"I'm grateful, very grateful.". Jenkins would stop bringing those big drug seizures to the evidence room, and instead give them to Stepp to sell. Jenkins and members of his squad were praised for their work getting guns off the streets in an October 2016 police department newsletter. Wayne Jenkins and his plainclothes colleagues operated in a world where success and misconduct were not mutually exclusive and sometimes seemed to go hand in hand. In federal court, Mickey Oakley argued that the officers who arrested him including Jenkins and future Gun Trace Task Force member Daniel Hersl had lied about the circumstances leading up to the arrest and had illegally searched his home. BALTIMORE, MD A Baltimore police sergeant has admitted to robbing citizens, selling stolen drugs and putting innocent men behind bars, among other offenses. The conversation with Jenkins gets more complicated when we turn specifically to the crimes of the Gun Trace Task Force. He idolizes this guy, said Shelley Glenn, another prosecutor. All seven now sit in federal prisons scattered across the country. For the past four years, Jessica Lussenhop has been reporting on the rise and fall of a corrupt squad of Baltimore police officers. Baltimore leaders have agreed to pay a $6 million settlement to the family of a driver who was killed during a 2010 police chase involving Gun Trace Task Force officers. 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. I asked Wayne Jenkins several times why he wanted to do the interview with me. April 25, 2022 5:45 PM EDT. I continued working on this story for as long as I did out of some hope that the more the public learned about the corruption in the police department, the better chance there might be of some kind of true, systemic reform. Oh, yeah. The spouse of the third left a message telling me I could take what Jenkins told me and "stuff it". "It's still hard though, because I get a lot of pain in my mouth at night. 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. No one took anything, but Jenkins later mused about the possibilities. In March, HBO announced a new miniseries by David Simon, the creator of the classic Baltimore true crime series, 'The Wire'. Not all the allegations against Jenkins came from lawsuits. He couldn't get anyone to believe him at the time, and to this day, he fears law enforcement. He ordered a detective to drive them to the hospital and joined the front lines. They'd known one another's families as children. The fallout of the squad's crimes is still rippling through the city and undoubtedly made Baltimore a less safe place for everyone who lives there. Over his tenure, he was. 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. Prosecutors went as far as having witnesses appear before a grand jury, according to records obtained by The Sun. They said Jenkins instructed them to carry BB guns to plant on suspects to justify their actions if they made a mistake. "Hi, ma'am," Jenkins says when I pick up. I have no idea what he wants to say, or why after four years, he's breaking his silence. All of the other officers would have to be inaccurate in their testimony if it is to be believed that Detective Jenkins was manufacturing information for the affidavit, she said. It was surreal hearing his voice, talking to me. When I point out he already pleaded guilty to all these incidents, Jenkins tells me he only signed the agreement because he feared that if he went forward to trial, he could've wound up behind bars for life. I will continue to fight to prove my innocence.". Inside was a stack of bills. Such questions over integrity have in the past prompted prosecutors to stop calling an officer as a witness, forcing the departments hand to take him off the streets. BALTIMORE (AP) Baltimore leaders agreed Wednesday to pay a $6 million settlement to the family of a driver who was killed during a 2010 police chase . Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, L-R: Former Baltimore police Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, and Jon Bernthal as Jenkins in HBO true-crime drama "We Own This City. Turmoil has continued at the Baltimore Police Department, an agency that saw four commissioners in little more than a year among them De Sousa, now in prison for tax fraud. Not long after Stepp flipped on his former friend, Jenkins pled guilty. 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. Five years later, Simons claims were confirmed. I have to try to untangle his answers as he moves from subject to subject, sometimes so fast I can't keep up. Sure enough, no report was ever made. Instead, they go out looking for illegal activity people exchanging drugs or displaying bulges under clothing that could be guns. In an incident to which Jenkins would later plead guilty, the officers handcuffed two men. He admitted to knowing . The department valued their work too much to end this style of police work. 