By Stephen Janis, Special to the AFRO

Recently Mayor Catherine Pugh cited a lack of creativity within the Baltimore Police Department as one of her reasons for firing Commissioner Kevin Davis and replacing him with Darryl De Sousa.

But, if there is one theme that has emerged from the trial of two of the officers of the now notorious Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF), underway at the federal courthouse this week, is when it comes to stealing overtime, robbing residents and dealing drugs the officers of this once elite specialized unit exhibited boundless creativity.

During hours of testimony from DEA agents, victims and the officers themselves, a picture is emerging of a unit of cops constantly applying new and ingenious ways to rip off taxpayers, shakedown innocent residents and enrich themselves without showing up to work.

For example during testimony Jan. 29, GTTF member Jemell Rayam related how the unit, unsatisfied with robbing drug dealers during warrant searches turned to seeking out victims outside the scope of the police work. To make it happen, Rayam and another member of the unit Momodu Gondo obtained a vehicle tracker from an unnamed Sergeant in the police department and affixed it to the car of a man who a friend told them had thousands of dollars of cash stashed in his apartment.

When the tracking device pegged the victim far from home, the officers broke into the residence.

The only problem, the victim’s girlfriend was lying in bed inside the apartment. Startled, officer Rayam said he pointed his gun, and gave an account of what he said to the terrified woman before stealing $12,000 in cash from a dresser drawer.

“I could have told her I would kill her,” he said, adding that he also stole a Rolex watch and cocaine.

The anecdote was one of many stories told on the stand by former GTTF members who have since pled guilty during the trial of their counterparts Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor.

Both are charged with robbing residents, filing false reports, and extortion. The pair is also facing multiple counts of fraudulently obtaining overtime, which according to the testimony, was not just unfathomably easy, but accomplished with at the least tacit approval of command.

Both Evodio Hendrix and Rayam told jurors that overtime was there for taking, even for days they didn’t work at all. In fact, Hendrix testified that Hersl didn’t show up to work for nearly a month.

“I was told Hersl took off for a whole month when he was working on his house,” Rayam told the jurors.

“Was he getting paid?” Prosecutors asked.

“I believe so, yes” Rayam replied.

In fact, both he and Hendrix and another member of the unit who has pled guilty, Maurice Ward, said that if an officer confiscated a gun, the entire unit would receive up to eight hours of overtime. And if one of their colleagues had to work late processing a suspect, the entire unit would go home but, would not clock out.

“We came into work whenever we wanted to,” Rayam told the jury. “We got away with a lot of things.”

One question that has continued to loomed over the scandal-plagued department, that was in part answered during the proceedings, was just how this group officers broke the law regularly without intervention from their superiors.

According to testimony from Hendrix, the unit’s supervisor Sergeant Wayne Jenkins met with then police Commissioner Kevin Davis in 2016 and recounted his conversation to him later. During the talk, Davis asked Jenkins how he was keeping the Task Force motivated.

“He said he gave them overtime and slash days and the commissioner said, ‘good job.” Hendrix recalled. “He told the commissioner he was giving overtime for guns.”

But if there was any concern about the actions of the Task Force or attempts to rein them in, it wasn’t evident in their behavior.

In fact, DEA agent Todd Edwards testified about a strange encounter he had with Jenkins in September 2016.

During a stakeout of a suspected cocaine dealer in Upper Marlboro, Md., a D.C. suburb, someone knocked on the window of his vehicle. When he opened the door, he was greeted by Jenkins, who told him he was pursuing the same target.

“I said, why are you here? And he said, why are you here?” Edwards testified, noting that a Baltimore police officer does not have jurisdiction in Prince George’s county.

When asked by prosecutors if it was unusual to encounter a city cop so far outside the city, he was unequivocal.

“I found it unusual,” he said. Asked if he’d ever experienced anything like it in his 25 years of drug enforcement, he equally emphatic tell the jury he had not.