A Baltimore Police Department homicide unit sergeant was ordered held without bail Friday after allegedly extorting, kidnapping and threatening to arrest a home contractor whose work he was unhappy with and whom he drove to a bank to withdraw money for a refund.
Three other homicide unit detectives were present at one point during the confrontation, and the department said a preliminary review indicates all were on duty at the time.
You are going to give me my money back, and Im going to give you freedom, Sgt. James Lloyd told the contractor, according to charging documents.
The Baltimore Sun was unable to reach the contractor for comment.
Lloyd, 45, of Gwynn Oak, was arrested and ordered held without bail by a Baltimore County District Court judge. Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said Lloyd would be suspended without pay and an internal affairs investigation has been launched.
The other three officers have not been charged with a crime, but Harrison said their police powers were suspended and they were assigned to administrative duties, continuing to collect pay. Lloyd identified them to county investigators as Juan Diaz, Manuel Larbi and Troy Taylor, according to charging documents.
The department said Harrison had taken swift and decisive action to the maximum state law allows. His chief of staff, Eric Melancon, said the state Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights limited the commissioners options.
The public demands a level of accountability that the commissioner can only give to a certain extent because of those laws, Melancon said in a brief interview.
The charges stem from a dispute about a home improvement job, Baltimore County police said. Charging documents show the incident occurred June 25 and was reported to county police the same day.
Lloyd, a 21-year veteran of the city police department who was the lead detective on the investigation of the death of Detective Sean Suiter, was upset with a patio that a contractor had built, county police say.
He demanded a refund and confronted the contractor with information about his drivers license being suspended, saying he could arrest him, according to charging documents. Then, authorities said, he made the victim get into Lloyds car. The victim told police that he feared being arrested and complied with Lloyds demands of going to the bank and getting a certified check for the refund, officials said.
At a bail review hearing Friday, defense attorney Matthew Fraling told Baltimore County District Court Judge Kimberly Thomas that the matter should be a civil issue and not criminal, saying it all stems from poor construction by contractor on a new patio.
I agree 100% this should have stayed a civil matter, replied county prosecutor Thomas Kane. The defendant made certain decisions which grossly changed the character of the interaction with the victim.
Fraling asked that Lloyd be released on his own recognizance, while Kane asked the judge to set some monetary bail. Thomas, however, said Lloyd posed a threat to public safety and ordered him held.
Some time after the Suiter case was essentially concluded by the department, Lloyd moved to the homicide operations unit, which tracks down witnesses for detectives.
Suiter was shot in the head on Nov. 15, 2017, while conducting a follow-up investigation of a homicide in West Baltimore. Police have said they believe he was shot with his own gun at close range, and police now consider his death to be a suicide. It remains classified as an unsolved homicide, however.
The other three officers have not been charged with a crime, but Harrison said their police powers were suspended and they were assigned to administrative duties, continuing to collect pay.