Used to tell me he won it playing poker.". Wayne Jenkins, ex-police sergeant, leading the Gun Trace Task Force Sergeant Wayne Jenkins was a decorated leader of the corrupt plain-clothes police unit in Baltimore whose detectives robbed . "I'm so sorry to the citizens of Baltimore.". "I'm finally trying to get my life back on track," he told me. Later in 2015, he took over a new squad of plainclothes officers within the latest rebranding, the Special Enforcement Section. They claimed they didnt see who did it. I think about Shawn Whiting, a former heroin dealer who went to prison for years after the officers robbed him. He also acknowledged stealing the man's $4,000 (2,956) watch, which he gave to Stepp to sell. Investigators recommended Jenkins be demoted and suspended without pay. Wayne Jenkins. He reminds me that the US Attorney's office found him more credible than Jenkins. In Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Chicago, plainclothes teams have been charged with corruption. As adults, they ran into each other again at an underground card game frequented by Baltimore Police officers. In an incident to which Jenkins would later plead guilty, the officers handcuffed two men. Some drug dealers told their lawyers that Jenkins made stuff up to arrest them and had kept a good chunk of their money and drugs before taking them in. The department valued their work too much to end this style of police work. Jenkins rushed off to join them. Both men have requested new trials. In the gloom I see the number of the bureau of prisons light up my cell phone screen. Meanwhile, his Twitter account is full of pictures of him on set, hamming it up with Bernthal and some of the other actors. Read more: Inside one of America's most corrupt police squads. His promotion required him to return to uniformed patrol for a time, and he was assigned to the Northeastern District. It feels a little bit like splitting hairs. He calls Stepp "the biggest exaggerator I've ever met in my life". My thoughts return to Kenneth Bumgardner, a hard-working father who was chased by the squad when they suspected him of having marijuana. His drill sergeant described him as having the utmost flawless character Ive seen in two decades of service. Within days, prosecutors issued a letter to police saying they were declining to charge Jenkins with a crime. I've been reporting on Jenkins, and the elite Gun Trace Task Force squad he once led, for nearly four years. But the scope and breadth of these allegations were staggering. In Justin Fenton's book We Own This City, on which the HBO series is based, the Baltimore Sun journalist explained that Jenkins would often be "caught in a lie" while giving evidence to a jury, but no complaints were put on his record. 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 . They testified he told them to carry BB guns to plant if they ever injured or killed an unarmed person, that he often took large quantities of drugs off of suspects without submitting them to the police evidence room. 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. He couldn't get anyone to believe him at the time, and to this day, he fears law enforcement. 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. Wayne Jenkins who was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for years of robberies, drug dealing and other crimes has asked a judge to release him just four . I just knew it was a lie, Ward recalls. It wasn't the first time I've heard that word to describe Jenkins. Justin Fenton takes listeners inside the investigation on the Roughly Speaking podcast. A squad of veteran police officers stood accused of committing numerous robberies, as well as extortion and overtime fraud. Jenkins, who is serving a 25-year sentence in a federal prison in South Carolina, declined to speak with The Sun. 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. But when the sun came up on 1 March 2017, the city awoke to a vastly different reality. Jenkins was hired by the Baltimore Police Department in 2003, according to state records obtained by The Baltimore Sun. Just as she was completing her podcast series on the story, she got a very unexpected call from prison. 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. I asked him if he thinks that another scandal is inevitable. According to the Internal Affairs file, the only times Jenkins had been disciplined by the department was for twice failing to appear in court. Wayne Jenkins posed as a . They ordered us to f--- them up; we f---ed them up, one of the responding officers, Robert Cirello, now retired, said later in an interview with The Sun. 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. 