Donny made every piece of that up.". At OConnors trial, Fries remarked that the others were worthless and didnt meet the standards of the organized crime unit. Some of his men also have acknowledged stealing well before they came together on the Gun Trace Task Force in 2016. That creates a culture its not unique to Baltimore, but its pronounced here that those guys should be given a pass, Davis said. Jenkins lied to them, saying he was a federal agent. Jenkins says that the veteran goaded him into taking money. What had he gotten himself into? Command created the monster, she said, and allowed it to go unchecked.. Marcus Taylor split up $20,000 in cash they stole in 2015. Credit: Kevin Richardson / Baltimore Sun, serving a federal sentence for tax evasion. I never aimed nothing at him . 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. "I never took a thing. A lot of what he told me was much more systematic. His account and Jenkins claim that hed found the gun is evocative of testimony by two of Jenkins officers in the 2018 Gun Trace Task Force trial. I couldn't help thinking about the many victims of the squad that I'd met over the three years I've been working on this story. "The largest share of the blame, the largest share of those crimes belongs to him," US attorney Leo Wise told the court. But then, about an hour later, the phone rings again. "This is Wayne.". All this happened over nothing, one of the brothers, Charles Lee, recalled recently. "My dad would be alive today would it not be for his actions that day. 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. Federal prosecutors displayed the contents of a bag found in the trunk of Sgt. We Own This City, an HBO Max miniseries out April 25, about a Baltimore Police Department (BPD) task force unit that went rogue, highlights some of the . He was serving his sentence at the Edgefield Federal Correctional Facility in South Carolina until 2020. 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. "I still maintain my innocence. Later, Jenkins did more than talk about such a theft. But Stepp had an ace up his sleeve - for months, he'd been documenting their crimes on his cell phone. If Wayne Jenkins asked you to come work for him, you felt honored, Ward said. "I fear nothing he knows or anything. Not long after Stepp flipped on his former friend, Jenkins pled guilty. 2023 BBC. But in less than a year, Sergeant Jenkins was put in charge of the new plainclothes squad in West Baltimore. Read more: Inside one of America's most corrupt police squads. Stepp says Jenkins started bringing over shipments of drugs on an almost daily basis, putting them in a locked shed behind Stepp's house. Jenkins started calling Stepp to the scenes of arrests, encouraging Stepp to try to get inside drug dealer's hideouts to steal whatever cash or narcotics he could find. Wayne Jenkins was on a mission to find big dealers and steal their drugs and cash. I asked him if he thinks that another scandal is inevitable. "Especially because we're short on time, is there anything that you kind of want to just say right off the bat?" 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. He says he was told that because these officers were so successful at seizing guns, there was nothing to be done. Wayne was a cops cop, local hero kind of guy, said Cirello, the retired officer. 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. His earliest admitted theft was in 2011. 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. I hoped it could spur a more honest discussion about what it's going to take to reform or even redefine what it means to be a cop in the US. No one took anything, but Jenkins later mused about the possibilities. Jenkins gave 150 percent on the street. The bag contained masks and other gear he used while stealing drugs and cash from people he and his team targeted. I never heard back, and he didn't seem to be responding to anyone else, either. They tracked other dealers and broke into their houses when no one was home. Jenkins must serve three years of supervised release after his custodial sentence. 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. And Jenkins, whod been identified as a rising talent early in his career, was celebrated among department brass and rank and file officers as a leader with an uncanny knack for delivering the goods. Jenkins had joined the force at 23 after serving three years in the Marines, where he took up boxing. They direct their work, approve overtime pay and provide reports to higher-ranking supervisors. When Jenkins was allowed to speak, he turned first to face the Davis family and apologised repeatedly. "I swear, I wish I would have known before I ever put anyone in here I wish I would have known the other side," he says at one point. 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. Five years later, Simons claims were confirmed. Wayne Jenkins fist felt like a hammer to Tim OConnors face. When the officers circled back later, the two were still outside holding beers. Sergeants are the eyes and ears of the command, the front-line supervisors trusted to keep close tabs on their officers. They urged his supervisors to get him back to work and focused, according to an internal police department investigation conducted after the indictments. "There was cameras everywhere, so I would never have took a dollar," he tells me. 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. And that's what I did.". Jenkins doled out $5,000 to each of the two officers and instructed them not to make any big purchases. 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. Critics argue Barksdale was among police leaders who fostered a warrior culture, to the citys detriment. 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. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. He started to worry. In June 2018, after pleading guilty on charges of. Jenkins joined Baltimore's police department in 2003, first becoming a beat cop and patrolling the streets of Baltimore. When Jenkins was on paternity leave, commanders groused that his squads productivity dropped. And that is what they want, German said, according to an Internal Affairs report. 