According to this: Two members of a rogue Baltimore police unit were found guilty Monday of corruption charges —
The officers, Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor, were convicted by a federal jury of racketeering and robbery, part of a broader conspiracy among members of the police department’s Gun Trace Task force that involved holding up drug dealers, conducting illegal searches, claiming unearned overtime and trying to cover up their crimes, authorities said.
Six other officers, including two who testified against Hersl and Taylor, have already pleaded guilty.
None of the officers remain on the force, as the police department fired Hersl and Taylor immediately after Monday’s verdicts, officials said. Hersl and Taylor were each acquitted of a gun charge.
The trial featured witnesses testifying that officers peddled garbage bags full of drugs purportedly looted during the city’s 2015 riots, sold seized drugs and guns, committed armed home invasions, and were told to carry BB guns to plant on suspects.
Some of the crimes and cover-ups were captured in secretly recorded conversations, portions of which have been played at the trial.
They face up to 20 years on each count, for a total of 60 years.
De Sousa, appointed earlier this year to get a handle on gun violence, said Monday that the officers’ indictments, and the trial, “uncovered some of the most egregious and despicable acts ever perpetrated in law enforcement.”
Statement on the GTTF guilty verdict from @BaltimorePolice Commissioner-Designate Darryl De Sousa: pic.twitter.com/jxCs5tWKIo
— T.J. Smith (@TJSmithBmore) February 12, 2018
Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh cited the need for those court-mandated reforms in her response to the verdict, which she called “the right one, given the abundance of compelling and damning evidence” against the Gun Trace Task Force.
My statement on the Gun Trace Task Force verdict. https://t.co/5bD3GceWfn pic.twitter.com/flo428dbpF
— Mayor Catherine Pugh (@MayorPugh50) February 12, 2018
Stephen M. Schenning, the acting U.S. Attorney in Maryland, said after the verdicts that the case was “corrosive of the trust we need to do our jobs effectively” but the verdicts sent a message that, in the end, the justice system brings dirty officers to justice.
“You can’t rob people just because they’re drug dealers,” he said in remarks captured by local Fox affiliate WBFF. “In the end you’re going to get caught and pay a price.”
