The bottles were winged at us. Because believe me, I'll stand my ground in a second.". "He's never been a true friend," Stepp says. In the annals of the Baltimore Police Department, Wayne Jenkins name was not being associated with wrongdoing. I was a hero," Jenkins says of his activity during the unrest. "It's still hard though, because I get a lot of pain in my mouth at night. Hill could not be reached by The Sun for comment. At that time, I didnt think they were officers, Simon said. Still, a yearlong investigation by The Baltimore Sun found warning signs that Wayne Jenkins wasnt such a good cop. Investigators recommended Jenkins be demoted and suspended without pay. 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. A reporter also reviewed videos of judicial proceedings stemming from the officers arrests. Jenkins said hed tried to be nice, but now they were going to jail. When I point out he already pleaded guilty to all these incidents, Jenkins tells me he only signed the agreement because he feared that if he went forward to trial, he could've wound up behind bars for life. Four years after the Gun Trace Task Force officers were arrested, he says he sees no difference on the streets of Baltimore. Jenkins' lawyer mentioned that he has been assaulted at least once by another inmate who was targeting him for being a former police officer. Later, Jenkins came out carrying two kilos of cocaine he tossed in Stepp's vehicle. In January, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh fired her police commissioner and replaced him with former Deputy Commissioner Darryl De Sousa, who promised sweeping reforms to the department. Such questions over integrity have in the past prompted prosecutors to stop calling an officer as a witness, forcing the departments hand to take him off the streets. When one of the men darted into his home, Jenkins rushed in after him. Baltimore Police Sgt. You will not be charged for this call. Jenkins earned praise outside the department, too. Jenkins entered a department steeped in zero tolerance a war on crime fueled by arrests for even minor infractions. He said together, they'd sold about $1m worth of narcotics. Prosecutors urged the judge to sentence him to the maximum 30 years, adding that the unit's corruption affected 1,700 criminal cases. "I see some police officers harassing people, doing the same little tactics that the Gun Trace Task Force was doing.". He claims that he was told early on to lie on police reports and warrant applications in order to make their arrests sound like they were done with proper probable cause, meaning a legal reason to stop someone. I ask. They told me they were disturbed that he was being portrayed as a "monster". This partnership lasted for five years. Instead, while their cash and drugs were gone, the dealers were free men. Historical Accuracy (Q&A): Is Sgt. They said that while they had their backs turned, someone had clocked OConnor and taken off. Using wiretaps and hidden recording devices, they had accumulated a wealth of evidence showing the officers were robbing citizens, filing for hundreds of hours of overtime they never worked, stealing drugs and even selling illegal firearms back on the streets. Jenkins rushed off to join them. Former Baltimore Police Department Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, currently inmate number 62928-037 at a federal prison in Kentucky, is on the line. I'm standing in my pandemic "radio studio" - aka the closet in my apartment - surrounded by hangers holding button-up shirts and dresses. As the leader of the unit, he received the longest prison sentence and the federal authorities who prosecuted the squad viewed him as its most culpable member. Then-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake held a news conference to tout one of Jenkins big drug busts. I ask, slightly confused. But the scope of the corruption of Jenkins and his men remains a singular stain on the force. This past summer, as I was wrapping up work on "Bad Cops", a strange email appeared in my inbox. He thought Jenkins and Frieman might have been impersonating police. On June 13, 2016, Jenkins became the Officer in Charge of the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF,) a specialized unit within the Operational Investigation Division of the BPD. Claiming to be a DEA agent, Jenkins then confiscated the drugs and money but did not arrest the dealers. In our conversation, Jenkins says that that's not true - members of the squad did steal money that day, but from somewhere else in the house. We Own This City, an HBO Max miniseries out April 25, about a Baltimore Police Department (BPD) task force unit that went rogue, highlights some of the . But overall, plaintiffs prevailed in at least three lawsuits accusing Jenkins of beatings or other misconduct from 2006 to 2009, resulting in $90,000 in taxpayer payouts. In September 2021, Jenkins spoke with BBC journalist Jessica Lussenhop from behind bars, and he claimed he never took money from Baltimore citizens. Wayne Jenkins posed as a . The same video led to a rare police department disciplinary case against Jenkins, who was internally charged with misconduct in 2015, according to a copy of the case file reviewed by The Sun. Wayne Jenkins a former Marine? 