A former Maryland police officer has been indicted in federal court on charges accusing him of helping to plant a BB gun on a man run over by another officer in a car.
Sgt. Keith Gladstone, who worked for the Baltimore Police Department, allegedly gave Sgt. Wayne Jenkins the fake gun to plant on a victim after Jenkins intentionally ran the victim over with his car. In addition, prosecutors are alleging that Gladstone ordered other officers to lie to federal investigators about what happened.
Gladstone, who is known to be one of Jenkins’ mentors, plead not guilty to charges including conspiracy to deprive civil rights and witness tampering.
The U.S. Attorney’s office for Maryland released a statement saying:
“If convicted, Gladstone faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for conspiracy to violate civil rights, a maximum of five years in prison for conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, and a maximum of 20 years in prison for witness tampering. At today’s initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, U.S. Magistrate Judge Beth P. Gesner ordered that Gladstone be released under the supervision of U.S. Pretrial Services. An indictment is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.”
This is not the duo’s first accusation of misconduct. They are both being sued for $40 million by two men who claim the duo were involved in planting drugs on them in 2010. Jenkins eventually admitted to participating in the cover up of the incident during a criminal trial. In 2018, Jenkins pled guilty to a host of criminal charges, including stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and drugs and planting illegal GPS devices on people in order to track their movements so he could rob them at vulnerable moments.
Many of the crimes perpetrated by Jenkins happened when he led the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force.