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“These former BPD officers constituted not a single criminal gang, but instead a shifting constellation of corrupt officers who discovered each other during the course of their careers and committed their crimes individually, in small groups, and then in larger groups.”
Investigators found weaknesses in BPD “provided fertile soil for corruption to sink roots and grow.” Report notes some officers did things that should’ve ended their careers but didn’t
GTTF report says a common form of police corruption was fabricating facts to support arrests and searches and it was “not universally perceived by officers as inherently wrong”
Full Report#GTTF had problems from the start. Warning signs were ignored as special units became “incubators for corruption.”
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Eight officers in the unit, including ringleader Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, were convicted of racketeering, armed robbery, selling drugs, falsifying overtime and planting evidence on suspects they arrested. A total of 13 defendants were charged in the scandal since the initial federal indictment of Jenkins, Momodu Gondo, Evodio Hendrix, Daniel Hersl, Jemell Rayam, Marcus Taylor and Maurice Ward in 2017. Sgt. Thomas Allers was later indicted and eventually pleaded guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy and racketeering offenses, including nine robberies.
The report identified “persistent weaknesses in supervision and accountability” in the department, including supervisors who “cultivated plausible deniability for the actions of their unit members” and supervisors who feared addressing misconduct would “diminish the productivity of their units, earn them enemies within their squads and more broadly within BPD, and create obstacles to their own future promotion.”
As for the victims of the GTTF, $13 million has been paid in restitution to them, with some cases still pending.
Over 800 criminal cases were dropped due to the scandal.
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Hankard’s being indicted on federal charges related to allegations that he provided a BB gun he knew would be planted on a suspect, falsified an application for a search warrant and an arrest report in a second incident where drugs were planted on a suspect, as well as that he falsely testified to a federal grand jury in a federal investigation.
The charges stem from Sgt. W.J. striking someone with his vehicle in March 2014 and calling another officer asking for a BB gun to plant to justify his actions running the man over. The officer then planted the BB gun underneath the vehicle.
The man, known as “D.S” in the indictment, had no guns or drugs on him at the time of his arrest. He was taken from the scene of his arrest to a hospital, in custody, where drugs were recovered from him.
He was then charged with possession, use and discharge of a gas or pellet gun- for the BB gun that was planted at the scene of D.S.’s arrest and a number of drug offenses.
