wayne jenkins baltimore

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. Credit: Baltimore Police Department, Its a Viking mentality: You go out into the field among the bad guys, and you bring back a bounty. The courtroom was also packed with Jenkins' family and friends. Read about our approach to external linking. 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". 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. Some tried to complain, but were ignored. Ex-police sergeant Wayne Earl Jenkins apologised in court for the crimes he committed while heading an elite squad called the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF). He said they were confiscating the cash and 20 pounds of marijuana. He tells me that the first time he ever stole money, he was just a rookie. The dealers would be sitting in a jail cell. You will not be charged for this call. I will continue to fight to prove my innocence.". He names the veteran he says coached him into stealing for the first time. For the past four years, Jessica Lussenhop has been reporting on the rise and fall of a corrupt squad of Baltimore police officers. He said together, they'd sold about $1m worth of narcotics. The line goes dead, and I feel like I've barely gotten anywhere. . It's going to happen again," he said. It was difficult for me to understand and parse all of Jenkins' denials, now. "an inmate in a federal prison," the robot finishes. The jury was shown axes, machetes and pry bars, as well as black masks that were found in Jenkins' van after his arrest. Meanwhile, his Twitter account is full of pictures of him on set, hamming it up with Bernthal and some of the other actors. But he added, All disciplinary decisions were put through the proper consideration by command staff and BPD legal department. Donny made every piece of that up.". He told me that frequently, when he or his fellow officers didn't feel like submitting the drugs they seized or doing arrest paperwork, they'd simply confiscate people's drug stashes and let them go. They also didnt give chase. He says Stepp pressured him into it. "This is Wayne.". In the annals of the Baltimore Police Department, Wayne Jenkins name was not being associated with wrongdoing. An officer who sometimes worked with Jenkins, Keith Gladstone, pleaded guilty last month to going to the scene of Simons arrest to plant the BB gun a response, Gladstone admitted, to a phone call from a frantic Jenkins asking for the help. During his time on the streets of Baltimore Jenkins was involved in several arrests that resulted in the injuries of the people he took into custody. He also acknowledged stealing the man's $4,000 (2,956) watch, which he gave to Stepp to sell. Ignoring warning signs of misconduct, Baltimore Police praised and promoted Gun Trace Task Force leader. They might not have been believed anyhow. "I never took a thing. Wayne Jenkins and former Det. He is very remorseful.". It took place as Jenkins and other officers were searching an apartment. Hours later, in a quiet waterfront neighborhood 15 miles east of downtown, a drug-dealing bail bondsman was roused from his sleep. "I swear, I wish I would have known before I ever put anyone in here I wish I would have known the other side," he says at one point. "Immediately, we get together and you go over your story. I'm staring at my cell phone in the dark. These units often operated with little supervision. Wayne Earl Jenkins tearfully told the court: "I've tarnished the badge", (L-R) Evodio Hendrix, Daniel Hersl, Jemell Rayam, (L-R) Maurice Ward, Marcus Taylor, Momodu Gondo, Prosecutors showed evidence of Jenkins' building up the tools needed to do full-fledged robberies, Elbert Davis' daughters speak after Jenkins' sentencing, Former GTTF member Momodu Gondo testified during the trial, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece. He gave me a few reasons. Image Credit: Baltimore Police Department. "He is no more than a common criminal," Davis' daughter, Shirley Johnson, said of Jenkins. "Everything I tell you, I will take a polygraph," Jenkins says near the beginning of that first phone call. In the bedroom, Jenkins says he and a veteran supervisor found a suitcase filled with tens of thousands of dollars in cash. In another man's house, the GTTF broke into a safe and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars. To single him out as a flawed individual in an otherwise perfectly functioning system is a way to avoid change in the police department, to shirk the responsibility of actually preventing this from happening again. Wayne Jenkins was on a mission to find big dealers and steal their drugs and cash. "Especially because we're short on time, is there anything that you kind of want to just say right off the bat?" When I saw the video, Webb later told The Sun, it didnt corroborate what was in the statement of probable cause at all.. That the GTTF's leader, a former Marine and amateur MMA fighter named Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, was a hero who'd plunged into a violent crowd during the