A Baltimore police officer was charged yesterday with assault after he allegedly punched an undercover detective who was posing as a man waiting to buy drugs - a sting set up by detectives investigating a citizen complaint against the officer, according to documents filed in court.
The officer, Jerome K. Hill, 35, has been suspended without pay. Hill, a four-year veteran, was charged with second-degree assault, a misdemeanor. He posted $25,000 bail and was released from the Central Booking and Intake Center. The Middle River resident could not be reached for comment.
"A serious allegation was made, and we investigate it all the way," said Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for both the city police and Mayor Sheila Dixon. "There is not room in this Police Department for people who aren't committed to the crime fight."
FOR THE RECORD - An article in yesterday's editions of The Sun incorrectly reported that Baltimore Police Department charging documents in a case involving Officer Jerome K. Hill said that Jacqueline Torres, an officer who responded to a "sting" call along with Hill, forced an undercover detective to the ground after Hill is alleged to have struck the man. In fact, police said Torres had no role in the altercation.
The Sun regrets the error.
Clifford said detectives with the department's Internal Investigations Division focused on Hill more than a month ago because of a prior "serious allegation" by a citizen made against him.
In charging documents filed in District Court, police described in detail the sting they used to lure the officer to a street corner in Southeast Baltimore on Thursday night - an operation set up by the department's secretive "integrity-testing unit."
Officers chose the first block of North Clinton St., northeast of Patterson Park, to conduct the sting. An undercover detective - John Ferinde - got out of a car and stood on the southwest corner of Clinton and Noble streets while colleagues with video cameras recorded the scene.
Shortly before 6 p.m., another detective, pretending to be a citizen, called an emergency dispatcher with a complaint of a suspicious person - "a white male wearing a green coat" - who appeared to be waiting to buy drugs at Clinton and Noble.
About 10 minutes later, the dispatcher assigned the call to Hill. Five minutes later, Hill arrived at the corner in his marked patrol unit, joined by another officer who came as backup in another car.
"Officer Hill, without provocation, then struck Detective Ferinde on his left lower jaw with a closed fist," the charging documents say.
The other officer, Jacqueline Torres, forced the undercover detective to the ground while Hill attempted to handcuff him, according to the documents. Police said additional internal affairs detectives quickly arrived at the scene, disarmed both Hill and Torres and took them to downtown headquarters for questioning.
