Updated: 10:22 PM EDT Aug 3, 2022
Baltimore City is out nearly half $1 million after settling several police claims Wednesday, including acts related to the city’s now-defunct police Gun Trace Task Force. The Baltimore City spending board approved funds to settle four lawsuits against Baltimore police officers, including a case for a man who claims the task force made up the story that put him behind the bars. “What’s from the corruption that was exposed in the criminal cases and that we delved into, is its reach and the depth of it,” said Michael R. Bromwich, senior counsel to Steptoe and Johnson Law Firm. Five years after the GTTF scandal came into public view, and the backlash continues.On Wednesday, the city agreed to pay $60,000 to Derrick Anderson, who spent more than a year incarcerated for possession of a firearm, based on allegations by the task force.Anderson’s attorney, Bradley A. Goldbloom, sent WBAL-TV 11 News a statement saying: “Whether or not Mr. Anderson and others actually committed the crimes to which they were accused, we will never know. And that’s the shame of it all. These officers’ credibility was so lacking that, potentially, hundreds of people were innocently jailed and others who received a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card without merit.””It’s hard for the city to make judgments about, did this really happen in the way that these plaintiffs are saying or was th is an instance where the officers actually behaved correctly? The problem is, the corruption was so rampant that the city can’t be sure that it didn’t happen the way the plaintiff alleges that it did,” Bromwich said. Bromwich led the independent investigation resulting in a 515-page report on the corruption. He said 3,000 criminal cases related to the task force have now been reviewed and 800 have been overturned.”There is no telling all the events that underlay those 800 cases, and so not surprisingly, people have come forward and say, ‘I was a victim of the misconduct of these men,'” he said.Anderson’s attorney went on to say: “The settlement reached in the Anderson case in no way compensates an innocent person for 14-months of imprisonment. However, Mr. Anderson understood that his plea of guilty to the handgun charge significantly decreased his chances before a jury. That, along with certain legal issues involved in the case, caused him to accept the city’s offer.”In total, the city’s board of estimates authorized payments to settle lawsuits filed by four people on Wednesday.
The Baltimore City spending board approved funds to settle four lawsuits against Baltimore police officers, including a case for a man who claims the task force made up the story that put him behind bars.
“What’s from the corruption that was exposed in the criminal cases and that we delved into, is its reach and the depth of it,” said Michael R. Bromwich, senior counsel to Steptoe and Johnson Law Firm.
Five years after the GTTF scandal came into public view, and the backlash continues.
On Wednesday, the city agreed to pay $60,000 to Derrick Anderson, who spent more than a year incarcerated for possession of a firearm, based on allegations by the task force.
Anderson’s attorney, Bradley A. Goldbloom, sent WBAL-TV 11 News a statement saying: “Whether or not Mr. Anderson and others actually committed the crimes to which they were accused, we will never know. And that’s the shame of it all. These officers’ credibility was so lacking that, potentially, hundreds of people were innocently jailed and others who received a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card without merit.”
“It’s hard for the city to make judgments about, did this really happen in the way that these plaintiffs are saying or was this an instance where the officers actually behaved correctly? The problem is, the corruption was so rampant that the city can’t be sure that it didn’t happen the way the plaintiff alleges that it did,” Bromwich said.
Bromwich led the independent investigation resulting in a 515-page report on the corruption. He said 3,000 criminal cases related to the task force have now been reviewed and 800 have been overturned.
“There is no telling all the events that underlay those 800 cases, and so not surprisingly, people have come forward and say, ‘I was a victim of the misconduct of these men,'” he said.
Anderson’s attorney went on to say: “The settlement reached in the Anderson case in no way compensates an innocent person for 14-months of imprisonment. However, Mr. Anderson understood that his plea of guilty to the handgun charge significantly decreased his chances before a jury. That, along with certain legal issues involved in the case, caused him to accept the city’s offer.”
In total, the city’s board of estimates authorized payments to settle lawsuits filed by four people on Wednesday.