BALTIMORE _ The FBI had a microphone hidden inside a Baltimore Police vehicle when members of the Gun Trace Task Force fled the scene of a crash, then discussed falsifying timesheets to cover their tracks.
Convicted former Detective Jemell Rayam broke down on the witness stand Tuesday when asked about the incident. He said the officers had chased the car that got hit.
"It was bad. It was a bad accident," Rayam said.
Turning to the jury, he said: "It could've been any one of us, any one of you; my mother, my father."
Jurors got to hear audio of before and after the crash, as Rayam took the stand again on the fourth day of testimony in the federal racketeering trials of fellow officers Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor.
Rayam has pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges, and is one of four officers cooperating with the government and testifying in hopes of reducing their sentences.
The crash occurred Aug. 31, 2016, near the University of Maryland downtown, Rayam testified. Their sergeant, Wayne Jenkins, spotted a car at a gas station and tried to pull it over, and the car sped off. The officers gave chase, despite a policy against high-speed pursuits.
"No lights, no lights," Rayam can be heard saying on the recording, as the police car's engine revs in the background.
"S---. Damn!" Detective Momodu Gondo says, apparently after the crash.
"Keep going, yo," Rayam says.
At one point, federal prosecutors asked Rayam question about the chase, and he said he had trouble remembering. "There were so many car accidents" his unit was involved in, Rayam said.
The officers can be heard discussing the likelihood that surveillance cameras captured them giving chase.
Hersl can be heard saying Jenkins wanted the officers to stay in the area, and listen on the police radio to see if any other officers came to render aid.
"All we had to do was just get out," Taylor can be heard saying.
"Hey, we were never down that street," Hersl says.
"I was being a follower," Rayam testified. "I should have called it in."
Jenkins and Gondo also have pleaded guilty in the case.
Rayam broke down earlier in his testimony as well, when a wiretapped phone conversation with Gondo was played, in which his children can be heard in the background.
On cross-examination, Rayam admitted to receiving money from an $11,000 theft in 2009, and that he lied to internal affairs. The Baltimore Sun obtained the internal affairs file in that case, raising questions about how the officers went undetected and remained in a unit with little supervision.
Rayam also insisted that despite cutting corners in his police work, using illegal tactics, and lying to justify searches, he never planted drugs or guns on anyone.
Hersl's attorney, William Purpura, asked Rayam if he was in "a bind."
"It's never too late to do the right thing," Rayam said.
