Wayne Jenkins will be played by Jon Bernthal, the same actor who portrayed "The Punisher". Later in 2015, he took over a new squad of plainclothes officers within the latest rebranding, the Special Enforcement Section. No one took anything, but Jenkins later mused about the possibilities. "And I remember taking the $10,000.". I never heard back, and he didn't seem to be responding to anyone else, either. Theres been plenty of times where the suspect has said, The drugs are in the car, and I go and I cant find them. The first 15 minutes are over in a flash. Just how long ago Jenkins began stealing isnt clear. Wayne Jenkins fist felt like a hammer to Tim OConnors face. He said he started dealing drugs at age 9, selling. While Jenkins most serious crimes the drug dealing, the robberies appear to have been well hidden, it is not surprising they flourished within Baltimores permissive plainclothes culture. The leaked case file doesnt say why. Human error to blame for train crash - Greek PM, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece. Wayne Jenkins, 37, pleaded guilty in January to robbery . "He's a pathological liar," Stepp says. The prosecutors characterised both men as having less culpability in the GTTF's schemes and that Ward in particular had provided valuable information that lead to additional charges against other officers. "an inmate in a federal prison," the robot finishes. As in the past, a video had surfaced that conflicted with the written account of a drug arrest by Jenkins and another officer. 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. Jenkins pleaded guilty in January and admitted taking part in at least 10 robberies of Baltimore citizens, planting drugs on innocent people and re-selling drugs he stole from suspects on an almost daily basis, including heroin, cocaine and prescription painkillers. To learn more about their behavior, The Sun obtained several thousand pages of court records, dozens of body camera videos and hundreds of police department emails and restricted internal files. No one had called police to complain, but Jenkins and Fries told the men to go inside. The spouse of the third left a message telling me I could take what Jenkins told me and "stuff it". 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. Some tried to complain, but were ignored. Wayne Jenkins grew up in Middle River and is a graduate of Eastern Technical High School. "He is no more than a common criminal," Davis' daughter, Shirley Johnson, said of Jenkins. So he gave up and entered a guilty plea. 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. ET on HBO. 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. "It strikes at the foundation of our entire criminal justice system.". They walked far enough so they couldnt be seen from the street. 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. Having taken money before with previous squads, he expected the officers might skim some and submit the rest as cover. What was Jenkins really going to do with the drugs? What if one of the men who was robbed turned out to be a federal informant? 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. In December 2017, eight months after Jenkins was arrested, the FBI and Baltimore County officers broke down Stepp's door and arrested him in his kitchen. Wayne Jenkins, Baltimore's dirtiest cop, is sentenced: It still doesn't feel like justice Jenkins was supposed to get guns off the street in Baltimore but wound up running a vicious. 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. 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. Sergeants are the eyes and ears of the command, the front-line supervisors trusted to keep close tabs on their officers. He was scared. Prosecutors urged the judge to sentence him to the maximum 30 years, adding that the unit's corruption affected 1,700 criminal cases. It was a red flag. He started to worry. 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. He says he was told that because these officers were so successful at seizing guns, there was nothing to be done. "Pills of heroin, bags of marijuana," he says. De Sousa handled the discipline, and they had worked a deal, Hill said, according to a transcript of the interview. 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. I think about Shawn Whiting, a former heroin dealer who went to prison for years after the officers robbed him. During his time on the streets of Baltimore Jenkins was involved. This past summer, as I was wrapping up work on "Bad Cops", a strange email appeared in my inbox. 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. . They said Jenkins instructed them to carry BB guns to plant on suspects to justify their actions if they made a mistake. Once it left my shop they had reduced the punishment.. 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. "It was a front for a criminal enterprise," Stepp said of the Gun Trace Task Force. Last month, Mr De Sousa was indicted for failure to pay his taxes by the same prosecutors who brought the GTTF case. "I thought it was a winner.". But when the sun came up on 1 March 2017, the city awoke to a vastly different reality. When one of the men darted into his home, Jenkins rushed in after him. BALTIMORE, MD A Baltimore police sergeant has admitted to robbing citizens, selling stolen drugs and putting innocent men behind bars, among other offenses. Wayne Jenkins in prison,. The former ringleader of the Baltimore police Gun Trace Task Force and one of its detectives were sentenced Thursday to federal prison. Or harm you or even kill you.". He couldn't get anyone to believe him at the time, and to this day, he fears law enforcement. I wish I would never have stopped that vehicle," he said. But the Baltimore states attorneys office continued to use Jenkins. 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. The same video led to a rare police department disciplinary case against Jenkins, who was internally charged with misconduct in 2015, according to a copy of the case file reviewed by The Sun. 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. "I felt comfortable with it because all the police officers that I met, which were many during the card games, in my opinion, they owned the city," Stepp would later tell the jury at the GTTF trial. Investigators recommended Jenkins be demoted and suspended without pay. What Detective Wayne Jenkins wrote in his affidavit for the search warrant was a complete fabrication, Oakley said. Hill could not be reached by The Sun for comment. 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. Although she did not address the court, in a letter to Judge Catherine Blake, Jenkins' wife Kristy asked for leniency. He served 20 months of a five year sentence in connection with the Gun Trace Task Force case, before being granted a compassionate release. 