wayne jenkins baltimorenoise ordinance greenfield, wi
For example, in January 2006, Jenkins and Sergeant Michael Fries had an altercation with brothers Charles and Robert Lee after they continued to drink beer on the front step of their grandmother's home when the policemen had told them to stop. They stole drugs and cash, sold seized narcotics and guns back on the street, planted evidence on people, even committed home invasions. Jenkins says that the veteran goaded him into taking money. 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. "There was cameras everywhere, so I would never have took a dollar," he tells me. He started counting the money, $20,000 in all. And Jenkins says, Did you look in the console? And he pulls the rug back and boom. This call is from", A human voice breaks in: "Wayne Jenkins.". But when I tell him that I've interviewed Wayne Jenkins, his one-time drug partner, Stepp is displeased, to put it mildly. This is his senior portrait from 1998. As adults, they ran into each other again at an underground card game frequented by Baltimore Police officers. As in the past, a video had surfaced that conflicted with the written account of a drug arrest by Jenkins and another officer. For the first three years of his sentence, Jenkins was doing time at the federal prison in Edgefield, South Carolina . 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. When Jenkins was allowed to speak, he turned first to face the Davis family and apologised repeatedly. I ask, slightly confused. He was like King Kong, the officer, who still works for the police department, recalled. Outside on the sidewalk, he saw a bunch of cops and yelled an expletive at one he knew who happened to be Jenkins supervisor. 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. 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. It was billed at the time as the largest cocaine seizure in department history, one of Jenkins many large-scale seizures. 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. "Right off the bat, we wasn't living lavishly. Some of his men also have acknowledged stealing well before they came together on the Gun Trace Task Force in 2016. No one had called police to complain, but Jenkins and Fries told the men to go inside. Amid controversies over the years, police brass would publicly disband the units, then reconstitute them with the same personnel under a different name. 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. Detectives Maurice Ward, Evodio Hendrix, Momodu Gondo and Jemell Rayam all pleaded guilty. Jenkins joined Baltimore's police department in 2003, first becoming a beat cop and patrolling the streets of Baltimore. Wayne Jenkins Image Credit: Baltimore Police Department/Associated Press. Hill told Al-Jazeera it was because then-Deputy Commissioner De Sousa got involved. When Jenkins called him to a house the GTTF was investigating, Stepp took pictures of the officers going in and out. It's going to take an almost unimaginable kind of effort to dig out the roots of corruption in the department, and it's much easier to just lock up the cops who get caught, and carry on with business as usual. 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. Former Baltimore Police Sgt. Using wiretaps and hidden recording devices, they had accumulated a wealth of evidence showing the officers were robbing citizens, filing for hundreds of hours of overtime they never worked, stealing drugs and even selling illegal firearms back on the streets. 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. In June 2018, after pleading guilty on charges of. Across the country, these plainclothes squads have often been where scandals are born. What was Jenkins really going to do with the drugs? I ask. "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. 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. In Jenkins' plea, it says that "in April 2015 following the riots after the death of Freddie Gray, Jenkins brought DS prescription medicines that he had stolen from someone looting a pharmacy so that DS could sell the medications". 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. Jenkins joined the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) on February 20, 2003 and was promoted to Sergeant on November 20, 2013. Finally, in March 2015, Internal Affairs chief Rodney Hill informed Jenkins that he was being charged internally with misconduct, neglect of duty and failure to supervise the officer in his charge, according to a leaked copy of the case file obtained by The Sun. His drill sergeant described him as having the utmost flawless character Ive seen in two decades of service. Donald Stepp was released from federal prison back in January of this year. Some defense attorneys say their clients told them Jenkins had robbed them. Instead, they go out looking for illegal activity people exchanging drugs or displaying bulges under clothing that could be guns. HBO asked Stepp to be a consultant on the project, which he enthusiastically agreed to do. 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. I mean, it had velocity, Jenkins said. He told the other officers to leave their cell phones and police vests in the car. At that time, I didnt think they were officers, Simon said. Plainclothes officers, as the description suggests, just work in street clothes usually casual rather than uniforms. During his time on the streets of Baltimore Jenkins was involved. "The largest share of the blame, the largest share of those crimes belongs to him," US attorney Leo Wise told the court. "I'm in prison for 25 years, there's no reason to lie.". "My dad would be alive today would it not be for his actions that day. Wayne Jenkins a former Marine? I'm standing in my pandemic "radio studio" - aka the closet in my apartment - surrounded by hangers holding button-up shirts and dresses. Later on, he claims, they'd throw the drugs out the window or down a sewer grate. He has covered the Baltimore Police Department and crime in Baltimore since 2008. 