Until this point, I'd only heard Jenkins on. He's due to be released in 2038. It was his first public appearance since he was arrested along with six other officers last year. Wayne Jenkins' police vehicle when he was arrested in 2017. Youve got to be willing to dig into their s--- and confront them, Barksdale said. His supplier needed to offload two garbage bags of pharmaceutical drugs stolen from people who had themselves looted pharmacies. 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. 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. "How police act towards people ain't changed," he told me recently. Just in recent weeks, two officers have been criminally charged with misconduct. Despite Jenkins bravado, the jury found in favor of OConnor and awarded $75,000. Right away I learn that Jenkins is an incredibly fast talker. 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. I just knew it was a lie, Ward recalls. 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. He says Stepp pressured him into it. The pair also stole valuables, like high-end wrist watches, in break-ins. Wayne Jenkins grew up in Middle River and is a graduate of Eastern Technical High School. When I tell this to Stepp, he's angry. Stepp testified that the arrangement was so lucrative, he stuck with it for years before getting arrested himself in December 2017. Blake who in 2017 would wind up presiding over the Gun Trace Task Force corruption case noted that the other officers present backed Jenkins account. Jenkins started calling Stepp to the scenes of arrests, encouraging Stepp to try to get inside drug dealer's hideouts to steal whatever cash or narcotics he could find. One former supervisor never responded. A strange back and forth with a man who used to be Jenkins' cell mate ultimately ended up with me in my closet waiting for that call. Near Druid Hill Park, amid the shouting, sirens and buzzing choppers overhead, he commandeered a state prison department van and helped pull injured officers inside. In part due to his cooperation in the case, he received a much shorter sentence than the officers of the GTTF. Sergeants are the eyes and ears of the command, the front-line supervisors trusted to keep close tabs on their officers. Wayne Jenkins in prison,. In the spring of 2015, the city of Baltimore was rocked by civil unrest after the in-custody death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray. Jenkins would stop bringing those big drug seizures to the evidence room, and instead give them to Stepp to sell. The apartment complex had a camera in the parking lot. Wayne Jenkins and former Det. So he gave up and entered a guilty plea. In court, Ward apologised to the victims, to his family and to the Baltimore Police Department, as well as to his co-defendants. No one had called police to complain, but Jenkins and Fries told the men to go inside. "And I remember taking the $10,000.". It was in 2007 that Jenkins became a part of the GTTF, a new unit of plain-clothed officers focused on targeting suspected criminals believed to have big supplies of guns and drugs, in a bid to reduce the city's high murder rate. "Wayne is truly sorry for his actions. Lets get this done, but were going to do it 100 percent. Nothing was 10 percent.. But already he was working in a plainclothes flex unit that rewarded dynamic officers and gave them freedom to roam. Would they report the incident? BALTIMORE The Baltimore City Board of Estimates paid out a $6 million settlement Wednesday to the family of a bystander who died during a police chase by the . In the bedroom, Jenkins says he and a veteran supervisor found a suitcase filled with tens of thousands of dollars in cash. Hill could not be reached by The Sun for comment. They urged his supervisors to get him back to work and focused, according to an internal police department investigation conducted after the indictments. In June 2018, after pleading guilty on charges of. More than 50 people including current and former police officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys and victims were interviewed. The matter was referred to the police integrity unit of the Baltimore states attorneys office for investigation. Many plainclothes units would work out of a satellite office inside a trailer in Northwest Baltimore. The BBC is not naming these three former supervisors, since none of them has been charged with a crime in connection with this case. Four years after the Gun Trace Task Force officers were arrested, he says he sees no difference on the streets of Baltimore. Across the country, these plainclothes squads have often been where scandals are born. His wife is also depicted earlier in the series when Wayne, in his early days, attends a barbecue with his colleagues from the Baltimore Police Department and is annoyed by how they have more money than him. "He perverted the criminal justice system.". The jury was shown axes, machetes and pry bars, as well as black masks that were found in Jenkins' van after his arrest. I ask this friend why he didn't say anything to anyone. But there was just enough room for doubt Sneed had been off camera briefly that Jenkins could argue the video didnt show the full story. He ran me over because I was getting away.. Simon's new project will tell a fictionalised version of the Gun Trace Task Force saga, and began filming on the streets of Baltimore over the summer. 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. The officer they talked to didnt seem like a candidate for that, the lawyers said. It is simply not true., U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake denied Oakleys motion to suppress the evidence. If his arrest was stunning, the depiction of his civil rights violations, robberies and more wasnt news to everyone certainly not to people who had been in Jenkins sights, fairly or not, over the years. Then-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake held a news conference to tout one of Jenkins big drug busts. Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton spent a year delving into the operations of Wayne Jenkins and his officers, both as members of the Gun Trace Task Force and before. Sgt. Plainclothes officers made the most arrests, they seized the most drugs and money, assets, former Police Commissioner Kevin Davis told The Sun. And of course, Jenkins is also hoping for a sentenced reduction of some kind. "Pills of heroin, bags of marijuana," he says. Jenkins later alleged in official paperwork that Simon had pointed a weapon at Frieman and that he ran Simon down to stop the threat. Can this US city go 72 hours without a murder? In an interview from prison, he said it wasnt uncommon for the officers to take contraband and submit it to evidence control without arresting someone. Sneed was chased and caught, and his jaw was broken in the process. Jenkins tells me he traded some sausages with other inmates in the line, bartering his way to the front. Back then, Jenkins escaped scrutiny again. He had been stationed in North Carolina and would frequently make trips home to visit his family and his high school sweetheart Kristy, the . Having taken money before with previous squads, he expected the officers might skim some and submit the rest as cover. In 2010, when Deputy Commissioner Anthony Barksdale wanted a special squad to go after elusive suspects, Jenkins was picked for the group. I am Agent and Representative as to Mr Jenkins. According to Jenkins convicted partner in the drug dealing, the police sergeant had been stealing drugs off the street for years and profiting from their illegal sale. The plaintiffs prevailed in three of them, either through a jury verdict or the citys decision to settle the case. 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. By the time his criminal streak was in full swing, it entailed high-stakes robberies and breaking and entering even as he was bringing in paychecks totaling over $170,000 in a year, in part because of overtime fraud. But they needed more information. His punches came fast Jenkins was a trained boxer and OConnor soon felt the warmth of blood spilling down his cheek. He goes on and on gushing about Sergeant Jenkins, Assistant States Attorney Jenifer Layman said. "I'm finally trying to get my life back on track," he told me. A squad of veteran police officers stood accused of committing numerous robberies, as well as extortion and overtime fraud. During the altercation, a passerby named George Sneed was assaulted by officer Robert Cirello who broke his jaw, leading Sneed to sue. Wayne was a cops cop, local hero kind of guy, said Cirello, the retired officer. But thats likely not what triggered the unprovoked beating of OConnor. 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. "I knew the things we were doing were wrong," he said. After outlining this, Ward said, Jenkins reconsidered. Read about our approach to external linking. De Sousa handled the discipline, and they had worked a deal, Hill said, according to a transcript of the interview. "It's a surreal story. officers Wayne Jenkins, Ryan . Both men have requested new trials. The three prosecutors concluded the officer admired Jenkins work even as he may have been trying to protect the sergeant. The line goes dead, and I feel like I've barely gotten anywhere. One of the most surprising witnesses was a man named Donald Stepp, a bail bondsman, who revealed that he'd been selling drugs Jenkins brought him from work. A former member of the unit, Sergeant Thomas Allers, also pleaded guilty. Plainclothes officers, as the description suggests, just work in street clothes usually casual rather than uniforms. Jenkins was a member of the Baltimore police department's Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF), a plain-clothed unit tasked with finding guns and drugs in bulk in a bid to tackle the city's high murder. Some defense attorneys say their clients told them Jenkins had robbed them. Another was to talk about how futile life inside the penal system is. He's opening a consulting service called Stepp Right Consultants, to give guidance and insight to men and women who are about to enter the federal penal system. 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. Once it left my shop they had reduced the punishment.. "This is not the man I know," she wrote. The bottles were winged at us. Jenkins gave 150 percent on the street. And yet, here we are, me in my closet "studio" and him at the front of a line of 20 to 30 other inmates, all waiting for their turn on the prison phone. A line prosecutor, Molly Webb, had been notified by a defense attorney of the footage footage that the police department hadnt submitted to her. The two police officers came over because they had nothing else to do.. Nobody said yes or no, instead expressing ambivalence. 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. Image Credit: Baltimore Police Department. Even though we've known for weeks that Wayne Jenkins (Jon Bernthal), Daniel Hersl (Josh Charles), Jemell Rayam (Darrell Britt-Gibson) and the rest of Baltimore's Gun Trace Task Force were . So I kind of had a mental, like maybe a messed up moral code.". Jenkins must serve three years of supervised release after his custodial sentence. Jenkins released the men and told them hed follow up with them later. Ward wasnt sure what to make of it. Human error to blame for train crash - Greek PM, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece. A few months after the OConnor incident, Jenkins was involved in another run-in where his sworn account was contradicted. That while the homicide rate was on a historic rise, this elite, eight-officer team was getting guns off the streets at an astonishing rate. He was scared. The bondsman would take care of selling them, then split the profits with the police sergeant. Back before our interview, Jenkins' representative wanted me to speak to some of his old high school friends. My hope - maybe a naive one - was that hearing one of these men speak candidly about how he crossed over to the dark side would help the public better understand the casual, day-to-day corruption that can happen in policing. ', "If you've got to lie about what you've seen or what you heard or what you witnessed, as long as he's dirty, he's got the drugs and he's got the guns and he did the crimejust get him.". They told me they were disturbed that he was being portrayed as a "monster". Five of the former officers, including Jenkins, pleaded guilty. Later that year, the mayor held a news conference for another of Jenkins busts. Jenkins had joined the force at 23 after serving three years in the Marines, where he took up boxing. Jenkins doled out $5,000 to each of the two officers and instructed them not to make any big purchases. Jenkins and Fries would later say in sworn depositions that Sneed had been yelling expletives about police and throwing glass bottles at them. 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