Tag Archives: Baltimore

Justice Department asks for 90 days to review agreement with Baltimore

A young boy greets police officers in riot gear during a 2005 march in Baltimore. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

(Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department on Monday asked a federal court for 90 days to review an agreement reached with Baltimore for the city to enact a series of police reforms in how officers use force and transport prisoners, court documents showed.

The city and justice department reached the agreement, known as a consent decree, in January, almost two years after the death of a black man, Freddie Gray, of injuries sustained while in police custody sparked a day of rioting and arson in the majority-black city. It also led to an investigation that found the city’s police routinely violated residents’ civil rights.

Gray, 25, died of injuries sustained in the back of a police van in April 2015. His was one of a series of high-profile deaths in U.S. cities from Ferguson, Missouri, to North Charleston, South Carolina, that sparked an intense debate about race and justice and fueled the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Justice Department needs the 90 days to review the agreement as it develops strategies to support law enforcement agencies throughout the U.S., lawyers for the department said in a motion filed in United States District Court for the District of Maryland.

“The Department has determined that permitting it more time to examine the consent decree proposed in this case in light of these initiatives will help ensure that the best result is achieved for the people of the City,” they wrote, asking for a hearing set for Thursday to be postponed until June.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh opposes the request for an extension, she said in a statement.

“Much has been done to begin the process of building faith between the police department and the community it seeks to serve. Any interruption in moving forward may have the effect of eroding the trust that we are working hard to establish,” she said.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a memo also filed to the court that the Justice Department will review all consent decrees and other police reform agreements that are in place with more than a dozen cities.

The 227-page consent decree agreement in Baltimore was reached in the final days of the Obama administration. It was the result of months of negotiations after a federal report released in August found that the city’s 2,600-member police department routinely violated black residents’ civil rights with strip searches, by excessively using force and other means.

(This version of the story was refiled to add word “with” in headline)

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Michael Perry)

Seven Baltimore police officers arrested on racketeering charges

A protester looks on as clouds of smoke and crowd control agents rise shortly after the deadline for a city-wide curfew passed in Baltimore, Maryland April 28, 2015, as crowds protest the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died in police custody. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

By Ian Simpson

(Reuters) – Seven Baltimore police officers were arrested on Wednesday on federal racketeering charges for robbing and extorting up to $200,000 from victims, along with stealing guns and drugs, prosecutors said.

Many of the alleged shakedowns took place while the Baltimore Police Department was under intense media scrutiny and facing a U.S. Justice Department civil rights investigation for the 2015 police-involved death of a black man that plunged the largely African-American city into turmoil.

A grand jury last week indicted six detectives and a sergeant on charges of extorting money and robbing residents, filing false court paperwork and making false overtime claims, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Maryland said. The indictment was unsealed on Wednesday.

“These are really simply robberies by people wearing police uniforms,” U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein told a news conference.

The officers, all members in 2015 and 2016 of a gun-crime investigation unit, stole firearms, drugs and cash ranging from $200 to $200,000 from victims, some of whom had not committed crimes, Rosenstein’s office said in a statement.

The investigation began about a year ago as an outgrowth of a federal Drug Enforcement Administration probe into a drug-trafficking ring, Rosenstein said. One of the officers also faces a charge of possessing and planning to distribute heroin.

The officers had initial appearances on Wednesday in a U.S. court in Baltimore and were ordered held pending detention hearings, a spokeswoman for Rosenstein said.

In a statement, Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said: “Reform isn’t always a pretty thing to watch unfold, but it’s necessary in our journey toward a police department our City deserves.”

The head of the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police union, Gene Ryan, said in a statement he was “very disturbed” over the charges, but declined further comment until the cases were resolved.

All the officers are charged with racketeering conspiracy for robberies and extortion while part of the gun-crime unit. Five of the seven are charged with racketeering for shakedowns before they joined the task force.

They face a maximum of 20 years in prison for each count.

Baltimore was torn by rioting in April 2015 after a black man, Freddie Gray, died from an injury suffered in police custody. Six officers were indicted, but none were convicted.

Baltimore and the Justice Department reached agreement last month on a consent decree that calls for police reforms. The decree is awaiting approval by a federal judge.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney)

U.S. in deal to reform Baltimore police after Freddie Gray death

mural of late Freddie Gray in Baltimore

By Donna Owens

BALTIMORE (Reuters) – The city of Baltimore will enact a series of police reforms including changes in how officers use force and transport prisoners under an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department filed in federal court on Thursday.

The agreement comes almost two years after the death of a black man, Freddie Gray, of injuries sustained while in police custody sparked a day of rioting and arson in the majority-black city. It also led to an investigation that found the city’s police routinely violated residents’ civil rights.

Outgoing U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the deal, which is subject to a judge’s approval, would be binding even after President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20.

“The reforms in this consent decree will help ensure effective and constitutional policing, restore the community’s trust in law enforcement, and advance public and officer safety,” Lynch told reporters, flanked by recently elected Mayor Catherine Pugh.

