The trial of three East Baltimore men with long criminal records accused of being drug dealers unraveled before it began when a Circuit Court judge decided that jurors could hear that dozens of complaints had been filed against two police officers involved in the case.
Saying the ruling "gutted" her case by raising undue suspicion on the police, the prosecutor dropped charges last week against Gary Payne, 43; Harold Richardson, 36; and Kenneth Richard, 37. Each had faced six drug distribution and possession charges that could have put them in prison for up to 10 years without parole.
Baltimore Circuit Judge John N. Prevas, after two days of hearings last week, ruled that defense attorneys could tell jurors that investigating officers Daniel Hersl and Frank Nellis - each with at least seven years' experience - had 46 internal affairs complaints filed between them. Only one complaint for each had been sustained by the department, but the judge said the sheer number of accusations merited judicial notice.
"Misconduct, sometimes when it's frequent enough, it indicates a lack of desire to tell the truth," Prevas said at one of the hearings, after reviewing Hersl's internal affairs file.
Karen Hornig, a city solicitor who is chief legal counsel for the Police Department, said that even though Prevas' ruling was probably "unsettling" to the prosecutor, she was surprised the case was dropped.
"Unsubstantiated complaints should not shut down the prosecution of bad guys," Hornig said. "These officers could have explained to the jury the reality of being narcotics officers and that they receive a lot of spurious complaints from drug dealers."
Hornig said that "these officers very much wanted to move ahead with the case."
Prevas' ruling comes as the Baltimore police deal with several cases of misconduct. A city grand jury report released this month says that residents have come to distrust the Police Department because officers have made thousands of arrests that don't result in criminal charges.
Two detectives on trial in federal court are accused of robbing drug addicts and pressuring dealers to split their profits with them. Three Southwestern District officers are scheduled for trial in May on rape charges, and their squad also is accused in police documents of planting drugs on people and stealing from suspects they have arrested.
