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Former Maryland police chief pleads guilty to hiding background information related to an officer who was involved in the death of Anton Black in 2018

A former Maryland police chief charged with misconduct is now expected to plead guilty to hiding critical background information related to an officer who was involved in the death of a Black teen. Former Greensboro, Md., Police Chief Michael Petyo attorney Stephen Tully told AFRO that his client will plead to one count of misconduct in office as part of his plea deal with the state’s prosecutor’s office. The agreement comes with the recommendation from prosecutors that Petyo shouldn’t serve jail time.

“That is part of the ongoing negotiations,” Tully told the news outlet. The charges are from Petyo’s decision to withhold past complaints of use of force against Greensboro police officer Thomas Webster IV from his application with the state body that certifies police officers.

In 2019, the board decertified Webster after it found roughly two dozen use of force complaints during his time as an officer in Dover, DE was omitted from his application. The omission was discovered after Webster’s involvement in the death of Anton Black, a teen who passed away during a September 2018 arrest. Black was chased after by police after a white woman called 911 alleging he kidnapped a 12-year-old boy. The alleged victim was his cousin. In a video obtained by AFRO shows Black and the boy walking together prior to being stopped.

After Black ran from officers and civilian confronted Black at his mother’s house. Then officers forced him to the ground and soon after Black became unresponsive and was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital according to AFRO. The medical examiner ruled Black’s death an accident. Body camera footage shows one of the officers laying across Black’s body as he laid on a ramp near his home. The Caroline County State’s Attorney’s Office didn’t prosecute any of the officers involved in Black’s death. Petyo was indicted in 2019 by the Maryland State Prosecutor’s Office alleging he conspired to hide Webster’s use of force complaints from higher-ups.

Webster agreed not to seek employment as a police officer in Delaware after he was captured kicking a Black man in the jaw during an arrest. Webster was indicted for second-degree assault, but a Delaware jury acquitted him in 2015. Since Black’s death residents and activists have been fighting to hold the city accountable for the teen’s death. Richard Potter former Talbot County NAACP President and head of The Coalition for Justice for Anton Black says the judge should impose a sentence that reflects the consequences of Petyo’s actions.

“The hiring of Webster and that encounter is the reason why Anton is dead. I’m hoping for a much harsher sentence than just a slap on the wrist,” Potter told the AFRO.

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