The 227-page consent decree agreement is the result of months of negotiations after a federal report released in August found that the city’s 2,600-member police department routinely violated black residents’ civil rights with strip searches, by excessively using force and other means.

The probe followed the April 2015 death of Gray, 25, who died of injuries sustained in the back of a police van. His was one of a series of high-profile deaths in U.S. cities from Ferguson, Missouri, to North Charleston, South Carolina, that sparked an intense debate about race and justice and fueled the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Department of Justice is scheduled to release the findings of its investigation into the Chicago Police Department on Friday in the Midwest city, local media reported. In Philadelphia on Friday, a report on reform efforts by the Philadelphia Police Department will be released, according to a statement from the Department of Justice.

Prosecutors brought charges against six officers involved in Gray’s arrest but secured no convictions.

William Murphy Jr., an attorney who represented the Gray family in a civil suit against the city that led to a $6 million settlement, praised the deal.

“Make no mistake, today is a revolution in policing in Baltimore,” Murphy said.

The head of city’s police union was warier, saying his group had not been a part of the negotiations.

“Neither our rank and file members who will be the most affected, nor our attorneys, have had a chance to read the final product,” Gene Ryan, president of the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police, said in a statement.

City officials said union officials had been involved in talks early on but stopped attending meetings.

(Additional reporting by Timothy McLaughlin in Chicago. Editing by Tom Brown and Andrew Hay)

FBI report expected to show violent crime rise in some U.S. cities

Phone banks of the FBI

By Julia Harte

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Violent crime in certain big U.S. cities in 2015 likely increased over 2014, although the overall crime rate has remained far below peak levels of the early 1990s, experts said, in advance of the FBI’s annual crime report to be released later on Monday.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s report was expected to show a one-year increase in homicides and other violent crimes in cities including Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., based on already published crime statistics.

Coming on the day of the first presidential campaign debate between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, the report could “be turned into political football,” said Robert Smith, a research fellow at Harvard Law School, in a teleconference on Friday with other crime experts.

A rise in violent crime in U.S. cities since 2014 has already been revealed in preliminary 2015 figures released by the FBI in January.

A recent U.S. Justice Department-funded study examined the nation’s 56 largest cities and found 16.8 percent more murders last year over 2014.

Trump last week praised aggressive policing tactics, including the “stop-and-frisk” approach.

Clinton has pushed for stricter gun control to help curb violence and has called for the development of national guidelines on the use of force by police officers.

FBI Director James Comey warned last year that violent crime in the United States might rise because increased scrutiny of policing tactics had created a “chill wind” that discouraged police officers from aggressively fighting crime.

Increased crime has been concentrated in segregated and impoverished neighborhoods of big cities. Experts said in such areas crime can best be fought through better community policing and alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent crime.

“We’re just beginning to see a shift in mentality in law enforcement from a warrior mentality … to a guardian mentality,” said Carter Stewart, a former prosecutor for the Southern District of Ohio, on the teleconference. “I don’t want us as a country to go backwards.”

In Chicago, 54 more people were murdered in 2015 than the year before, a 13 percent jump in the city’s murder rate, according to an April study by New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice.

(Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Matthew Lewis)

Charges dropped against remaining Baltimore officers in Freddie Gray case

Police watch on as a man participates in a protest in Union Square after Baltimore Police Officer Caesar Goodson Jr. was acquitted of all charges for his involvement in the death of Freddie Gray in the Manhattan borough of New York

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Prosecutors dropped charges against the remaining three police officers in connection with the death of black detainee Freddie Gray, the Washington Post and CNN reported on Wednesday.

Last week the prosecutors failed for the fourth time to secure a conviction against a police officer in the case, and Baltimore’s police union called on prosecutors to drop the charges against three officers still awaiting trial.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson and Susan Heavey; Writing by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)

Baltimore police lieutenant acquitted in Freddie Gray death

Lt. Brian Rice in undated booking photo provided by the Baltimore Police Department

By Donna Owens

BALTIMORE (Reuters) – A Maryland judge on Monday acquitted Baltimore police Lieutenant Brian Rice of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office for the April 2015 death of black detainee Freddie Gray.

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams handed down his verdict after a bench trial. Rice, 42, is the highest-ranking officer charged in Gray’s death from a broken neck suffered in a police transport van.

Gray’s death triggered protests and rioting in the mainly black city and stoked a national debate about how police treat minorities. The controversy flared anew this month with the deaths of African-American men at the hands of police in Minnesota and Louisiana.

Monday’s verdict is the latest setback for prosecutors, who have failed to secure a conviction in the trials of four officers thus far.

Rice, who is white, ordered two officers on bicycle to chase Gray, 25, when he fled unprovoked in a high-crime area.

Prosecutors said Rice was negligent in shackling Gray’s legs and not securing him in a seat belt, as required by department protocol.

