wayne jenkins baltimore

Later in 2015, he took over a new squad of plainclothes officers within the latest rebranding, the Special Enforcement Section. According to testimony from Ward and Hendrix, Jenkins played an outsized role in the schemes. Reflecting on the revelations of his misconduct, Lt. Marjorie German concluded that department leaders gave Jenkins too much leeway because they were enamored of his results. I got gangster charges, racketeering charges, things they usually give the mob, who were burying bodies in cement.". Later on, he claims, they'd throw the drugs out the window or down a sewer grate. Others were raised by defense attorneys and their clients, who said an overzealous Jenkins skirted legal standards in making arrests. 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. They tracked other dealers and broke into their houses when no one was home. The matter was referred to the police integrity unit of the Baltimore states attorneys office for investigation. Wayne Jenkins a former Marine? 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. His supervisors and others either failed to see the red flags or chose to ignore them. Some drug dealers told their lawyers that Jenkins made stuff up to arrest them and had kept a good chunk of their money and drugs before taking them in. In his plea deal, Jenkins admitted he planted heroin on Burley to try to justify the fatal collision. He said he started dealing drugs at age 9, selling. But that day, Jenkins drove toward the edge of town, bobbing in and out of traffic and running red lights, until he pulled over near a wooded area off Liberty Heights Avenue. Wayne Jenkins, 37, pleaded guilty in January to robbery . Maurice Ward, the former detective now in prison, also remembers De Sousa coming to the rescue and reducing the punishment, though he believes Jenkins was still suspended. "I knew the things we were doing were wrong," he said. Credit: Baltimore Police Department, Its a Viking mentality: You go out into the field among the bad guys, and you bring back a bounty. Over the course of four phone calls (courtesy of some traded bags of crisps), Jenkins paints a picture of the Baltimore Police Department as a place where indoctrination into corruption starts almost immediately. Read about our approach to external linking. I asked Wayne Jenkins several times why he wanted to do the interview with me. At trial, Jenkins and his boss denied any knowledge of who attacked OConnor. Jenkins, shown here with then-Commissioner Kevin Davis, was awarded a bronze star in April 2016 for his efforts to save injured officers during the unrest a year earlier. Some tried to complain, but were ignored. He says he couldn't risk it as a father with a young family. They'd known one another's families as children. Then 34, he was already an admired leader of aggressive street squads and would go on to head the elite Gun Trace Task Force, one of the Baltimore Police Departments go-to assets in the fight against violent crime. Wayne Jenkins will be played by Jon Bernthal, the same actor who portrayed "The Punisher". "Later on that evening, Gondo did give me money, that means hours later, I'm talking hours later, he gave me money.". "It's still hard though, because I get a lot of pain in my mouth at night. The outfit change is designed to allow them to blend in. Jenkins and Fries would later say in sworn depositions that Sneed had been yelling expletives about police and throwing glass bottles at them. In May 2014, three Baltimore prosecutors convened a meeting. Attorneys in the integrity unit had approached another officer involved in the arrest, asking him pointed questions about whether Jenkins had lied about the drugs. It feels a little bit like splitting hairs. He woke up on a frigid city street with his jaw shattered, and couldn't eat solid food for months. Meanwhile, his Twitter account is full of pictures of him on set, hamming it up with Bernthal and some of the other actors. After an FBI investigation into the unit discovered the GTTF's crimes, federal officers arrested Jenkins alongside several others in the unit. He states flatly that Jenkins is lying to me. A two-year federal investigation into the GTTF resulted in all eight officers, and one Philadelphia officer, getting charged with several offenses, including racketeering, in 2017. Contact me.". It was billed at the time as the largest cocaine seizure in department history, one of Jenkins many large-scale seizures. He started counting the money, $20,000 in all. 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. 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. I never heard back, and he didn't seem to be responding to anyone else, either. The department valued their work too much to end this style of police work. "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. Have we raised the possibility of a wire? Pineau asked. "I could have spoken up.". Jenkins did not testify at the trial, but in a way, he was the star of the entire proceeding. 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. 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. Theres been plenty of times where the suspect has said, The drugs are in the car, and I go and I cant find them. "I never took a thing. Later, Jenkins came out carrying two kilos of cocaine he tossed in Stepp's vehicle. Then, in November 2017, he was given further charges of destruction, alteration or falsification of records in federal investigations, and deprivation of rights under color of law. "Now we're going to burn it down. He was scared. But the video captured by closed-circuit TV showed the officers searching the car extensively and never appearing to make a discovery. Human error to blame for train crash - Greek PM, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece. Jenkins said hed tried to be nice, but now they were going to jail. He told the other officers to leave their cell phones and police vests in the car. This just begun.". 