New charges have been filed against an indicted member of the Baltimore Police gun task force, alleging that in 2010 he set up Det. Sean Suiter by planting drugs on a suspect after a high-speed chase and crash.
In a new indictment unsealed Thursday afternoon, prosecutors wrote that then-Detective Wayne Jenkins told a third officer that he was going to send Officer #1 to search the car because he was clueless that Jenkins had planted drugs.
Jenkins knew the heroin [in the car] had been planted, prosecutors wrote.
Though Suiter is not named in the new documents, Jenkins wrote in charging documents filed in 2010 that Suiter found heroin in the car. The suspect, Umar Burley, was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison as a result of the charges.
Records show Burleys case was reactivated in August, and he was released from custody. Prosecutors on Thursday filed a motion to vacate his conviction and the conviction of another man who was with him.
Jenkins attorney Steve Levin declined to comment on the new accusations.
The Sun first reported on the new activity in the Burley case last week.
Commissioner Kevin Davis said at a news conference that Suiter was set up by Jenkins to find the drugs, and was not involved in any way, shape, or form.
Thats a damn shame, Davis said.
Suiter, a decorated 18-year veteran, was killed in an alley on Nov. 15, and Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said federal authorities disclosed to him that Suiter was killed one day before he was scheduled to testify before a federal grand jury investigating the gun task force. Davis said he was told Suiter was not a target of the grand jury, and there was no evidence to suggest Suiter was set up or that his killing was related to his scheduled testimony.
But questions around two cases continue to swirl. Earlier Thursday, Council President Bernard Jack Young and Councilman Brandon Scott called on the Suiter case to be turned over to the FBI.
An independently conducted investigation would be the quickest way to provide the public and those who loved Det. Suiter with the answers they rightly deserve, Young and Scott wrote in a letter to Davis.
They also said it would allow members of the Baltimore homicide unit, which is investigating the case, the chance to properly mourn their fallen comrade.
Suiters death remains unsolved, despite a $215,000 reward. For now, it is the only line-of-duty killing in the agencys history that is unsolved, with suspects apprehended on the scene or quickly identified through tips in previous cases.
Federal authorities have continued to investigate allegations of misconduct surrounding Jenkins and other members of the Gun Trace Task Force, bringing additional charges in the case and adding defendants.
Jenkins, 37, has not entered a plea, but is tentatively scheduled to go to trial in January.
Tl;dr: cop who got killed was set to testify in a case against his fellow officers. In 2010, he was set-up by a now-indicted officer who planted drugs on a suspect for him to find. The suspect was sentenced to 15 years in prison. ---