But defense lawyers said Rice was allowed leeway on whether to get inside a van to secure a prisoner. The officer made a correct decision in a few seconds while Gray was being combative and a hostile crowd was looking on, they said.

Williams, who heard the case without a jury at Rice’s request, said prosecutors failed to show the lieutenant was aware of a departmental policy requiring seat belts for prisoners during transport.

“The state did not prove the defendant was aware of the new policy,” the judge said in court.

Only a handful of protesters were at the courthouse for the verdict’s announcement.

Williams previously acquitted Officers Edward Nero and Caesar Goodson Jr., the van’s driver. A third officer, William Porter, faces a retrial after a jury deadlocked.

(Writing by Ian Simpson in Washington and Joseph Ax in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Jeffrey Benkoe)

Baltimore Boy Gets World’s First Double Hand Transplant

An 8-year-old Baltimore boy who lost his hands and feet to infection when he was 2 will now know what it’s like to be able to pet a dog, throw a football or climb on the swing set at school.

Zion Harvey was given the world’s first double hand transplant at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

A team of 40 doctors, nurses and reconstruction specalists were guided by Dr. L. Scott Levin, the chair of orthopedic surgery at Penn Medicine (the medical school for the University of Pennsylvania).

“We know what we have to do today,” Dr. L. Scott Levin told his troops before the 10-hour operation began. “I know everybody assembled here has a commitment to this patient and making this a reality for this little boy. We can have complications. We can fail. We can have trouble. But we’re not planning on it.”

Zion had already survived a kidney transplant and mastered using prosthetic legs.

“It was Zion’s decision,” thie boy’s mother Pattie Ray told the Baltimore Sun. “If he wanted them we were going to get them. If he didn’t we weren’t.”

Zion informed his mother that because he now had hands, he wants a puppy and wants to play football.

Baltimore Restaurant Owner To Feed Homeless Rather Than Promote Self

A Baltimore restaurant owner is passing on a week of self-promotion as part of the city’s “Baltimore Restaurant Week” to feed the homeless of the city.

Michael Tabrizi, owner of Tabrizi’s, will shut down his dining room from July 20th to July 25th to provide three meals a day for those in need.

“I decided that, after all of the chaos earlier this year, it would be better to do something for the city to unite the people,” he says. “It isn’t about revenue and money right now, we’ve done restaurant week before and we know the numbers, but right now it’s more important to promote the welfare of the city and its residents rather than to promote the business.”

Tabrizi said that the week will mean more than just providing a hot meal for those who need it but also providing some dignity to those who find themselves worrying about where they will find their next meal.

“These people don’t only suffer from hunger, but also from hopelessness, they feel that they don’t have any dignity anymore,” Tabrizi says. “We want them to come in and feel like they’re cared for.”

Tabrizi is asking for volunteers from the community to help serve the meals at 1, 3 and 5 p.m. each day.

“The main goal is just to show people that actions do matter. Baltimore has a long way to recover and we can’t just rely on other people to lead. It’s our city,” Tabrizi says. “My dad used to always say, ‘You can’t control what people do and say, but you can control how you act.’ My reaction is bringing people together and showing them that I care.”

Grand Jury Formally Indicts Baltimore Officers

A grand jury in Baltimore has indicted six officers on charges connected to the Freddie Gray situation that led to massive rioting.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced the grand jury’s decision to bring charges against all the officers during a Thursday press conference.  The indictments were similar to charges Mosby announced earlier this month but a few changed due to what she called “new information in the case.”

“These past two weeks, my team has been presenting evidence to a grand jury that just today returned indictments against all six officers,” Mosby told reporters. “As our investigation has continued, additional information has been discovered, and as is often the case during an ongoing investigation, charges can and should be revised based upon the evidence.”

The officers will be formally charged on July 2nd.

The Washington Post reports that Gray had an extensive criminal record “and had a handful of convictions, mostly on charges of selling or possessing heroin or marijuana. His longest stint behind bars was about two years.”

Gray’s death sparked nationwide protests and calls for the officers to be charged with murder.

Baltimore Police Undergoes Federal Investigation

On the heels of riots in Baltimore and the arrest and charges against six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, the mayor has asked the federal government to carry out an investigation of the police department.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said that the police had a “fractured” relationship with the community.  The declaration comes after the Obama administration’s new attorney general visited the city and held a private meeting with Blake.

“The attorney general is actively considering that option in light of what she heard from law enforcement, city officials, and community, faith and youth leaders in Baltimore yesterday,” Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson said.

A spokesman for Baltimore City Council President Jack Young said that Mr. Young has been calling for an investigation since October.  The requested investigation is similar to the one in Ferguson, Missouri after the Michael Brown incident.

In the first five years of their term, the Justice Department has started investigations into over 20 police departments, more than double the amount of the previous term.

Five law enforcement agencies were found to have had no violations.  Cities that have faced similar investigations include New Orleans and Albuquerque, New Mexico.