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. In June 2018, after pleading guilty on charges of. "I deserve to be punished. In November 2012, Wayne Jenkins was promoted to the rank of sergeant giving him new authority and freedom. Back before our interview, Jenkins' representative wanted me to speak to some of his old high school friends. Baltimore detectives convicted in shocking corruption trial Stepp grew up in Middle River, where he was friends with Jenkins's older brother. "So you did take money, ultimately?" Burley was sentenced to 15 years in prison, which he was serving until federal prosecutors uncovered the task force's corruption and freed him. In federal prison, inmates are only allowed to talk on the phone for 15 minutes before the line is automatically cut. Former Baltimore Police Department Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, currently inmate number 62928-037 at a federal prison in Kentucky, is on the line. . Arrest him, too, Jenkins yelled at the responding officers. Then-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake held a news conference to tout one of Jenkins big drug busts. He is working on a book about the Gun Trace Task Force, to be published by Random House. Then the feds found him. "He's a pathological liar," Stepp says. Ignoring warning signs of misconduct, Baltimore Police praised and promoted Gun Trace Task Force leader. "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. The message read: "Greetings. Jerry Rodriguez, a career Los Angeles police officer who was a deputy commissioner in Baltimore from 2013 to 2015, said the department was resistant to change. 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. "I fear nothing he knows or anything. Jenkins pleaded guilty in court on January 5, 2018, for numerous counts of four of these charges. "It shows what a committed, sophisticated, devious person can do," Mr Wise said. They didnt call for an ambulance or even write a report. Prosecutors urged the judge to sentence him to the maximum 30 years, adding that the unit's corruption affected 1,700 criminal cases. It took place as Jenkins and other officers were searching an apartment. Jenkins said hed tried to be nice, but now they were going to jail. 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. The bondsman would take care of selling them, then split the profits with the police sergeant. By Justin Fenton June 12, 2019 More in the series Part 1 The rise of Wayne. And that is what they want, German said, according to an Internal Affairs report. Jenkins joined the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) on February 20, 2003 and was promoted to Sergeant on November 20, 2013. Become a subscriber today to support investigative reporting like this. 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. The courtroom was also packed with Jenkins' family and friends. In March, HBO announced a new miniseries by David Simon, the creator of the classic Baltimore true crime series, 'The Wire'. Burley's vehicle struck another, killing Mr Davis. "I'd rather be a prosecutor so I don't overkill people. Hill could not be reached by The Sun for comment. Others were raised by defense attorneys and their clients, who said an overzealous Jenkins skirted legal standards in making arrests. He's due to be released in 2038. "He drew first blood," Stepp says of Jenkins. Hed grown up in the working class suburb, where his father worked two jobs, including at Bethlehem Steel. 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. 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 . Homegrown commanders took pride in being known as having knockers. All this happened over nothing, one of the brothers, Charles Lee, recalled recently. The actions of former Baltimore police Sergeant Wayne Jenkins and his team of plain-clothed officers in the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF) are explored in We Own This City. 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. Jenkins says that the veteran goaded him into taking money. Jon Bernthal embedded with Baltimore police to play city's dirtiest cop in HBO's "We Own This City" On "Salon Talks" Bernthal reveals he spoke to the real Sgt. Sergeant Wayne. "It ain't over. Gillian Whitfield recalled Jenkins as sweet and always willing to lend a hand. Baltimore can be a complicated and dangerous place, and the men and women the officers targeted and abused may have caused harm and abuse themselves. Then they could enter the house and take the money, only later calling county officers to say they were executing the warrant. As backup arrived, Jenkins spotted a man named George Sneed across the street. "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. "Right off the bat, we wasn't living lavishly. Maurice Ward, a former detective now serving a seven-year prison term for committing crimes with Jenkins, said he and other officers jockeyed to get on his team. 