Internal Affairs

How often does the suspect in a crime go free because the arresting officer ends up being charged with the crime instead? Not often, we'd wager. Yet that's what happened to a Baltimore man accused of assaulting a policeman and resisting arrest. The case against him collapsed when investigators reviewed a surveillance video of the incident that appeared to give the lie to the officer's account of what happened, and instead showed him punching and stomping an unresisting victim. Officer Donyell Briggs claimed that the suspect, Ricky Thomas, had pushed past him and fled the scene after being pulled over for a routine traffic stop.

Two Baltimore Police officers charged in a towing kickback scandal are slated to go to trial next month, and court documents offer several previously unreleased details from the investigation. Samuel Ocasio and Kelvin Quade Manrich, two of the 17 officers charged, are scheduled to go to trial Feb. 13, records show. In a motion to suppress evidence filed over the summer, Ocasio's attorney Thomas L. Crowe cites various details from the sealed wiretap affidavits: -Crowe writes that police traced "an astounding" 8,865 telephone contacts between a cell phone for the Majestic towing company to 12 city police officers over a 13 month span, plus 1,937 contacts with another 47 police officers, for a total of 59 officers.

The Baltimore Police Department has hired a former DEA official and presidential appointee to head internal investigations, a move that the signals the agency's desire to get tougher on police misconduct. Grayling Williams starts today in his new position, officials said. He spent 22 years with the Drug Enforcement Administration, including a stint as a supervisory special agent in Baltimore. In 2009, he was appointed by President Obama  to serve as the Director of the Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The Baltimore Police Department's announcement that Maj. Nathan Warfield has been removed from his post as commander of the internal affairs division doesn't quite add up. The department issued a news release about the move last night, after The Sun's Justin Fenton had asked questions about photos on Mr. Warfield's Facebook page showing him at a party and at a basketball tournament with Officer Daniel G. Redd, who is under indictment on drug...

The Baltimore Police Department removed its commander in charge of internal investigations late Monday, a move police sources describe as fallout from last week's indictment of a city police officer on drug charges. Maj. Nathan Warfield, picked in 2009 by Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III to root out corruption within the department, was reassigned a week after Bealefeld said the arrest of Officer Daniel G. Redd proved his agency would not tolerate misconduct. Earlier Monday, The Baltimore Sun had asked the department to comment on pictures posted on Facebook showing Warfield socializing with Redd and a man named Sam Brown, who was also charged this month in a separate heroin distribution conspiracy.

Federal authorities are now leading the investigation into three Prince George's County police officers who were caught on tape beating an unarmed University of Maryland student, and the federal officials made no secret of it last week, descending on the homes of about 40 officers who worked the night of the incident. Richard Wolf, an FBI spokesman, said that the FBI and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division had recently assumed management of the investigation into the March 3 beating of student John J. McKenna during a raucous celebration after a basketball victory over Duke.

Why does the Baltimore County chief of police feel the need to perpetuate the life of story about Ray Rice giving a policeman his autograph ( "Police chief says officer who accepted Ravens autograph might have been wrong," Nov. 19)? Internal affairs has already recommended that there be no disciplinary action against the officer, but Chief James W. Johnson will not rule it out. He has given new life to a matter that was deservedly dying a quick death. Has he nothing else to do but pander to the interests of the political correctness police?

Baltimore police have disbanded the plainclothes unit that investigates drugs in Northwest Baltimore amid allegations of misconduct against three officers in two different units, the department confirmed Wednesday. Six officers who make up the Northwest District drug unit were sent back to patrol amid the suspension of the unit's supervisor and one officer, who are accused of using a stolen license plate on an unmarked vehicle, said Anthony Guglielmi, the department's chief spokesman.

An off-duty Baltimore police officer shot an alleged car thief in the leg late Friday night after catching the man breaking into his SUV, which was parked at a lot near East Chase and North Charles streets, a popular section of Mount Vernon. The suspect, whose name has not been released, was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center for treatment. Police said he is listed in stable condition and is expected to be charged with auto theft, assault and related crimes. The officer has been placed on administrative duty pending the results of an investigation by police internal affairs and the homicide division, which handles all police-involved shootings, said spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.