Homegrown commanders took pride in being known as having knockers. "This is Wayne.". I sold drugs as a dirty cop," he says. Barksdale, the former deputy commissioner who crafted department strategies from 2007 to 2012, leaned heavily on plainclothes units. Oh, yeah. Ward, now working with Jenkins for the first time, recalled the officers pulling over a car in East Baltimore that had two trash bags full of money. And that is what they want, German said, according to an Internal Affairs report. It's propped up on top of a suitcase sitting on top of a plastic tub, and I'm holding my recorder and microphone at the ready. But during the subsequent investigation, Frieman told detectives that he never saw a gun in Simons hand and that rather than being in imminent danger he was around a corner and out of sight when Jenkins ran down Simon. "So you did take money, ultimately?" 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. While it may seem incongruous that an officer would be hailed as a hero while racking up complaints, in the Baltimore Police Department it was not. Far from it. The line goes dead, and I feel like I've barely gotten anywhere. These units often operated with little supervision. Stepp and Jenkins' history runs deep. Wayne Jenkins a former Marine? He and other officers had raided a car wash, recovering more than a kilogram of drugs and $4,000 from a hidden desk compartment which could be opened only using magnets within a fish tank. It didn't take long before Stepp began to suspect that Jenkins ratted him out. They said Jenkins instructed them to carry BB guns to plant on suspects to justify their actions if they made a mistake. He's also at work on a memoir, which he says will reveal the contents of videos and photos he took of Jenkins that were never released publicly. ", Explaining the tactics of the GTTF, he also told the publication: "This is a saying we state: 'Don't let probable cause stand in the way of a good arrest. Jon Bernthal embedded with Baltimore police to play city's dirtiest cop in HBO's "We Own This City" On "Salon Talks" Bernthal reveals he spoke to the real Sgt. "Seen it done, honest to god, 500 times.". He walked into the court wearing a maroon prison uniform. By Josiah Bates. 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. "I felt comfortable with it because all the police officers that I met, which were many during the card games, in my opinion, they owned the city," Stepp would later tell the jury at the GTTF trial. Back before our interview, Jenkins' representative wanted me to speak to some of his old high school friends. I did give drugs to Donny [Stepp, who testified he and Jenkins sold $1 million worth of narcotics] for the last couple of years I was police, but I didn't take people's money because then they would know you were dirty. These officers often operate with a great deal of independence. Wayne Jenkins is the leader of the rogue police unit in Baltimore who was sentenced to 25 years of prison in a corruption scandal prosecutors called "breathtaking". The important difference, however, is that the drug dealers never swore an oath to serve and protect. Oakley took the rare step of getting onto the witness stand to rebut the officers, as did an independent witness who backed his account. "Everything I tell you, I will take a polygraph," Jenkins says near the beginning of that first phone call. Plenty of times he's gone behind me and found them.. Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, along with Detectives Marcus Taylor and Maurice Ward, intercepted a drug deal at the Belvedere Towers in Baltimore and seized about 20 to 25 pounds of marijuana as well as $20,000 to $25,000 in a second bag. ", Paul Schiraldi/Baltimore Police Department/HBO, Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. Read about our approach to external linking. FOX45 looks at the 8 former officers of the Gun Trace Task ForceThe ring leader of the squad Wayne Jenkins is currently serving the longest sentence out of the members federally indicted on . When I saw the video, Webb later told The Sun, it didnt corroborate what was in the statement of probable cause at all.. 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 . He says Stepp pressured him into it. He started to worry. Then-Police Commissioner Anthony Batts had created a Force Investigation Team to inspire public trust that police leaders were keeping an eye on officers use of force. Read about our approach to external linking. After three weeks of astonishing testimony, the jury found the two remaining officers guilty. In 2010, when Deputy Commissioner Anthony Barksdale wanted a special squad to go after elusive suspects, Jenkins was picked for the group. It's going to happen again," he said. The outfit change is designed to allow them to blend in. While researching the We Own This City true story, we confirmed that the real Wayne Jenkins had spent three years in the Marines before joining the Baltimore Police Department in 2003. "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. 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. Amid controversies over the years, police brass would publicly disband the units, then reconstitute them with the same personnel under a different name. In Baltimore, theyre often referred to as knockers, a reference to their historically aggressive tactics. No one took anything, but Jenkins later mused about the possibilities. It was the perfect crime. Having taken money before with previous squads, he expected the officers might skim some and submit the rest as cover. Fenton joined The Sun as a suburban reporter in 2005. April 25, 2022 5:45 PM EDT. 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. "He's like, 'I'm not telling you to do anything, I'm just saying it sure would be nice if we had $10,000 apiece to go up to Atlantic City,'" Jenkins recalls. This just begun.". 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. When Jenkins called him to a house the GTTF was investigating, Stepp took pictures of the officers going in and out. It was nicknamed The Barn an apparent homage to the offices of a corrupt police unit on the television series The Shield. The show, modeled after a 1990s Los Angeles Police Department scandal, featured a strike team that roughed up suspects, lied about their investigations and took a cut of their drug busts. "He's never been a true friend," Stepp says. 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. No one believed Oakley. BALTIMORE, MD A Baltimore police sergeant has admitted to robbing citizens, selling stolen drugs and putting innocent men behind bars, among other offenses. He admitted to knowing . 