’s breasts when his partner was not in the room.
The person, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the case and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said officials conducted a random inspection of the officer’s body camera videos and found the incriminating footage.
The officer had disabled the body camera but the act was caught on video when he turned it back on, the person said, because the devices have two-minute buffering periods to capture what happens right before they are activated.
Josh Rubenstein, an LAPD spokesman, would not comment on the allegation but said the unidentified officer has been removed from active duty while the incident is investigated.
“If this allegation is true, then the behavior exhibited by this officer is not only wrong, but extremely disturbing, and does not align with the values we, as police officers, hold dear and these values include respect and reverence for the deceased,” the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents rank-and-file officers, said in a statement. “This behavior has no place in law enforcement.”
The person did not know when the incident occurred or when it was discovered. It is not clear how long the officer fondled the corpse or what prompted him to turn the camera back on.”
Deborah Lee Jarrett 