Cases Under Review After Controversial Body Camera Video

Officials with the Office of the Public Defender said they are concerned that Baltimore City prosecutors persist in pursuing cases involving officers who appear to be depicted in body camera video footage planting drugs that resulted in a criminal arrest. Now, both police and prosecutors are conducting a review of what happened and what cases may be tainted.,

The body camera video shows three officers -- one hiding and then finding what appears to be drugs, while two other officers look on and take no action, the public defender's office said.

An assistant public defender, who represented the person charged with the planted drugs, forwarded the video to the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office last week, the public defender's office said.

Melba Saunders, a spokeswoman for State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, said in a statement the assistant state's attorney originally made a plea offer to one count of a controlled dangerous substance. Two days before the trial date, the defense attorney came to the assistant state's attorney about the body camera footage and the prosecutor immediately took steps to get the case dismissed.

“Upon notification of this troubling footage, our office immediately implemented established protocols to not only refer this matter to the internal affairs division of the Baltimore Police Department but began identifying active cases involving these officers," Saunders said.

The officers involved are still witnesses in other active cases that prosecutors are currently pursuing in Baltimore City Circuit Court, the public defender's office said. In a Thursday news conference, Mosby said prosecutors have found nearly 100 cases the involved officers were linked to in some way. She likened the process to efforts taken after the federal racketeering indictments of seven Gun Trace Task Force officers.

She said a team of prosecutors is examining each case to determine whether they can or should move forward.

"Our office has worked diligently to break down barriers of distrust in the criminal system and will continue to pursue justice for all," Mosby said.

The video was one of four body camera videos of the incident. Commissioner Kevin Davis showed parts of the videos at a news conference.

"Perception is reality," Davis said. "If the community thinks police officers are planting evidence, I've got to do a bunch of things when allegations surface."

The incident is under investigation, Davis said, adding, "I know we can't just say 'no comment,' investigation is underway."

Police haven't reached any conclusions, Davis said. The videos lead to many questions, he said, including if any crimes were committed or any police procedures violated.

"None of us can rely just on observations of video," the commissioner said. "There are other factors we have to explore."

The officer whose camera shows him planting the drugs, Officer Richard Pinheiro, is a witness in about 53 active cases, the public defender's office said.

The prosecutor claimed to be "appalled" by the video and dropped the charges in that case, but no clear policy has been taken in other cases involving these officers, the public defender's office said. Pinheiro was called to testify in another case the following week without any disclosure of the video, the public defender's office said.

"Officer misconduct has been a pervasive issue at the Baltimore Police Department, which is exacerbated by the lack of accountability," said Debbie Katz Levi, head of the Baltimore Public Defender's Special Litigation Section. "We have long supported the use of police body cameras to help identify police misconduct, but such footage is meaningless if prosecutors continue to rely on these officers, especially if they do so without disclosing their bad acts."

The video has no sound for the portion showing when the evidence was planted, suggesting that it was turned on shortly afterwards, the public defender's office said.

"Body cameras have an important role to play in the oversight and accountability of police officers, but only if they are used properly and the footage is taken seriously," Levi said. "Officers should not be able to decide when to turn the cameras on and off, and footage like what was presented here needs to result in immediate action by the state's attorney and the Police Department."

One of three officers in video was suspended, and the other two were placed on "non-contact" duty.

Police showed the other three videos from the incident at issue. One shows them arresting a man who admitted to having marijuana and other drugs on him. Police found heroin on his person. He told them where he met his buyer. Police then searched a yard behind a residence at 610 S. Smallwood St., where they found a tied bag of 25 suspected heroin gel capsules under some debris. That it was tied indicated to the officers there might be more, open bags on the scene. They spent about seven minutes combing the yard. The next body camera video depicted the apparent planting of a separate open bag of gel capsules at the scene.

While Davis didn't discount the possibility that the evidence was found in the course of the search and that officers only intended to re-enact the discovery for the body camera, but said that either way, what transpired was "inconsistent with the way police officers do business."

He said it undercuts the efforts of other officers and the department to regain the trust of residents, especially in the wake of the Gun Trace Task Force indictments.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.