'You say this, you say that, right?' Although she did not address the court, in a letter to Judge Catherine Blake, Jenkins' wife Kristy asked for leniency. The dealers would be sitting in a jail cell. They told me they were disturbed that he was being portrayed as a "monster". Wayne Jenkins will be played by Jon Bernthal, the same actor who portrayed "The Punisher". Jenkins was a rising star in the department, because of his ability to regularly bring in huge seizures of drugs and guns. "I have no respect for him.". "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.". This just begun.". It was surreal hearing his voice, talking to me. It took place as Jenkins and other officers were searching an apartment. Wayne Jenkins is a former BPD Sergeant who served as the leader of the Gun Trace Task Force. The idea that the Gun Trace Task Force went rogue simply because their sergeant was uniquely evil ignores all the systemic ways in which he was encouraged to operate the way he did, and the larger policing culture that supported him (it should also be noted that several of the squad's members started stealing money long before they joined the GTTF). View all articles on the Gun Trace Task Force on The Baltimore Sun. Wayne Jenkins in prison,. I wish I would never have stopped that vehicle," he said. He claims that it was Stepp's idea to start selling drugs together, not the other way around. As backup arrived, Jenkins spotted a man named George Sneed across the street. Plainclothes officers, as the description suggests, just work in street clothes usually casual rather than uniforms. OConnor had been sloppy drunk, they testified, and his friends said they would get him home. Prosecutors went as far as having witnesses appear before a grand jury, according to records obtained by The Sun. Jenkins admitted that he stole drugs from work and delivered them to Stepp, who would turn around and sell them. 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. Please sign up today and help make a difference. Wayne Jenkins, Gun Trace Task Force officer, The woods of Powder Mill Park, where Det. In part due to his cooperation in the case, he received a much shorter sentence than the officers of the GTTF. On the off-ramp, I find four empty dime bags scattered along a section of sidewalk with no foot traffic. Arrest him, too, Jenkins yelled at the responding officers. Youve got to be willing to dig into their s--- and confront them, Barksdale said. "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. Yes. He suggested another option. During his time on the streets of Baltimore Jenkins was involved. 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. Stepp's moving on with his life - in a sense. Jenkins winced as the handcuffs were placed on his wrists, and US Marshals led him out of a back door of the courtroom. He is serving the harshest sentence : 25 years . Oakley took the rare step of getting onto the witness stand to rebut the officers, as did an independent witness who backed his account. As Jenkins is telling me this, he is naming names. He reviewed hours of body camera footage from their arrests, watched tapes of their courtroom appearances, reviewed several thousand pages of documents, including internal police department files, and interviewed dozens of people including two of the convicted officers, some of the gun unit's victims, other current and former Baltimore police officers and commanders, defense attorneys and prosecutors. "Seen it done, honest to god, 500 times.". "I knew the things we were doing were wrong," he said. They'd known one another's families as children. "an inmate in a federal prison," the robot finishes. 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 . It didn't take long before Stepp began to suspect that Jenkins ratted him out. It was billed at the time as the largest cocaine seizure in department history, one of Jenkins many large-scale seizures. He claims that he was told early on to lie on police reports and warrant applications in order to make their arrests sound like they were done with proper probable cause, meaning a legal reason to stop someone. For the most part, these defendants decided it wasnt in their interest to tell government authorities that. He also acknowledged stealing the man's $4,000 (2,956) watch, which he gave to Stepp to sell. "I just go through this on a daily basis, scared of police, wondering when they gonna stop you, trying to plant drugs on you or something like that. Jenkins was stationed in North Carolina but often made the long trip back home to Middle River. I dont know the nuances, what was said, what wasnt. What Detective Wayne Jenkins wrote in his affidavit for the search warrant was a complete fabrication, Oakley said. According to the Internal Affairs file, the only times Jenkins had been disciplined by the department was for twice failing to appear in court. Become a subscriber today to support investigative reporting like this. Though Simon says he reported the incident to the police departments Internal Affairs office, he ultimately stopped cooperating on advice from his defense lawyer. 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. So he gave up and entered a guilty plea. Plainclothes officers made the most arrests, they seized the most drugs and money, assets, former Police Commissioner Kevin Davis told The Sun. I'm losing a lot of teeth, you know, they used to be nice and pretty.". "I'm so sorry for what you're going through. But Davis, Baltimores police commissioner from 2015 to 2018 and a veteran of two other departments, calls plainclothes units necessary and critical to the crime fight. They go looking for guns and drugs, he said, and often are successful. This call is from", A human voice breaks in: "Wayne Jenkins.". He admitted to knowing . 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. 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. 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