David Jaros – Baltimore Magazine https://www.baltimoremagazine.com The Best of Baltimore Since 1907 Thu, 06 Aug 2020 00:15:31 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/cropped-favicon-32x32.png David Jaros – Baltimore Magazine https://www.baltimoremagazine.com 32 32 The Gun Trace Task Force Case Challenges Ability to Police in Baltimore https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/community/the-gun-trace-task-force-case-challenges-ability-to-police-in-baltimore/ Fri, 16 Feb 2018 12:58:00 +0000 https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/?p=27890

After a federal jury convicted two of the eight Baltimore detectives on the Gun Trace Task Force for their roles in the one of the biggest police corruption scandals to hit the city, many city leaders are using the verdict as a way to boost reform efforts and community trust.

Detectives Daniel T. Hersl and Marcus R. Taylor were found guilty of racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, and robbery. They and the other six officers who pled guilty to the charges—Detectives Evodio Hendrix, Jemell Rayam, Maurice Ward, Momodu Gondo, Sgt. Thomas Allers, and Sgt. Wayne Jenkins—were said to have used their power and position to steal large amounts of money from residents. 

“Our job moving forward is to earn back the trust and response of the community,” said acting police commissioner Darryl De Sousa in a statement. “It will be a process and I understand the doubt, fear and pessimism.”

De Sousa announced last week that the BPD will begin giving members of specialty units random polygraph tests, as well as extensive overtime audits to put “checks and balances in place.”

According to associate professor of law at the University of Baltimore David Jaros, this level of police corruption is a rarity, but is not the first of its kind. The Rampart scandal in Los Angeles in the late 1990s involved 70 police officers in the Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) anti-gang unit of the LAPD who were accused of misconduct. It cost the city of Los Angeles $125 million in settlements and also resulted in 106 prior criminal convictions to be overturned. Jaros fears the same could happen in Baltimore.

“There is a historical comparison to be made there,” Jaros said. “It’s too soon to tell whether or not this will mean that some deep structural, fundamental changes will happen. The role of things like police contracts and unions come into play. Their job is to protect the officers, but at some point, they are working counter to the interest of all of the good officers on the force. And they’re simply blocking effective reform.”

“Transformative reform” is the solution that Jaros believes will effect change in Baltimore’s criminal justice system. He says it begins with the law enforcement officers’ bill of rights, which include protections that far exceed the treatment that a typical defendant would receive. For example, officers are often given multiple days before they are questioned and have the ability to review some of the paperwork and even videos before giving a statement. In other words, these contracts allow certain leniencies for police officers and need to be tweaked.

“Is the institution so rigid that you can’t make changes outside of knocking it down and rebuilding it?” Jaros asked. “There’s something highly problematic about having police officers who cannot be removed from the force. How do we create fair and effective protections for good officers, but give enough flexibility to fire bad officers? I just wish the system more often treated everyone else the way that police officers are often treated.”

Cases like these fundamentally challenge the ability of the criminal justice system to operate, he says, adding that the misconduct of the officers has become a threat to the police department and the ability of the city to fight crime. There has even been speculation that multiple complaints to the State’s Attorney’s Office about misconduct went unacknowledged, further igniting rumors of collusion between the departments.

“Once there becomes a cloud of mistrust over the testimony of police officers in court, the ability of the system to prosecute crime really falls apart,” he said. “The degree in which we can be confident that we are excising whatever is going on, will really decide where this goes.”

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]]> Trial Starts for Van Driver in Freddie Gray Case https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/community/trial-starts-for-van-driver-in-freddie-gray-case/ Fri, 10 Jun 2016 10:12:00 +0000 https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/?p=31026 Continued]]> The third trial involving Baltimore police officers charged in connection with the death of Freddie Gray got underway Thursday with Officer Caesar Goodson Jr. facing allegations that he intentionally gave the 25-year-old a “rough ride.”

Goodson was the driver of the van in which Gray, according to the state medical examiner’s office, suffered a broken neck and the severe spinal cord injuries that led to his death last April.

Goodson Jr. has been charged with second-degree depraved heart murder—the most serious allegation made against the six officers involved in case—involuntary manslaughter, manslaughter by vehicle, criminally negligent manslaughter by vehicle, second-degree assault, misconduct in office, and reckless endangerment.

In two previous trials, Baltimore prosecutions failed to earn convictions in trials involving two police officers involved in Gray’s arrest and transportation.

In a bench trial last month, Judge Barry Williams acquitted Officer Edward Nero of charges of assault, reckless endangerment, and two counts of misconduct in office. Williams said in reading his verdict that Nero had essentially acted in a manner that “a reasonable officer” could be expected to act during his relatively minor role in Gray’s arrest and transport.

Officer William Porter’s manslaughter trial ended in December with a hung jury. He is scheduled to be tried again in September.

In both of those trials, defense attorneys and the expert witnesses they called stated that ultimate responsibility for securing detainees being transported rests with the driver of the vehicle—in this case—the 46-year-old Goodson. Like Nero, Goodson and his attorneys sought to have the case decided by Williams rather than a jury. A second-degree depraved heart murder conviction carries a maximum sentence of 30 years.

Goodson is the only one of the six officers who did not make a statement to police investigators after Gray’s injury and death.

David Jaros, a University of Baltimore law professor who has been following the trials, told The Baltimore Sun that the outcomes of the first two trials should not be considered predictive of the outcome in the Goodson case.

“The case against Officer Nero was one that involved some very close legal questions that, I think, the defense felt favored them and so wanted a judge who appreciated the legal standards that were in question,” Jaros said. “Goodson’s case will rest less on the complexity of the legal theory and more on questions of fact and responsibility, which we consider more in the jury’s bailiwick—the questions of what happened.”

Others experts have said that proving second-degree murder after the failure to secure a detainee will be a heavy burden for prosecutors. Specifically, demonstrating that Goodson gave Gray a so-called “rough ride” without surveillance video and eyewitness testimony would be a challenge. Prosecutors indicated at the first day of the trial yesterday that they believe—and they are in possession of—such evidence.

The Baltimore Sun reported last April that Gray was not first detainee to suffer spinal chord injuries after unsecured rides in city police vans.

Tessa Hill-Aston, Baltimore chapter president of the NAACP, noted after Nero’s acquittal the difficulty for Gray’s family in going through six separate trials. She also indicated frustration that the responsibility for the failure to properly seatbelt Gray has been passed from one officer to the next thus far at the two trials.

“Police rules have at least changed for the better since [Gray’s death]—I’ve read them.” Hill-Aston said.”In the future, no officer will be able to claim it was someone else’s responsibility—a superior officer or the driver. It is everyone’s responsibility now.”

Meanwhile, five of the six police officers charged in relation to Gray’s death, including Porter, Nero, Garrett Miller, Alicia White, and Brian Rice, are known to have filed defamation suits against City State’s Attorney General Marilyn Mosby now. Nero and Miller allege, for example, that Mosby intentionally made allegations she knew “contained false statements” and spoke in a “divisive and inciting manner” when announcing the charges against the police officers at a press conference that received national media coverage.

A copy of Nero and Miller’s 28-page civil suit can be read here.

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