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 . They employed tactics that straddled and sometimes clearly crossed the line that divides aggressive policing and trampling on civil rights. "I'm grateful, very grateful.". "He's never been a true friend," Stepp says. Not all the allegations against Jenkins came from lawsuits. Ward wasnt sure what to make of it. Later, Jenkins did more than talk about such a theft. He was arrested along with almost every member of the unit in March 2017. Instead, while their cash and drugs were gone, the dealers were free men. Wayne Jenkins will be played by Jon Bernthal, the same actor who portrayed "The Punisher". He kept $10,000 for himself, saying he planned to install a front-end crash bar so his department-issued vehicle wouldnt get damaged in his frequent collisions. "This is a saying we state: 'Don't let probable cause stand in the way of a good arrest,'" Jenkins says. But Jenkins wanted to argue the details in his plea agreement, saying many of them weren't true. Jenkins released the men and told them hed follow up with them later. His wife is also depicted earlier in the series when Wayne, in his early days, attends a barbecue with his colleagues from the Baltimore Police Department and is annoyed by how they have more money than him. Two officers said he spoke openly about doing home invasions on high-level drug dealers that he called "monsters", because of the amount of drugs and cash he hoped they'd have stashed in their houses. Later on, he claims, they'd throw the drugs out the window or down a sewer grate. And Jenkins says, Did you look in the console? And he pulls the rug back and boom. the dim light of the Baltimore Police Departments downtown nerve center, Sgt. View all articles on the Gun Trace Task Force on The Baltimore Sun. Donald Stepp was released from federal prison back in January of this year. They walked far enough so they couldnt be seen from the street. He was also the ringleader of a criminal enterprise of police officers who were robbing people and dealing drugs. Detectives Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor went forward to trial and a jury found them guilty of robbery, extortion and fraud in February. 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. 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 . I'm standing in my pandemic "radio studio" - aka the closet in my apartment - surrounded by hangers holding button-up shirts and dresses. Wayne Jenkins, Gun Trace Task Force officer, The woods of Powder Mill Park, where Det. "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. "Wayne is truly sorry for his actions. Jenkins later alleged in official paperwork that Simon had pointed a weapon at Frieman and that he ran Simon down to stop the threat. This series was supported by the Pulitzer Center. The spouse of the third left a message telling me I could take what Jenkins told me and "stuff it". If I could take everything back in my life, I would have been a prosecutor," he says. 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. But Whiting is not so optimistic. In 2018, Jessica wrote a piece which detailed the explosive trial at a Baltimore federal courthouse that revealed the unit's crimes, She then turned that story into a new seven-part podcast series called Bad Cops which you can listen to in its entirety below. It didn't take long before Stepp began to suspect that Jenkins ratted him out. Yes, I did," he says. His police department personnel file shows no punishment related to the case. "It was a front for a criminal enterprise," Stepp said of the Gun Trace Task Force. These units often operated with little supervision. But two pronounced their innocence and went to trial, which I covered for the BBC. The man, Demetric Simon, 31, said he did have drugs on him and knew someone was following. His supplier needed to offload two garbage bags of pharmaceutical drugs stolen from people who had themselves looted pharmacies. 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. You guys willing to go kick in the dudes door and take the money? But that day, Jenkins drove toward the edge of town, bobbing in and out of traffic and running red lights, until he pulled over near a wooded area off Liberty Heights Avenue. Jenkins would stop bringing those big drug seizures to the evidence room, and instead give them to Stepp to sell. Not long after Stepp flipped on his former friend, Jenkins pled guilty. His punches came fast Jenkins was a trained boxer and OConnor soon felt the warmth of blood spilling down his cheek. Five of the former officers, including Jenkins, pleaded guilty. He and six members of that unit now sit in federal prison for crimes including conspiracy, racketeering and robbery, all committed under the guise of legitimate police work. This just begun.". In fact, Fries went on to promote Jenkins in June 2006 into a high-profile plainclothes unit called the Organized Crime Division. 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 had a criminal case to fight, and his freedom was more important. You never know until you get on this side, including me, what you do to families.". I also point out to him that it's a fairly common practice for prosecutors to level charges that are so serious that the defendant feels they have no choice but to plead guilty. 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. "This is Wayne.". Five years later, Simons claims were confirmed. Wayne Jenkins was living a double life. Jenkins idolized his sergeant, Michael Fries, the target of the expletive. One officer recalled Jenkins taunting colleagues waiting in line to submit evidence at police headquarters, bragging about how many guns he was getting off the street. 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. 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