Early Release For Two Former Detectives Convicted In Baltimore GTTF Police Corruption Scandal
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Two of the convicted former officers from the disgraced Gun Trace Task Force have been released from federal prison. They are the first of the original eight arrested in March 2017 to be freed in what is the largest corruption scandal in Baltimore police history.
According to the Bureau of Prisons, former detectives Evodio Hendrix and Maurice Ward were released on February 16th. They served less than five years of their seven-year sentences.
Professor David Jaros with the University of Baltimore School of Law said it is likely the two got credits for good behavior as well as for rehabilitation programs.
"In addition to not getting infractions and earning a good time credit, they did this additional rehabilitative programming and were able to lop off some additional time," he said, while also noting the danger of the offenses and abuse of public trust. "Everyone involved in this case committed serious crimes which were incredibly damaging both to those immediately involved and to the ability to have police do their jobs in Baltimore."
Hendrix and Ward admitted to robbing citizens multiple times and falsifying overtime. One incident included breaking into a home without a warrant and stealing cash from a safe that contained $200,000 and trying to cover it up on video.
Detective Hendrix' father told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren in 2018 that his son "made a mistake."
Ward and Hendrix did cooperate extensively with federal prosecutors who recommended in 2018 that they serve below the recommended guidelines. Their original sentences were half the maximum.
At sentencing, Ward said he was trying to transfer out of the GTTF before he was arrested. But the lawyer who lead an independent investigation into the corruption told Hellgren in January that he had trouble getting any of the convicted officers to cooperate with his team and doubted whether they meant their apologies.
"Here was one opportunity for them to help everyone including their colleagues in the police department and the public and the Baltimore community. Why did they do what they did? And they decided to pass on it, so you have to wonder whether they were really sorry after all," investigator Michael Bromwich said.
The report states: "We were unsuccessful in gaining the cooperation of any of the GTTF members. Despite their profuse apologies to BPD and the community at the time they were sentenced, these former GTTF members declined to back up those apologies with meaningful contributions that could help BPD and its members learn lessons from their personal experiences. We did obtain the assistance of one of the non-GTTF members who has been prosecuted, Victor Rivera, who fully cooperated with us and was a source of significant insight into his personal involvement in corruption and how it began."
The supervisor of the GTTF, former Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, received the harshest punishment of 25 years in prison.
"He was much more interested in having a movie producer come in and sit with us during the interview," Bromwich said. "A guy who passed himself off as Jenkins' representative—who is not a lawyer and was essentially one of his former cellmates—drew this out for over a year. And so I don't think that Jenkins was ever particularly sincere about doing the interview under our ground rules."
The report provided several recommendations to the BPD for training and transparency to prevent similar corruption in the future. "This is a deep problem that is not going away easily and it's going to require a lot of steady and constant attention for us to make progress," Professor Jaros said.