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. So I kind of had a mental, like maybe a messed up moral code.". Then-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake held a news conference to tout one of Jenkins big drug busts. He took pictures of himself and Jenkins together inside the police department, where Stepp would sometimes pick up drugs. "I deserve to be punished. "I fear nothing he knows or anything. "Seen it done, honest to god, 500 times.". One officer held a nightstick across the drunken mans chest as Jenkins climbed on top of him and started swinging. This series was supported by the Pulitzer Center. His promotion required him to return to uniformed patrol for a time, and he was assigned to the Northeastern District. Become a subscriber today to support investigative reporting like this. Within days, prosecutors issued a letter to police saying they were declining to charge Jenkins with a crime. Today, he's a free man, living without restrictions with his spouse and young daughter in the eastern part of Baltimore County. "This is Wayne.". Prosecutors investigated and even presented evidence to a grand jury but concluded they didnt have enough evidence to obtain an indictment. He states flatly that Jenkins is lying to me. In a 26 page letter hand written from his cell at the Federal Corrections institution in South Carolina, former Baltimore Police Sergeant Wayne Jenkins tells a judge that he saved a . Homegrown commanders took pride in being known as having knockers. As Jenkins is telling me this, he is naming names. 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. It's no wonder people come out meaner than when they come in.". De Sousa, who later served as commissioner and is currently serving time on federal tax charges, says he doesnt remember the case. Wayne Jenkins, who led . After three weeks of astonishing testimony, the jury found the two remaining officers guilty. He is very remorseful.". The jury found against the officer who broke Sneeds jaw but cleared Jenkins. Then the feds found him. If Wayne Jenkins asked you to come work for him, you felt honored, Ward said. "I'm finally trying to get my life back on track," he told me. 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. And that's what I did.". Used to tell me he won it playing poker.". When Jenkins called him to a house the GTTF was investigating, Stepp took pictures of the officers going in and out. But thats likely not what triggered the unprovoked beating of OConnor. I am Agent and Representative as to Mr Jenkins. In his plea deal, Jenkins admitted he planted heroin on Burley to try to justify the fatal collision. These units often operated with little supervision. "Absolutely. Stepp turned everything over to the US prosecutors. But Stepp had an ace up his sleeve - for months, he'd been documenting their crimes on his cell phone. "This was a great abuse of the public trust," said Judge Blake. 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. They weren't being paid by the taxpayers to keep the city safe, and weren't operating with all the power and protections that police have. "Wayne is truly sorry for his actions. But when the officers exited the elevators on the building's second floor, they were met by an FBI SWAT team. They can let a suspect go, if they can lead to bigger fish. But I did call them, and the Baltimore Police Department, to see if anyone would respond to this laundry list of allegations. But the video captured by closed-circuit TV showed the officers searching the car extensively and never appearing to make a discovery. 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. Here is everything you need to know about the real Jenkins and where he is now. The two said Jenkins had found drugs in the ceiling of a mans vehicle. His punches came fast Jenkins was a trained boxer and OConnor soon felt the warmth of blood spilling down his cheek. Instead, they go out looking for illegal activity people exchanging drugs or displaying bulges under clothing that could be guns. "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. 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. 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. Wayne Jenkins' police vehicle when he was arrested in 2017. "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 never heard back from the Baltimore Police Department. At the time, Stepp was running his own bail bond company, Double D Bail Bonds. Prosecutors went as far as having witnesses appear before a grand jury, according to records obtained by The Sun. Donald Stepp was released from federal prison back in January of this year. Why cant I be like this guy?. Many Baltimore residents had long distrusted the police, and more so after the death of Freddie Gray. He idolizes this guy, said Shelley Glenn, another prosecutor. 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. HBO asked Stepp to be a consultant on the project, which he enthusiastically agreed to do. On the citys west side, officers were being pelted with bricks; some were hurt. I got gangster charges, racketeering charges, things they usually give the mob, who were burying bodies in cement.". He says something that I've never heard anyone admit out loud. 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. When his case went to 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. But it's the big man upstairs," he says. Later, Jenkins did more than talk about such a theft. Former Baltimore Police Department Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, currently inmate number 62928-037 at a federal prison in Kentucky, is on the line. Shawn Whiting, a man whose house was robbed of $16,000 and a kilo-and-a-half of heroin, testified that he knew that as a drug dealer, his word counted for much less than the 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. "It shows what a committed, sophisticated, devious person can do," Mr Wise said. As adults, they ran into each other again at an underground card game frequented by Baltimore Police officers. It took place as Jenkins and other officers were searching an apartment. The pair also stole valuables, like high-end wrist watches, in break-ins. She said she found Hersl in particular to be very credible.. In the years since his arrest, he'd never given a public interview. It turned out that federal agents had the unit under surveillance for months. 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. Jenkins joined Baltimore's police department in 2003, first becoming a beat cop and patrolling the streets of Baltimore. 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. From 2006 to 2009, Jenkins was the subject of at least four lawsuits alleging misconduct. Wayne Jenkins joined Baltimore's police department way back in 2003 as a beat cop patrolling the streets of Baltimore. And of course, Jenkins is also hoping for a sentenced reduction of some kind. 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. Five of the former officers, including Jenkins, pleaded guilty. One former supervisor never responded. They had the autonomy to catch and release suspects and develop informants. 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. ", Explaining the tactics of the GTTF, he also told the publication: "This is a saying we state: 'Don't let probable cause stand in the way of a good arrest. Sneed was chased and caught, and his jaw was broken in the process. I lived modest, we wasn't enriching ourselves," he answers. The conversation with Jenkins gets more complicated when we turn specifically to the crimes of the Gun Trace Task Force. "Life in prison with three small children. "Later on that evening, Gondo did give me money, that means hours later, I'm talking hours later, he gave me money.". Credit: Baltimore Police. "It ain't over. Your digital subscription helps pay for The Baltimore Sun's investigative reporting. 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