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. 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. When Jenkins was on paternity leave, commanders groused that his squads productivity dropped. Not all the allegations against Jenkins came from lawsuits. 49 . He was serving his sentence at the Edgefield Federal Correctional Facility in South Carolina until 2020. "You have nightmares about police officers harassing you, beating you up, just locking you up, it's just a nightmare that I have and it basically hasn't gone away yet," he said. What if a complaint was made? The line goes dead, and I feel like I've barely gotten anywhere. Others were raised by defense attorneys and their clients, who said an overzealous Jenkins skirted legal standards in making arrests. Sneed was chased and caught, and his jaw was broken in the process. My thoughts return to Kenneth Bumgardner, a hard-working father who was chased by the squad when they suspected him of having marijuana. Used to tell me he won it playing poker.". He popped the trunk and carried the drugs into the garage. Across the country, these plainclothes squads have often been where scandals are born. In the police academy, his peers saw a leader. Jenkins admitted that he stole drugs from work and delivered them to Stepp, who would turn around and sell them. "This is a saying we state: 'Don't let probable cause stand in the way of a good arrest,'" Jenkins says. Yet another of Jenkins' friends said something I wasn't expecting. "This is Wayne.". Detectives Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor went forward to trial and a jury found them guilty of robbery, extortion and fraud in February. It was surreal hearing his voice, talking to me. 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. Wayne Jenkins was living a double life. One member of the task force during Jenkins leadership, Detective John Clewell, was not charged with any crimes. 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 . 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 . "The largest share of the blame, the largest share of those crimes belongs to him," US attorney Leo Wise told the court. After three weeks of astonishing testimony, the jury found the two remaining officers guilty. 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. There is no love lost between these two former friends. "What chance do we have when you have people like Jenkins and his co-defendants fabricating evidence?". Wayne Jenkins and former Det. He's doing, as he likes to say, "rather swell". The departments Internal Affairs chief at the time says then-Deputy Commissioner Darryl De Sousa intervened to prevent the punishment. They can let a suspect go, if they can lead to bigger fish. On June 7, 2018, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Within days, prosecutors issued a letter to police saying they were declining to charge Jenkins with a crime. Just how long ago Jenkins began stealing isnt clear. Image Credit: Baltimore Police Department. In Jenkins' plea, it says that "in April 2015 following the riots after the death of Freddie Gray, Jenkins brought DS prescription medicines that he had stolen from someone looting a pharmacy so that DS could sell the medications". The actions of former Baltimore police Sergeant Wayne Jenkins and his team of plain-clothed officers in the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF) are explored in We Own This City. After outlining this, Ward said, Jenkins reconsidered. The officer they talked to didnt seem like a candidate for that, the lawyers said. He is serving the harshest sentence : 25 years . Some defense attorneys say their clients told them Jenkins had robbed them. Nobody said yes or no, instead expressing ambivalence. In the gloom I see the number of the bureau of prisons light up my cell phone screen. We knew he wasn't the straight-and-narrow cop that all cops are supposed to be," he said. It was the perfect crime. He and six members of that unit now sit in federal prison for crimes including conspiracy, racketeering and robbery, all committed under the guise of legitimate police work. "This is not the man I know," she wrote. 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. Jenkins pleaded guilty in court on January 5, 2018, for numerous counts of four of these charges. His fee will be donated to the victims of the Gun Trace Task Force. But when the sun came up on 1 March 2017, the city awoke to a vastly different reality. 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