DOJ: Indicted BPD Officer Set Det. Suiter Up To Find Planted Drugs In 2010 Case
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A federal grand jury has indicted a former Baltimore Police sergeant on charges related to a 2010 arrest during which evidence was allegedly planted in a suspect's car.
Recently-murdered Detective Sean Suiter, who was also involved in that arrest, was allegedly set up to find the planted evidence, 28 grams of heroin.
Former Sergeant Wayne Earl Jenkins, 37, was the highest-ranking of the seven Baltimore Police Department officers indicted on racketeering charges in March and is already awaiting a January court date.
He now faces an additional sentence of 20 years in prison for these additional charges of evidence falsification.
Maryland U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings (D-District 7), who represents the West Baltimore neighborhood where Detective Sean Suiter was killed, met Wednesday with FBI Director Christopher Wray in Washington, D.C. and asked him "to use every resource available" to assist Baltimore City Police in finding Detective Suiter's killer.
"There are all types of rumors going on in the streets, and I think that we need a very thorough investigation," Cummings said. "I told the director that we must follow the evidence wherever it may lead, and I want him to put a microscope on this investigation."
"The idea that Officer Suiter was murdered the night before he was supposed to provide federal grand jury testimony, a lot of people are concerned about that, and I got the impression listening to the head of the FBI that they are concerned about it, too." Cummings told WJZ.
It was confirmed by police last week that Suiter was scheduled to testify before a federal grand jury investigating the indicted officers on the day after he was shot with his own gun while on duty Nov. 15. Commissioner Kevin Davis said authorities have no reason to believe that his death was connected to that fact.
According to a Department of Justice news release, which does not name Suiter, Jenkins was in an unmarked police car when engaged in a vehicle pursuit of a car driven by Umar Burley on April 28, 2010.
"Officer #2" was a passenger in Jenkins's car and "Officer 1," Suiter, was in a second unmarked car.
Commissioner Davis confirmed at a Thursday afternoon press conference that "Officer 1" was Suiter.
At some point during the pursuit, Burley crashed into another vehicle. The elderly man driving the car that was hit died as a result of the collision.
Jenkins wrote in court records filed at the time of Burley's arrest that Suiter found the drugs in Burley's vehicle.
The DOJ news release says the indictment alleges that the drugs were planted there, and that Jenkins sent "Officer 1" to the car to find it because he was "clueless."
Burley wrote a letter asking for the judge in his case to take another look at the circumstances surrounding his arrest in June, a few months after the initial indictment of Jenkins and other officers.
Jenkins has not entered a plea in the racketeering indictment.
Follow @CBSBaltimore on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook