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 had joined the force at 23 after serving three years in the Marines, where he took up boxing. And were not getting Jenkins.. Many plainclothes units would work out of a satellite office inside a trailer in Northwest Baltimore. 2023 BBC. Jenkins, who is serving a 25-year sentence in a federal prison in South Carolina, declined to speak with The Sun. "I'm here because of greed," he said. A squad of veteran police officers stood accused of committing numerous robberies, as well as extortion and overtime fraud. It was Jenkins, fresh off his heroics in West Baltimore. Someone once told me that it will take a generation for the direct impact of the Gun Trace Task Force to start to fade, and it will be impossible to measure how the victims' trauma will play out in the lives of their children, families and friends. This call is from", A human voice breaks in: "Wayne Jenkins.". I ask, slightly confused. 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. 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. The two said Jenkins had found drugs in the ceiling of a mans vehicle. I ask this friend why he didn't say anything to anyone. 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. But they needed more information. After outlining this, Ward said, Jenkins reconsidered. The drop-offs included marijuana, cocaine and MDMA, all of which Stepp did his best to sell. At that time, it was within De Sousas purview as the deputy commissioner in charge of administrative matters to intervene to resolve a discipline case, according to another former deputy commissioner, Jason Johnson. the dim light of the Baltimore Police Departments downtown nerve center, Sgt. "There was cameras everywhere, so I would never have took a dollar," he tells me. At OConnors trial, Fries remarked that the others were worthless and didnt meet the standards of the organized crime unit. On Friday, both detectives Evodio Hendrix and Maurice Ward were sentenced to seven years in prison. Wayne Jenkins from Baltimore was sentenced to 25-years-in-prison. Sure enough, no report was ever made. On an oddly balmy January night, Jenkins and Fries were working the McElderry Park neighborhood in East Baltimore when they noticed two brothers drinking Steel Reserve beers on the sidewalk outside their rowhouse. Jenkins must serve three years of supervised release after his custodial sentence. They had the autonomy to catch and release suspects and develop informants. De Sousa handled the discipline, and they had worked a deal, Hill said, according to a transcript of the interview. 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. He ordered a detective to drive them to the hospital and joined the front lines. 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. At the time, Stepp was running his own bail bond company, Double D Bail Bonds. De Sousa, who later served as commissioner and is currently serving time on federal tax charges, says he doesnt remember the case. He also acknowledged stealing the man's $4,000 (2,956) watch, which he gave to Stepp to sell. Jenkins would stop bringing those big drug seizures to the evidence room, and instead give them to Stepp to sell. The line goes dead, and I feel like I've barely gotten anywhere. "I still maintain my innocence. By Josiah Bates. Im feeling a lot of remorse for my actions I have led through my life, Oakley said at his sentencing. For the most part, these defendants decided it wasnt in their interest to tell government authorities that. He served 20 months of a five year sentence in connection with the Gun Trace Task Force case, before being granted a compassionate release. Jenkins was stationed in North Carolina but often made the long trip back home to Middle River. 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. . The important difference, however, is that the drug dealers never swore an oath to serve and protect. "I've tarnished the badge," he said through tears. Here is everything you need to know about the real Jenkins and where he is now. Baltimore Police Sgt. His drill sergeant described him as having the utmost flawless character Ive seen in two decades of service. They claimed they didnt see who did it. 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. Jenkins, meanwhile, was the best officer I had working under my command, Fries said. 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. The unit began looking into a case involving Jenkins, in which he had run down a young man with his unmarked Dodge Avenger early in 2014. None of the cases led to any police department discipline for Jenkins, his personnel records show. In reality, he says, they were making arrests by any means necessary. Last month, Mr De Sousa was indicted for failure to pay his taxes by the same prosecutors who brought the GTTF case. "He perverted the criminal justice system.". 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. No one took anything, but Jenkins later mused about the possibilities. Wayne was a cops cop, local hero kind of guy, said Cirello, the retired officer. Jenkins, indignant, aggressively shot back at questions from OConnors attorney. But Internal Affairs was still working on the case that the States Attorneys Office had decided it could not pursue: the suspicion that Jenkins might have planted drugs in a car to justify an arrest. In the police academy, his peers saw a leader. I will continue to fight to prove my innocence.". It was the perfect crime. The Parkville American Legion Post named him its Officer of the Year. 