The leader of a rogue Baltimore police unit sobbed as he was sentenced to 25 years in prison in a corruption scandal prosecutors called “breathtaking”.
Ex-police sergeant Wayne Earl Jenkins apologised in court for the crimes he committed while heading an elite squad called the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF).
“I’m wrong, God knows I’m wrong,” the 37-year-old said. “I’m so sorry to the citizens of Baltimore.”
He was arrested along with almost every member of the unit in March 2017.
Jenkins must serve three years of supervised release after his custodial sentence.
He was convicted on multiple counts including racketeering, robbery and falsification of records.
Jenkins pleaded guilty in January and admitted taking part in at least 10 robberies of Baltimore citizens, planting drugs on innocent people and re-selling drugs he stole from suspects on an almost daily basis, including heroin, cocaine and prescription painkillers.
He walked into the court wearing a maroon prison uniform. It was his first public appearance since he was arrested along with six other officers last year.
Prosecutors urged the judge to sentence him to the maximum 30 years, adding that the unit’s corruption resulted in 1,700 criminal cases being thrown out.
“The largest share of the blame, the largest share of those crimes belongs to him,” US attorney Leo Wise told the court.
“He perverted the criminal justice system.”
The GTTF was made up of eight officers, all but one of whom were indicted.
Detectives Maurice Ward, Evodio Hendrix, Momodu Gondo and Jemell Rayam all pleaded guilty.
Detectives Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor went forward to trial and a jury found them guilty of robbery, extortion and fraud in February. Both men have requested new trials.
A former member of the unit, Sergeant Thomas Allers, also pleaded guilty.
Although the indicted officers committed many robberies individually before joining the Gun Trace Task Force, prosecutors charge that they grew bolder and more prolific after Jenkins took over the unit in June 2016.
According to testimony from Ward and Hendrix, Jenkins played an outsized role in the schemes.
They said he prepared an arsenal of weapons and tools to begin carrying out burglaries.
The jury was shown axes, machetes and pry bars, as well as black masks that were found in Jenkins’ van after his arrest.
Prosecutors pointed to the fact that Jenkins fabricated evidence, like producing a bogus iPhone video of his officers cracking a drug dealer’s safe, when they had in fact already broken into it and stolen $200,000 in cash.
“It shows what a committed, sophisticated, devious person can do,” Mr Wise said. “What chance do we have when you have people like Jenkins and his co-defendants fabricating evidence?”
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