Instead, while their cash and drugs were gone, the dealers were free men. The officer they talked to didnt seem like a candidate for that, the lawyers said. It was nicknamed The Barn an apparent homage to the offices of a corrupt police unit on the television series The Shield. The show, modeled after a 1990s Los Angeles Police Department scandal, featured a strike team that roughed up suspects, lied about their investigations and took a cut of their drug busts. And Jenkins says, Did you look in the console? And he pulls the rug back and boom. The bottles were winged at us. When the phone rings, I put the call on speaker and hear a robotic, pre-recorded female voice: "You have a prepaid call. "I never had [theft complaints] because I never took money off individuals. "It was a front for a criminal enterprise," Stepp said of the Gun Trace Task Force. These officers often operate with a great deal of independence. 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 . Wayne Jenkins. "I thought it was a winner.". For example, I asked him about the robbery of a man who lived in a large mansion in the suburbs of Baltimore - a robbery he pled guilty to in his plea agreement. He also says that he only made roughly $75,000 off of the narcotic sales, as opposed to the figure put on it by Stepp. But the police departments Internal Affairs office still had an open file on the case. They employed tactics that straddled and sometimes clearly crossed the line that divides aggressive policing and trampling on civil rights. 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. But I did call them, and the Baltimore Police Department, to see if anyone would respond to this laundry list of allegations. For the most part, these defendants decided it wasnt in their interest to tell government authorities that. Becoming Wayne Jenkins: Jon Bernthal's Deep Dive Into We Own This City 's Corrupt Cop For the HBO miniseries, the actor went on nightly ride-alongs and spoke at length with the imprisoned. "He is no more than a common criminal," Davis' daughter, Shirley Johnson, said of Jenkins. "This is Wayne.". 3.4M views, 20K likes, 1.4K loves, 6.8K comments, 52K shares, Facebook Watch Videos from The Baltimore Sun: A criminal with a badge: A Baltimore Sun investigation into the story of Baltimore Police. He popped the trunk and carried the drugs into the garage. "I see some police officers harassing people, doing the same little tactics that the Gun Trace Task Force was doing.". The Parkville American Legion Post named him its Officer of the Year. I have to try to untangle his answers as he moves from subject to subject, sometimes so fast I can't keep up. Wayne Jenkins joined Baltimore's police department way back in 2003 as a beat cop patrolling the streets of Baltimore. Near Druid Hill Park, amid the shouting, sirens and buzzing choppers overhead, he commandeered a state prison department van and helped pull injured officers inside. The indictment of Jenkins and six of his gun task force officers on federal racketeering charges rocked Baltimore when the announcement came in March 2017. It was a red flag. Not long after Stepp flipped on his former friend, Jenkins pled guilty. The GTTF did not hold a monopoly on harm, of course. Jenkins is currently in prison. Stepp turned everything over to the US prosecutors. But Internal Affairs was still working on the case that the States Attorneys Office had decided it could not pursue: the suspicion that Jenkins might have planted drugs in a car to justify an arrest. 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. During the altercation, a passerby named George Sneed was assaulted by officer Robert Cirello who broke his jaw, leading Sneed to sue. However, he was also sued for misconduct before his arrest in 2017. In the years since his arrest, he'd never given a public interview. One of the most shocking incidents from the plea agreement is an event that Jenkins now unequivocally denies. At that time, it was within De Sousas purview as the deputy commissioner in charge of administrative matters to intervene to resolve a discipline case, according to another former deputy commissioner, Jason Johnson. Or harm you or even kill you.". Despite Jenkins bravado, the jury found in favor of OConnor and awarded $75,000. The sergeant took no one else from the flex squad. He said they were confiscating the cash and 20 pounds of marijuana. He counters that the units helped bring down crime, and says he made it a point to scrutinize their conduct. But thats likely not what triggered the unprovoked beating of OConnor. 