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 . In the annals of the Baltimore Police Department, Wayne Jenkins name was not being associated with wrongdoing. Theres been plenty of times where the suspect has said, The drugs are in the car, and I go and I cant find them. Ward and the other cop followed Jenkins into the woods. Wayne Jenkins grew up in Middle River and is a graduate of Eastern Technical High School. "It was obvious to me, when I'm taking millions of dollars worth of drugs from the Baltimore Police Department and selling them, that this is not a normal police department.". "It shows what a committed, sophisticated, devious person can do," Mr Wise said. Donny made every piece of that up.". He popped the trunk and carried the drugs into the garage. They had the autonomy to catch and release suspects and develop informants. Wayne was a cops cop, local hero kind of guy, said Cirello, the retired officer. Sgt. His supervisors and others either failed to see the red flags or chose to ignore them. But Whiting is not so optimistic. My thoughts return to Kenneth Bumgardner, a hard-working father who was chased by the squad when they suspected him of having marijuana. Because believe me, I'll stand my ground in a second.". What Detective Wayne Jenkins wrote in his affidavit for the search warrant was a complete fabrication, Oakley said. "I'm in prison for 25 years, there's no reason to lie.". It feels a little bit like splitting hairs. This series was supported by the Pulitzer Center. A surveillance video suggesting Jenkins may have planted drugs in a suspects car did make its way to the police integrity unit of the Baltimore States Attorneys Office in 2014. It was still daylight, and Jenkins opened a black and red duffel bag. The drop-offs included marijuana, cocaine and MDMA, all of which Stepp did his best to sell. During the altercation, a passerby named George Sneed was assaulted by officer Robert Cirello who broke his jaw, leading Sneed to sue. I wasnt privy. 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. "Later on that evening, Gondo did give me money, that means hours later, I'm talking hours later, he gave me money.". I did give drugs to Donny for the last couple of years I was police, but I didn't take people's money because then they would know you were dirty. Federal prosecutors displayed the contents of a bag found in the trunk of Sgt. One member of the task force during Jenkins leadership, Detective John Clewell, was not charged with any crimes. His supplier needed to offload two garbage bags of pharmaceutical drugs stolen from people who had themselves looted pharmacies. Former Baltimore Police Sgt. "And I remember taking the $10,000.". The man, Demetric Simon, 31, said he did have drugs on him and knew someone was following. Stepp says Jenkins started bringing over shipments of drugs on an almost daily basis, putting them in a locked shed behind Stepp's house. Its a Viking mentality: You go out into the field among the bad guys, and you bring back a bounty, Davis said. Now, the recommended punishment was significant: a demotion, a transfer and suspension for 15 to 20 days, including a period without pay, Hill told the television network Al-Jazeera. I have so many questions to ask, and I'm not sure if this will be my one and only opportunity to speak to him. 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. This kind of mindset assumes that the victims of the Gun Trace Task Force - many of them black and poor - deserved what happened to them. I just knew it was a lie, Ward recalls. Credit: Baltimore Police. Later on, he claims, they'd throw the drugs out the window or down a sewer grate. 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. 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 . They told me they were disturbed that he was being portrayed as a "monster". Your digital subscription helps pay for The Baltimore Sun's investigative reporting. He said they were confiscating the cash and 20 pounds of marijuana. In an incident to which Jenkins would later plead guilty, the officers handcuffed two men. 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. Stepp turned everything over to the US prosecutors. He admitted to knowing . 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. You tried catching me all day, and you cant, because Im telling the truth, Jenkins told the lawyer. HBO asked Stepp to be a consultant on the project, which he enthusiastically agreed to do. We knew he wasn't the straight-and-narrow cop that all cops are supposed to be," he said. Just in recent weeks, two officers have been criminally charged with misconduct. "Nobody still knows the truth about what's going on in the city," Taylor told the judge. 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. Read more: Inside one of America's most corrupt police squads. Some defense attorneys say their clients told them Jenkins had robbed them. Prior to this, they'd been lauded as some of the best gun cops in the city - seizing dozens of illegal firearms every month, and demonstrating a "a work ethic that is beyond reproach", in the words of one supervisor. In November 2012, Wayne Jenkins was promoted to the rank of sergeant giving him new authority and freedom. They ordered us to f--- them up; we f---ed them up, one of the responding officers, Robert Cirello, now retired, said later in an interview with The Sun. "I'm so sorry for what you're going through. "The largest share of the blame, the largest share of those crimes belongs to him," US attorney Leo Wise told the court. He suggested another option. It was Jenkins, fresh off his heroics in West Baltimore. Baltimore detectives convicted in shocking corruption trial Stepp grew up in Middle River, where he was friends with Jenkins's older brother. Sure enough, no report was ever made. He took pictures of himself and Jenkins together inside the police department, where Stepp would sometimes pick up drugs. He had been stationed in North Carolina and would frequently make trips home to visit his family and his high school sweetheart Kristy, the . While Jenkins most serious crimes the drug dealing, the robberies appear to have been well hidden, it is not surprising they flourished within Baltimores permissive plainclothes culture. A loyal friend. "I deserve to be punished. Last month, Mr De Sousa was indicted for failure to pay his taxes by the same prosecutors who brought the GTTF case. 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