unrest to rescue injured officers. In March, HBO announced a new miniseries by David Simon, the creator of the classic Baltimore true crime series, 'The Wire'. During the altercation, a passerby named George Sneed was assaulted by officer Robert Cirello who broke his jaw, leading Sneed to sue. This just begun.". He thought Jenkins and Frieman might have been impersonating police. Sergeant Wayne. In reality, he says, they were making arrests by any means necessary. Jenkins is currently in prison. Washington (AFP) - A police officer described as perhaps the most corrupt in the history of the Baltimore police department was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday. Jenkins joined Baltimore's police department in 2003, first becoming a beat cop and patrolling the streets of Baltimore. 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. 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. I dont know the nuances, what was said, what wasnt. 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. 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 . 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. The sergeant took no one else from the flex squad. Nobody said yes or no, instead expressing ambivalence. Back then, Jenkins escaped scrutiny again. The outfit change is designed to allow them to blend in. "I'd rather be a prosecutor so I don't overkill people. He says he was told that because these officers were so successful at seizing guns, there was nothing to be done. Fenton joined The Sun as a suburban reporter in 2005. But the video captured by closed-circuit TV showed the officers searching the car extensively and never appearing to make a discovery. And Jenkins says, Did you look in the console? And he pulls the rug back and boom. I ask, slightly confused. But the police departments Internal Affairs office still had an open file on the case. In federal prison, inmates are only allowed to talk on the phone for 15 minutes before the line is automatically cut. The leaked case file doesnt say why. I'm losing a lot of teeth, you know, they used to be nice and pretty.". "It was a front for a criminal enterprise," Stepp said of the Gun Trace Task Force. She described how the unnamed officer talked about Jenkins: Hes probably the best drug detective in the city. He took pictures of himself and Jenkins together inside the police department, where Stepp would sometimes pick up drugs. That made it very tempting when, sometime around 2011, Jenkins approached Stepp and suggested they go into business together. Instead, while their cash and drugs were gone, the dealers were free men. He was convicted on multiple counts including racketeering, robbery and falsification of records. Theres been plenty of times where the suspect has said, The drugs are in the car, and I go and I cant find them. Jenkins admitted that he stole drugs from work and delivered them to Stepp, who would turn around and sell them. "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 crime - just get him.". Stepp testified that the arrangement was so lucrative, he stuck with it for years before getting arrested himself in December 2017. But the scope of the corruption of Jenkins and his men remains a singular stain on the force. When one of the men darted into his home, Jenkins rushed in after him. He acknowledged that he could tell something was off with Jenkins around the time of the GTTF crime spree. His fee will be donated to the victims of the Gun Trace Task Force. Officers in plainclothes units often operate in the shadows of a police department. A few months after the OConnor incident, Jenkins was involved in another run-in where his sworn account was contradicted. In Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Chicago, plainclothes teams have been charged with corruption. 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. Although the indicted officers committed many robberies individually before joining the Gun Trace Task Force, prosecutors charge that they grew bolder and more prolific after Jenkins took over the unit in June 2016. Jenkins, meanwhile, was the best officer I had working under my command, Fries said. Jenkins doled out $5,000 to each of the two officers and instructed them not to make any big purchases. 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. "I still maintain my innocence. 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. Correction 11 June 2018: This article has been amended to make clear that prosecutors pointed to how 1,700 criminal cases have been affected by the unit's corruption. Credit: Baltimore Police. In court, Ward apologised to the victims, to his family and to the Baltimore Police Department, as well as to his co-defendants. The car extensively and never appearing to make any big purchases Chicago, plainclothes teams have been police! Months after the OConnor incident, Jenkins says, Did you look in the dark was from! He added, all disciplinary decisions were put through the proper consideration by command and! 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