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. Despite the lawsuits and later, video evidence from his squads body cameras Jenkins supervisors failed to scrutinize the arrests he was making. 49 . "He always had large sums of money in his pocket. They told me they were disturbed that he was being portrayed as a "monster". 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. Jenkins idolized his sergeant, Michael Fries, the target of the expletive. I am Agent and Representative as to Mr Jenkins. Not likely, Ward thought. But I think he also spoke to me because he doesn't like the image of himself that's been in the media - as a sociopath, as someone almost inhumanly evil. 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. It was during these games that Stepp heard Jenkins boasting about the large drug stashes he often came across during his work as a plainclothes police officer. 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. In 2010, when Deputy Commissioner Anthony Barksdale wanted a special squad to go after elusive suspects, Jenkins was picked for the group. Then 34, he was already an admired leader of aggressive street squads and would go on to head the elite Gun Trace Task Force, one of the Baltimore Police Department's go-to assets in the fight against violent crime. They walked far enough so they couldnt be seen from the street. "I'd rather be a prosecutor so I don't overkill people. Jenkins explained that hed already tracked the man to Essex, so he thought they could stake out the home, go through the mans trash and find something to parlay into a search warrant. What if a complaint was made? The second declined to comment. Wayne Jenkins eyes darted from screen to screen, taking in the surveillance images. In March, HBO announced a new miniseries by David Simon, the creator of the classic Baltimore true crime series, 'The Wire'. Jenkins is currently in prison. Not long after Stepp flipped on his former friend, Jenkins pled guilty. When the phone rings, I put the call on speaker and hear a robotic, pre-recorded female voice: "You have a prepaid call. "Wayne is truly sorry for his actions. A few months after the OConnor incident, Jenkins was involved in another run-in where his sworn account was contradicted. He kept $10,000 for himself, saying he planned to install a front-end crash bar so his department-issued vehicle wouldnt get damaged in his frequent collisions. Their work is not to be confused with undercover operations, in which police officers assume a different identity and worm their way into a criminal organization. Of all seven men, the last person I thought would ever agree to an interview was Jenkins, the fallen "golden boy" of the Baltimore Police Department. Credit: Baltimore Police. ", Paul Schiraldi/Baltimore Police Department/HBO, Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. Detective Marcus Taylor on Thursday was sentenced to 18 years in prison on racketeering charges, including robbery and overtime fraud. What had he gotten himself into? Contact Justin Fenton at jfenton@baltsun.com. After he was sent to federal lock-up, I wrote Jenkins a letter once a year - along with many other journalists, book authors, producers and documentary filmmakers - requesting an interview. But in less than a year, Sergeant Jenkins was put in charge of the new plainclothes squad in West Baltimore. 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. It's going to happen again," he said. "I have no respect for him.". In September 2021, Jenkins spoke with BBC journalist. The apartment complex had a camera in the parking lot. He started to worry. Today, he's a free man, living without restrictions with his spouse and young daughter in the eastern part of Baltimore County. "Immediately, we get together and you go over your story. "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.". "I got 25 years. HBO asked Stepp to be a consultant on the project, which he enthusiastically agreed to do. Then 34, he was already an admired leader of aggressive street squads and would go on to head the elite Gun Trace Task Force, one of the Baltimore. Detectives Maurice Ward, Evodio Hendrix, Momodu Gondo and Jemell Rayam all pleaded guilty. He says Stepp pressured him into it. In court, Ward apologised to the victims, to his family and to the Baltimore Police Department, as well as to his co-defendants. After three weeks of astonishing testimony, the jury found the two remaining officers guilty. He tells me that the first time he ever stole money, he was just a rookie. Jenkins says that the veteran goaded him into taking money. For the past four years, Jessica Lussenhop has been reporting on the rise and fall of a corrupt squad of Baltimore police officers. I wasnt privy. Oakley took the rare step of getting onto the witness stand to rebut the officers, as did an independent witness who backed his account. 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. Jenkins rushed off to join them. 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. Later that year, the mayor held a news conference for another of Jenkins busts. Stepp and Jenkins' history runs deep. He was convicted on multiple counts including racketeering, robbery and falsification of records. Instead, they go out looking for illegal activity people exchanging drugs or displaying bulges under clothing that could be guns. Historical Accuracy (Q&A): Is Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, Gun Trace Task Force officer, The woods of Powder Mill Park, where Det. "I did, yes. He reminds me that the US Attorney's office found him more credible than Jenkins. 