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. Simon's new project will tell a fictionalised version of the Gun Trace Task Force saga, and began filming on the streets of Baltimore over the summer. I thought, How is he doing it? Jenkins was given a 25-year prison sentence on June 7, 2018, which he is currently in the midst of serving at a federal prison in Kentucky. Read about our approach to external linking. Youve got to be willing to dig into their s--- and confront them, Barksdale said. He had a criminal case to fight, and his freedom was more important. His eye socket was fractured. In March, HBO announced a new miniseries by David Simon, the creator of the classic Baltimore true crime series, 'The Wire'. In September 2021, Jenkins spoke with BBC journalist. I mean, it had velocity, Jenkins said. He's doing, as he likes to say, "rather swell". Plenty of times he's gone behind me and found them.. He says he couldn't risk it as a father with a young family. I've been reporting on Jenkins, and the elite Gun Trace Task Force squad he once led, for nearly four years. 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'. Having taken money before with previous squads, he expected the officers might skim some and submit the rest as cover. Jenkins would stop bringing those big drug seizures to the evidence room, and instead give them to Stepp to sell. What Detective Wayne Jenkins wrote in his affidavit for the search warrant was a complete fabrication, Oakley said. Blake who in 2017 would wind up presiding over the Gun Trace Task Force corruption case noted that the other officers present backed Jenkins account. Jenkins got a bronze star for his part in the 2009 recovery of 41 kilograms of cocaine $1 million worth in a mans truck. On June 7, 2018, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. I wasnt privy. I asked him if he thinks that another scandal is inevitable. In my conversation with Jenkins, he spent a lot of time disputing Stepp's account of their partnership. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Updated: Mar 1, 2023 / 02:16 PM EST. "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. "We're not stupid. Yet another of Jenkins' friends said something I wasn't expecting. Historical Accuracy (Q&A): Is Sgt. Any attempts to make the force become less of a warrior and more of a guardian was looked at terribly, he 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. Contact Justin Fenton at jfenton@baltsun.com. In fact, Fries went on to promote Jenkins in June 2006 into a high-profile plainclothes unit called the Organized Crime Division. Wayne Jenkins in prison,. . He couldn't get anyone to believe him at the time, and to this day, he fears law enforcement. Jenkins, meanwhile, was the best officer I had working under my command, Fries said. 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 . Right away I learn that Jenkins is an incredibly fast talker. "I'm wrong, God knows I'm wrong," the 37-year-old said. The bondsman would take care of selling them, then split the profits with the police sergeant. Video, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Read the full story of Baltimore's Gun Trace Task Force, Inside one of America's most corrupt police squads, Harry and Meghan told to 'vacate' Frogmore Cottage, Fungus case forces Jack Daniels to halt construction, Rare Jurassic-era bug found at Arkansas Walmart, China and Belarus call for peace in Ukraine, Ed Sheeran says wife developed tumour in pregnancy, NFL hopeful accused of racing in deadly car crash, Beer and wine sales in Canada fall to all-time low, Dozens of girls treated after new Iran poisonings. If Wayne Jenkins asked you to come work for him, you felt honored, Ward said. Jenkins said: "I never had [theft complaints] because I never took money off individuals. 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. "He's like, 'I'm not telling you to do anything, I'm just saying it sure would be nice if we had $10,000 apiece to go up to Atlantic City,'" Jenkins recalls. "Hi, ma'am," Jenkins says when I pick up. 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. According to the Internal Affairs file, the only times Jenkins had been disciplined by the department was for twice failing to appear in court. The dealers would be sitting in a jail cell. Sgt. When the man stopped his car and started to run away, Jenkins drove after him and into someones front yard, where he struck him. FOX45 looks at the 8 former officers of the Gun Trace Task ForceThe ring leader of the squad Wayne Jenkins is currently serving the longest sentence out of the members federally indicted on . Jenkins and members of his squad were praised for their work getting guns off the streets in an October 2016 police department newsletter. "Obviously I'm in here now, so I see both sides. 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. 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. The leaked case file doesnt say why. He resigned and the top spot at the Baltimore Police Department remains vacant. "Wayne is truly sorry for his actions. 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