Hundreds Of Convictions Could Be Vacated After Officers' Indictments

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The impact from the indictments of seven Baltimore Police Department officers continues to linger, as the City state's attorney is looking into vacating criminal convictions that relied on the words of any of the seven officers.

Some defendants charged by the officers took guilty pleas just weeks or months before the officers were indicted.

Right now, the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office is looking at hundreds of cases possibly tainted by the officers, focusing on defendants who are currently incarcerated.

But when this is all said and done, we could be looking at thousands.

It's been called one of the largest corruption cases in years.

An elite gun unit that was praised is now accused of shaking down citizens, filing false court paperwork, and raking in false overtime.

"These are robberies by people wearing police uniforms," said U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein.

Fallout from those indictments is only getting wider. State's attorney Marilyn Mosby says her office is now working to vacate any criminal conviction since 2015 that relied solely on the word of these seven officers.

"Understanding and recognizing that credibility of officers have been directly called into question," said Mosby.

Mosby's team has identified 50 active cases and 150 closed cases that are possibly tainted.

"We have prioritized individuals that either were, or are incarcerated," Mosby said.

30 cases have already had charges dropped, including Albert Brown's. Brown claims four of the indicted officers pulled him over and planted drugs and a gun in his minivan.

"I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy," said Brown.

The public defenders office is also conducting a review of it's closed cases and had fielded dozens of calls.

"Any client who wants us to take a look at it, we will find a way to do it," said Baltimore deputy public defender Natalie Finegar.

While Mosby's team honed in on cases from 2015 on - because that's when the allegations against the officers are said to have began - Finegar says her office wants justice for every defendant impacted.

[Reporte: "If this investigation goes into cases before January 2015, do you expect the numbers to skyrocket?"

"We're going to go back, continue to look and I still maintain that this problem could extend to thousands of cases," said Finegar. "It really could."

Finegar also raised concerns about those who've already served jail time and are out.

"A guilty finding on your record is available for the public to see," Finegar said. "Guilty findings for most part, can't be expunged. A guilty finding on your record is a life-long consequence for you to live with."

Mosby says the cases for those incarcerated are their number one priority.

Of the 50 active cases, 13 of those involve incarcerated defendants. 10 have already been released. 18 active cases have already been assessed and should be completely resolved by the end of next week.

Mosby says even though they are investigating all these cases, not every case involving the indicted officers will be dropped.

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