Former police sergeant Wayne Earl Jenkins was sentenced to 25 years in prison Thursday for leading the rogue Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF) of the Baltimore Police Department.
The investigation has forced the department and city prosecutors to throw out more than 1,700 criminal cases that the officers corrupted with their involvement, BBC reported Thursday. Jenkins pleaded guilty participating in 10 robberies of citizens as well as planting drugs on crime scenes and selling confiscated drugs back onto the streets. He will serve and additional three years of supervised release following the 25 years sentence.
“I’m wrong, God knows I’m wrong,” Jenkins said. “I’m so sorry to the citizens of Baltimore.”
Former-Detective Maurice Ward testified that the GTTF would routinely carry BB guns in their vehicles just in case they needed to plant one on a crime scene. Ward testified to other shocking acts of corruption by the GTTF as well. (RELATED: Baltimore’s Bad Cops Are Nearly Unfireable — For Now)
They’d regularly drive fast at a larger group of people, slam brakes and pop their doors to see who ran, then detain and search them. They had no reason other than trying to provoke someone. 10-20 times on slow nights, as many as 50 times others, he said
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) January 23, 2018
When they stopped someone suspected of being in the drug game, Jenkins would ask, “If you could put your own crew together and rob the biggest drug dealer you know of, who would it be?” And then they’d go after the person they named, to rob them
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) January 23, 2018
City violence has skyrocketed amid the police scandals as well, with Baltimore suffering 343 murders in 2017, a record rate with the city’s shrinking population. Pugh cited the surge in violence when she fired Davis and replaced him with Deputy Commissioner Darryl De Sousa. (RELATED: Union Calls Out Baltimore Police For Lowering Recruit Standards)
“Crime is now spilling out all over the city, and we’ve got to focus. I am charging De Sousa and his staff to get on top of it to reduce the numbers and to reduce them quickly,” Pugh said at a news conference. “The fact is, we are not achieving the pace of progress that our residents have every right to expect in the weeks since we ended what was nearly a record year for homicides in the city of Baltimore.”
Six other members of the GTTF have yet to receive their sentences.
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