Photo : Jerod Harris ( Getty Images for BET )

In the wake of a massive police scandal, Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby is asking the courts to toss out nearly 800 criminal cases linked to Baltimore cops her office believes cannot be trusted.


Prosecutors are hoping to wipe out 790 convictions linked to 25 police officers, including eight convicted in Baltimore’s Gun Trace Task Force scandal. As the Baltimore Sun reports, the DA began asking courts last week to move forward with erasing the tainted cases.




Mosby’s action follows the trial of eight former officers serving on the Gun Trace Task Force, in which Baltimore cops admitted to stealing money from citizens, planting evidence, lying on paperwork, and milking the city for overtime pay for hours they hadn’t actually worked, the Sun reports. Two of the crooked cops were convicted of racketeering at the trial, six pled guilty. While the scope of the trial focused on only eight cops, other Baltimore officers were implicated during the trial.

There’s no difference between the eight officers convicted, and the other cops named during the trial, Mosby told the Sun, adding that her office had no choice but to clear the compromised cases.

“When you have sworn police officers involved in egregious and long-standing criminal activity such as planting guns and drugs, stealing drugs and money, selling drugs, making illegal arrests, and bringing false charges, our legal and ethical obligation in the pursuit of justice leaves us no other recourse but to ‘right the wrongs’ of unjust convictions associated with corrupt police officers,” Mosby wrote the Sun in an email.



At least 10 of the 25 tainted cops have resigned. Three remain with Baltimore Police, a department spokesperson confirmed.


The vacated convictions are just one component of the work the city faces in cleaning up after the crooked cops’ mess: an avalanche of lawsuits tied to their cases is expected to cost the city tens of millions of dollars.