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 . "Right off the bat, we wasn't living lavishly. But already he was working in a plainclothes flex unit that rewarded dynamic officers and gave them freedom to roam. Jenkins names two specific locations where he says the drugs get tossed: a train bridge near the Eastern District police station, and a wooded highway off-ramp on the way to the Northern District police station. Others were raised by defense attorneys and their clients, who said an overzealous Jenkins skirted legal standards in making arrests. Wayne Jenkins joined Baltimore's police department way back in 2003 as a beat cop patrolling the streets of Baltimore. 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. They are not typically tethered to specific posts, or burdened by responding to 911 calls. Jenkins also tells me that any time an officer's misconduct gets picked up by Internal Affairs or by an outside law enforcement agency, it was routine for the involved officers to meet up, to tailor their stories to avoid punishment. Relatives say he liked to visit his high school sweetheart, Kristy, who would become his wife. Both men have requested new trials. Maurice Ward says he, Sgt. 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. And of course, Jenkins is also hoping for a sentenced reduction of some kind. Weeks later, I search these locations myself to see if I can find anything. Jenkins signed a plea agreement in 2017 that detailed seven robberies that he participated in along with other members of the unit, as well as his drug dealing partnership with Donald Stepp, the former bail bondsman and cocaine dealer who testified at trial. In January 2018, a long list of victims took the stand - many of whom had ties to the drug trade - and told harrowing stories of how they were robbed by the officers during car stops and searches of their homes. 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. 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. Until this point, I'd only heard Jenkins on. You guys willing to go kick in the dudes door and take the money? Jenkins said. 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's because in June 2018, Jenkins was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was convicted on multiple counts including racketeering, robbery and falsification of records. officers Wayne Jenkins, Ryan . "I'm here because of greed," he said. I've been reporting on Jenkins, and the elite Gun Trace Task Force squad he once led, for nearly four years. He points to the plea agreement, in which Jenkins agreed that his cut of their drug sales came to roughly $250,000. 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. He acknowledged that he could tell something was off with Jenkins around the time of the GTTF crime spree. 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. The GTTF did not hold a monopoly on harm, of course. "The largest share of the blame, the largest share of those crimes belongs to him," US attorney Leo Wise told the court. And Jenkins says, Did you look in the console? And he pulls the rug back and boom. But, he added, I think that if I am held responsible for my actions, then the same should be with the officers for their wrongdoing.. Outside on the sidewalk, he saw a bunch of cops and yelled an expletive at one he knew who happened to be Jenkins supervisor. Victims like Bumgardner and Whiting had the courage to speak out. Wayne Jenkins, who led the Gun Trace Task Force, was sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges including racketeering, robbery and falsifying records. Jenkins doled out $5,000 to each of the two officers and instructed them not to make any big purchases. In fact, Fries went on to promote Jenkins in June 2006 into a high-profile plainclothes unit called the Organized Crime Division. He started counting the money, $20,000 in all. HBO asked Stepp to be a consultant on the project, which he enthusiastically agreed to do. Despite Jenkins bravado, the jury found in favor of OConnor and awarded $75,000. In another man's house, the GTTF broke into a safe and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars. The important difference, however, is that the drug dealers never swore an oath to serve and protect. Image Credit: Baltimore Police Department. In Baltimores recent history, the police department has consistently relied on such units, even though the conduct of many of their officers would draw criticism from city residents. Wayne Jenkins was living a double life. 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. He ran me over because I was getting away.. Last month, Mr De Sousa was indicted for failure to pay his taxes by the same prosecutors who brought the GTTF case. 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. 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. A former member of the unit, Sergeant Thomas Allers, also pleaded guilty. 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 . When the phone rings, I put the call on speaker and hear a robotic, pre-recorded female voice: "You have a prepaid call. He took pictures of himself and Jenkins together inside the police department, where Stepp would sometimes pick up drugs. It was still daylight, and Jenkins opened a black and red duffel bag. They tracked other dealers and broke into their houses when no one was home. 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