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City State's Attorney Says Nearly 900 Police Cases Could Be Impacted By Officer Misconduct

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The City State's Attorney's office says nearly 900 cases could be tossed, or at the very least impacted after allegations of police misconduct.

This summer, a group of officers faced a federal indictment for a ring of crimes.

Others are under review by their own department for possibly manipulating body camera video.

RELATED: Public Defender's Office: Another Case Dropped, Body Cam Video In Question

Last month, an eighth Baltimore police officer was arrested on federal racketeering charges. Now, attorneys have to comb through any case he's tied to.

A growing workload after a summer of scandal. In three separate videos, Baltimore police officers were caught on their own body cameras allegedly recreating discovery of evidence at crime scenes.

Since then the state's attorney's office has been honing in on any cases the officers involved might have touched.

On cases linked to eight officers federally indicted for crimes like robbing citizens combined. The numbers are ticking upward by the hundreds.

State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby Tuesday evening announced that now, 864 cases are impacted or potentially impacted. 295 of those because of the group of officers arrested on racketeering charges.

The other 569 cases are tied to possible body camera misuse.

"We've calculated cases that are open, that are closed, where people are on probation, where people are still incarcerated, and we've reached much higher numbers than the state's attorney," says Debbie Katz Levi, with the Office of the Public Defender.

Numbers the public defender's office says add up to more than 1,000.

"With each new body camera, with each new indicted officer, we're so far behind the curve in righting the ship with what we consider to be wrongful convictions," says Katz Levi.

Tuesday, Baltimore police spokesman T.J. Smith wrote to WJZ:

"This information has been disclosed and discussed before and we weren't aware that the SAO was releasing updated numbers again today. However, we are continuing to work to address the concerns that have been brought forth as a result of these situations.

"It's important to note that the four incidents described by the State's Attorney's Office are unique and independent of each other.

"Eight officers are in federal prison for their criminal conduct.

"The cases involving body worn camera footage is still being investigated and no criminal wrongdoing has been proven."

After the release of the most recent video last month Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said:

"In my humble opinion, the decision to drop this case, and other cases, is a bad call."

The public defender's office says they don't have the names of the officers in the third body camera video.

When and if those officers are identified they will have to look into all of their cases too.

Police say they were not aware that the state's attorney would be releasing new numbers today and they are working on their end to address concerns.

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