Baltimore City to pay $450k settlement, 40th connected with Gun Trace Task Force

BALTIMORE -- Baltimore City is paying out $450,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by Ricardo Shaw who claims a member of the disgraced Gun Trace Task Force falsely arrested and planted drugs on him.

The settlement was approved by Baltimore's Board of Estimates.

Shaw was arrested by Baltimore Police Detective Maurice Ward and others back in 2009.

He pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute and was sentenced to three years in jail, but served about 2 ½ years before he was released in 2012. 

However, that conviction was vacated in 2019 after the revelations that Ward and other members of the GTTF were routinely violating people's rights and stealing money and drugs, and planting money and drugs and other evidence to justify arrests.

This settlement is the 40th reached by the city in connection with the Task Force.

More than $22 million have been paid out.