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. Wayne Jenkins was on a mission to find big dealers and steal their drugs and cash. 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. He took pictures of himself and Jenkins together inside the police department, where Stepp would sometimes pick up drugs. Wayne Jenkins. "I deserve to be punished. No single person was in a position to make unilateral discipline decisions.. He. Jenkins was hired by the Baltimore Police Department in 2003, according to state records obtained by The Baltimore Sun. Just as she was completing her podcast series on the story, she got a very unexpected call from prison. Until this point, I'd only heard Jenkins on secretly taped FBI recordings, wiretapped phone calls, body camera footage and at the hearing in June 2018 when a federal judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison. Some of his men also have acknowledged stealing well before they came together on the Gun Trace Task Force in 2016. Four years after the Gun Trace Task Force officers were arrested, he says he sees no difference on the streets of Baltimore. "an inmate in a federal prison," the robot finishes. And that's what I did.". Two officers said he spoke openly about doing home invasions on high-level drug dealers that he called "monsters", because of the amount of drugs and cash he hoped they'd have stashed in their houses. This is his senior portrait from 1998. Yet another of Jenkins' friends said something I wasn't expecting. The ringleader, former Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, admitted committing multiple armed robberies and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in drugs. Wayne Jenkins and former Det. 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. One former supervisor never responded. The GTTF was made up of eight officers, all but one of whom were indicted. Still, a yearlong investigation by The Baltimore Sun found warning signs that Wayne Jenkins wasnt such a good cop. April 25, 2022 5:45 PM EDT. 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. 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. He goes on and on gushing about Sergeant Jenkins, Assistant States Attorney Jenifer Layman said. Nobody said yes or no, instead expressing ambivalence. Both men have requested new trials. Stepp turned everything over to the US prosecutors. Several of the former officers also took the stand - now wearing prison jumpsuits instead of uniforms - and detailed the tactics encouraged by their leader, Jenkins. These officers often operate with a great deal of independence. The officers with him hesitated, Ward said. Over the years, I wrote to all of these former officers in prison several times, asking them to help me understand their breathtaking crimes. Jenkins was a rising star in the department, because of his ability to regularly bring in huge seizures of drugs and guns. A line prosecutor, Molly Webb, had been notified by a defense attorney of the footage footage that the police department hadnt submitted to her. When the officers circled back later, the two were still outside holding beers. Wayne Jenkins was living a double life. 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. I ask. He had been stationed in North Carolina and would frequently make trips home to visit his family and his high school sweetheart Kristy, the . It's no wonder people come out meaner than when they come in.". By Justin Fenton June 12, 2019 More in the series Part 1 The rise of Wayne. According to the Internal Affairs file, the only times Jenkins had been disciplined by the department was for twice failing to appear in court. He also names two former supervisors who he says he complained to about his former subordinate officers, Momodu Gondo and Jemell Rayam, saying they had bad reputations for stealing money. "We said, 'You know, he's robbin' the pieces of shit of Baltimore that are the reason that me and my kids can't walk down the street and feel safe," he says. On the citys west side, officers were being pelted with bricks; some were hurt. Wayne Jenkins, who . During his trial, on January 5, 2018, Jenkins pled guilty to one count of racketeering, two counts of robbery, one count of destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in a federal investigation, and four counts of deprivation of rights under color of law. He idolizes this guy, said Shelley Glenn, another prosecutor. Arrest him, too, Jenkins yelled at the responding officers. I've been reporting on Jenkins, and the elite Gun Trace Task Force squad he once led, for nearly four years. "He's a pathological liar," Stepp says. It didn't take long before Stepp began to suspect that Jenkins ratted him out. He has covered the Baltimore Police Department and crime in Baltimore since 2008. Jenkins was developing a reputation within the department as a cop whose aggressive style brought results. If I could take everything back in my life, I would have been a prosecutor," he says. He's even got a clothing line coming out around his defunct bail bond business, Double D Bail Bonds. When Jenkins was on paternity leave, commanders groused that his squads productivity dropped. 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. De Sousa, who is now serving a federal sentence for tax evasion, said through his attorney that he does not remember the Jenkins case. Stepp was on home confinement for six months with an ankle monitor until this summer. All seven members were soon in handcuffs. 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. What if one of the men who was robbed turned out to be a federal informant?

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