City officer suspended in inquiry

Radio chatter contradicts his police report on drug arrests

"You let me know when they separate and I'll go stop them," Woodlon told Reed.

Seconds later, Reed told Woodlon that she was "almost sure" that a drug deal had occurred inside the store.

"What's their direction of travel?" Woodlon asked.

Reed then described the movements of the two buyers - a white woman in a purple jacket and black woman in a black jacket.

"Are they still walking up [North Avenue]?" Woodlon asked a few seconds later.

"I'm at Pulaski and Walbrook," he said. "When they walk past Payson toward Pulaski, let me know. I'm going to get out and walk up on them."

The intersections are three blocks apart and around a corner.

Seconds after Reed told Woodlon that the women were crossing Payson Street, he replied: "I see them. I'm walking right toward them." Reed said, "All right. The black woman went up to her mouth."

The charging documents do not mention Reed or the role that she and the surveillance system played in the arrests.

Efforts to reach Woodlon and Reed were unsuccessful.

"He didn't see jack," Davis' defense attorney, Louis Curran, said in an interview. "Not only did he not seek jack, he writes it up under oath like he did."

The Police Department destroys recordings of radio communications after 90 days if officers, prosecutors or defense attorneys do not request them. Curran said he asked for the recording because he did not believe that Wade dropped the cocaine.

Curran said he gave a copy of the tape to prosecutor Rebecca Cox, who notified him that the second voice on it was Reed's. But by that time, police had destroyed the video from the surveillance camera, Curran said. Such videos are preserved for 28 days unless a request is made to save them, Guglielmi said.

The police union president, Robert F. Cherry Jr., said the tape is just one part of the story. "I just want to caution everyone to remember that just because something is on a ... tape, it's not the whole case," Cherry said. "I've never seen one case built strictly and solely on one tape."

Cherry said that if prosecutors had proof that Woodlon lied, Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy would have put him on her list of officers barred from testifying.

Cox interviewed Woodlon about the discrepancies before a trial date and then dropped the charges. According to sources familiar with the interview, Woodlon said that Reed did not want to testify in court, which is why he omitted her role in his report.

Jessamy spokesman Joseph Sviatko said that Doug Ludwig, the office's new police misconduct chief, will investigate the matter. Sviatko said Jessamy would decide whether to file criminal charges against Woodlon and whether he should be added to prosecutors' list of officers barred from testifying in court.

Curran sent an e-mail to defense attorneys about the case. Woodlon could be called as a witness in more than 50 others pending in Baltimore, according to online court records.