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. He says something that I've never heard anyone admit out loud. "Hi, ma'am," Jenkins says when I pick up. On the citys west side, officers were being pelted with bricks; some were hurt. This partnership lasted for five years. He popped the trunk and carried the drugs into the garage. The jury was shown axes, machetes and pry bars, as well as black masks that were found in Jenkins' van after his arrest. No one took anything, but Jenkins later mused about the possibilities. However, the focus on quantity rather than quality led Jenkins and the seven other GTTF officers to start planting evidence, take money from the homes they invaded, and even resell the drugs they seized back onto the streets. He said they were confiscating the cash and 20 pounds of marijuana. But when the officers exited the elevators on the building's second floor, they were met by an FBI SWAT team. On the off-ramp, I find four empty dime bags scattered along a section of sidewalk with no foot traffic. Contact Justin Fenton at jfenton@baltsun.com. He was getting suspects off the street, but his cases often werent holding up in court. 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 rushed off to join them. But the scope and breadth of these allegations were staggering. After an FBI investigation into the unit discovered the GTTF's crimes, federal officers arrested Jenkins alongside several others in the unit. And while searching the area, Jenkins claimed, he found a BB gun under a nearby car. Just how long ago Jenkins began stealing isnt clear. The message read: "Greetings. But the suits triggered no internal punishment by the police department. Jenkins is currently in prison. You're taught that - the second someone gets in trouble we meet up, and we talk face to face," he says. "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. He was also the ringleader of a criminal enterprise of police officers who were robbing people and dealing drugs. They direct their work, approve overtime pay and provide reports to higher-ranking supervisors. Now, the lawyers were sitting with Paul Pineau, chief of staff to then Baltimore States Attorney Gregg Bernstein, according to an account of the meeting obtained by The Sun. 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. Jenkins earned praise outside the department, too. Then they could enter the house and take the money, only later calling county officers to say they were executing the warrant. Some tried to complain, but were ignored. Jenkins said hed tried to be nice, but now they were going to jail. Jenkins winced as the handcuffs were placed on his wrists, and US Marshals led him out of a back door of the courtroom. As backup arrived, Jenkins spotted a man named George Sneed across the street. Stepp and Jenkins' history runs deep. He counters that the units helped bring down crime, and says he made it a point to scrutinize their conduct. They claimed they didnt see who did it. But thats likely not what triggered the unprovoked beating of OConnor. Inside was a stack of bills. Current and former officers said he was generally regarded favorably as a cowboy type who found big cases through a frenetic pace of citizen stops, which sometimes yielded information leading the way up a chain of drug dealers. 2023 BBC. Can this US city go 72 hours without a murder? It showed Sneed calmly standing across the street looking on, never even raising his arms. Jenkins pleaded guilty in court on January 5, 2018, for numerous counts of four of these charges. OConnor had been sloppy drunk, they testified, and his friends said they would get him home. He gave me a few reasons. Jenkins had told his squad hed heard over wiretaps that Belvedere Towers, a high-rise apartment complex in North Roland Park, was the scene of large drug deals. One afternoon, he took two officers there and they wound up stopping a drug deal in progress. Wayne Jenkins grew up in Middle River and is a graduate of Eastern Technical High School. Jenkins was a decorated cop and had a reputation for his role in several high-profile drug busts. 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. It feels a little bit like splitting hairs. According to testimony from Ward and Hendrix, Jenkins played an outsized role in the schemes. VideoAt the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Havana Syndrome unlikely to have hostile cause - US, How 10% of Nigerian registered voters delivered victory, Sake brewers toast big rise in global sales, The Indian-American CEO who wants to be US president, Blackpink lead top stars back on the road in Asia, Exploring the rigging claims in Nigeria's elections, 'Wales is in England' gaffe sparks TikToker's trip. He was convicted on multiple counts including racketeering, robbery and falsification of records. 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. In a recent interview, Simon told The Sun, I never had no BB gun. In federal prison, inmates are only allowed to talk on the phone for 15 minutes before the line is automatically cut. 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. 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. Jenkins' lawyer mentioned that he has been assaulted at least once by another inmate who was targeting him for being a former police officer. Weeks later, I search these locations myself to see if I can find anything. In fact, it's highly likely - if not certain - that many of the people Jenkins' put in prison himself had those tactics used on them by prosecutors. On Friday, both detectives Evodio Hendrix and Maurice Ward were sentenced to seven years in prison. 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. From 2006 to 2009, Jenkins was the subject of at least four lawsuits alleging misconduct. 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. When Jenkins was on paternity leave, commanders groused that his squads productivity dropped. We'll never be the same again.". At the trial four years later, Jenkins and his fellow officers claimed that the witness had been throwing bottles at them, but security camera footage shown at the trial proved what Jenkins claimed was not true. The two police officers came over because they had nothing else to do.. 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 conversation with Jenkins gets more complicated when we turn specifically to the crimes of the Gun Trace Task Force. I have to try to untangle his answers as he moves from subject to subject, sometimes so fast I can't keep up. The topic: Can we get Wayne Jenkins? Fries told the Sun, I never had no BB Gun under a nearby car Fries told men... Was released from federal prison, inmates are only allowed to talk on the Trace! The GTTF was investigating, Stepp took pictures of the Gun Trace Task Force 2016. 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