BALTIMORE _ A federal jury convicted two Baltimore Police Department detectives Monday for their roles in one of the biggest police corruption scandals in city history.
Detectives Daniel T. Hersl, 48, and Marcus R. Taylor, 31, were found guilty of racketeering, racketeering conspiracy and robbery. Prosecutors said they and their comrades on the Gun Trace Task Force had acted as "both cops and robbers," using the power of their badges to steal large sums of money from residents under the guise of police work.
"Their business model was that the people that they were robbing had no recourse," acting U.S. Attorney Stephen Schenning said after the verdict. "Who were they going to go to?"
Acting Police Commissioner Darryl De Sousa said the trial _ in which several unindicted officers were also accused of wrongdoing _ had uncovered "some of the most egregious and despicable acts ever perpetrated in law enforcement."
Hersl and Taylor face up to 60 years in prison.
Jurors deliberated for about 12 hours over two days before handing down their verdict about 5:30 p.m. Monday.
In a case where the officers' victims were black men, the jury of mostly white women elected a young black man to deliver the verdict.
Hersl and Taylor were acquitted of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. That charge carried a mandatory minimum sentence of five years.
During the trial, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Leo Wise and Derek Hines depicted a unit "willing to do whatever it took to lie, cheat and steal."
The prosecution was aided by four former task force members who pleaded guilty to racketeering and testified for the government. They identified Hersl and Taylor as part of a crew that had a tacit agreement to take money and split it up. They also covered for each other as they filed for thousands of dollars in unearned overtime pay.
The government gave immunity to admitted drug dealers to secure their testimony that the officers had stolen cash and in some cases drugs from them.
The defense derided the drug dealers and the convicted officers as untrustworthy.
Some of the Gun Trace Task Force officers' crimes were particularly daring: Taylor was accused of taking part in a robbery of more than $100,000 in the guise of a legal search.
Prosecutors said police handcuffed a man, took his house keys, broke into a safe in his basement and found $200,000. They took half the money, prosecutors said, returned the rest to the safe, and then filmed a video showing the officers "discovering" the smaller amount.
The video was played for jurors.
Hersl was charged with taking part in the robbery of $20,000 from a Carroll County home after a man and his wife were detained without having committed a crime. Officers testified that Hersl was among a group that split up the money at a bar afterward.
Officers also testified to routinely violating people's rights in the course of their work with Baltimore's plainclothes police squads _ profiling people and vehicles, performing "sneak and peek" searches without warrants, using illegal GPS devices to track suspects they claimed to be watching, and driving at groups of men to provoke them to flee so they could be chased and searched.
At least four of the officers in the case have admitted to committing crimes dating back to 2010 or earlier.
Former Detective Momodu Gondo said he did not fear getting caught.
"It was just part of the culture," Gondo testified.
De Sousa said the department is moving to terminate the employment of Hersl and Taylor, who have been on unpaid leave since their indictment last March. The other six officers already have been terminated.
In a statement, De Sousa noted the department has created a corruption unit "that will focus, specifically, on this case and the allegations that were made, but were not part of the indictment or prosecution."
Witnesses, including some of the officers who pleaded guilty in the case, testified to wrongdoing by a dozen officers who have not been charged.
"Let me make it clear: I have ZERO TOLERANCE for corruption," De Sousa said.
Federal prosecutors said their investigation continues, but would not say whether more indictments are expected. In cross-examination, the cooperating officers named other officers with whom they said they stole money.
"We get a lot of information. We get a lot of names," said Schenning, the acting U.S. attorney. "We investigate those people and we try to find evidence. When we have enough evidence and we submit it to a grand jury and they indict, we'll tell you who we indicted."
Prosecutors used the racketeering statute, which they typically use against drug crews and gangs, to prosecute the officers for their contributions to the wider conspiracy. That meant jurors heard a wide range of sordid allegations, some that had little to do with the charged officers.
The convicted officers join six of their former colleagues who previously pleaded guilty in the case. Three other men, including a bail bondsman who was supplied drugs by the unit's supervisor, Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, and split the proceeds with him, have also pleaded guilty. A Philadelphia police officer accused of conspiring with some of the officers is pending trial.
Hersl, who often looked back at family members throughout the trial, lowered his head into his clasped hands as the first guilty count was read.
His attorney, William Purpura, had conceded that Hersl took money in some cases. But he said as a law enforcement officer, Hersl was authorized to seize money if he believed he had probable cause, and that any money later pocketed was theft or receiving stolen goods, and not robbery.
"We hope the court, after hearing three weeks of testimony, can place Dan Hersl where he belongs, with relative culpability as compared to the other defendants in this particular case," Purpura told reporters outside the courthouse.
Hersl's older brother Steve sobbed against a railing outside the courthouse, then defended his brother to reporters. He said Dan Hersl had told family members he wanted out of the unit.
"Danny Hersl was not a monster. He was put in with some monsters, but he wasn't one of them. He wasn't a part of this group, and I am 100 percent positive of that," Steve Hersl said.
Steve Hersl said Police Department leaders were complicit, and should be held accountable as well.
Taylor showed little emotion throughout the trial, and was stoic as the verdict was read. His family and attorneys left without commenting.
Hersl and Taylor both opted not to take the stand.
The case prompted the Police Department to disband plainclothes units and put those officers into uniform, though DeSousa says he is rethinking that decision. The agency has also said it will implement a fingerprint scanning technology for time sheets, and will start ordering random polygraph tests on members of specialized units.
Prosecutors, at last count in early December, said they had dropped or vacated convictions in 125 cases that involved the officers; the public defender's office says thousands of cases are compromised after some officers admitted to lying and stealing for the past decade. The State's Attorney's Office has not provided updated figures.
State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby said after the verdict that "Baltimore is in need of significant reforms within our criminal justice system" and that the case "further highlighted" concerns she raised when dismissing the remaining cases against the officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, namely the ability of police to investigate themselves.
One man, 38-year-old Alex Hilton, was arrested multiple times by Hersl and sat inside the courthouse waiting for a verdict. He was tearful afterward.
Hilton said he had been haunted by memories of how Hersl targeted him, and even moved from the east side of town to the west hoping to get away from him. Hilton said he filed a complaint after one arrest, saying Hersl took his keys, went to his home and took money and other belongings, but nothing came of his report.
"Every time I see a police car or a knocker car," he said, using the street term for plainclothes officers, "I'm looking to see if he's in there. I can't get his face out of my mind.
