Internal Affairs

An off-duty city police officer was charged with gambling offenses yesterday after police said they busted a high-stakes poker game in Northeast Baltimore as part of an internal affairs sting. The officer, Vicki Mengel, is a nine-year veteran who works in the Southwestern District's operations squad, which typically targets drug dealing, prostitution, gambling and other nuisance crimes. Police declined to release details about the raid, which occurred about 1:30 a.m. yesterday. Matt Jablow, a Police Department spokesman, said five people, including Mengel, were given criminal summonses.

NEW YORK - The New York Police Department is reviewing credit card and bank accounts used in sensitive investigations in an effort to determine whether they were misused when Bernard B. Kerik was police commissioner, according to officials involved in the inquiry. The exhaustive review, which is being conducted by a unit in the Internal Affairs Bureau that handles the department's most sensitive internal inquiries, has as yet uncovered no evidence of improprieties, according to one official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the inquiry's sensitive nature.

A female Howard County police officer is charging in a federal lawsuit that a male "locker room"-dominated culture is tolerated by county police, replete with pornography displayed on work computers, sexual insults and harassment for women who complain. The civil rights discrimination suit, filed in October in U.S. District Court in Baltimore by 15-year Officer Susan Ensko, names as defendants Howard County, Police Chief Wayne Livesay, Sgt. Paul Steppe and Officer Perry Sauers. The suit is similar to one filed by retired Cpl. Linda Freeman that led to a $115,000 settlement payment last spring.

When he announced the firing of police Commissioner Kevin P. Clark last week, Mayor Martin O'Malley made a vague reference to a breakdown in their trust and communication. The mayor declined to elaborate, and Clark wasn't talking. But the former commissioner filled in the blanks this week with a lawsuit that quotes a series of pointed, occasionally profane e-mails between the two. "[A] failure to notify [Internal Affairs] is a bull-- reason to tear apart one's command staff," O'Malley messaged Clark on Sept.

Ousted police Commissioner Kevin P. Clark has filed a lawsuit against Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley that contends he was unlawfully fired, in part because his department was investigating a city official closely allied to the mayor. The lawsuit was filed in Baltimore Circuit Court a week after O'Malley dismissed Clark, and it provides the first detailed glimpse into the "communication breakdown" and dwindling trust that O'Malley gave as reasons for Clark's firing. It also lays out just how rapidly their relationship deteriorated after a domestic dispute May 15 involving Clark and the ensuing internal investigations conducted on high-ranking officers who responded to the incident.

A top-ranking Baltimore police commander said he was fired yesterday, alleging that his bosses wanted to get rid of him, in part, because he contradicted their official assessment of the department's automobile fleet. Lt. Col. Stanford Franklin, who headed the human resources division, is one of at least six commanders under investigation by internal affairs detectives for mostly minor alleged infractions. Union officials and City Council members have complained that the internal affairs inquiries are a distraction from the department's crime-fighting efforts.

The Baltimore Police Department's internal affairs unit is investigating at least six top commanders for a variety of alleged improprieties, according to sources familiar with the inquiries. The investigations, into matters ranging from serious to relatively minor, have led to questions by union officials and city council members about the department's ability to focus on halting the spike in homicides. Among those being investigated are three district commanders - critical leaders in the department's battle on street crime - the chief of the administrative division, the head of human resources and the chief of the organized crime division.

On the surface, results of the Baltimore Police Department's random integrity stings during the past three years would seem to suggest a spotless police force: Not a single officer has been caught stealing drugs, money or items planted by internal affairs detectives in more than 100 tests. But former police commanders and outside experts say the fruitless results suggest that the stings are an ineffective way of uncovering corrupt behavior. Union officials call the tactic an inefficient use of resources.

A Baltimore judge yesterday acquitted a veteran city police officer of perjury and misconduct charges stemming from her arrest of an innocent bystander and her contention that he had hidden drugs and cash behind a bush one evening in March. The items had actually been planted by internal affairs detectives conducting a random integrity sting designed to catch officers pocketing the drugs or money. After Circuit Judge Lynn K. Stewart read her verdict, Agent Jacqueline Folio was swarmed by friends, family members and fellow officers who offered her hugs and slaps on the back.

A Baltimore police major is under internal investigation on allegations that he urged a prosecutor to recall an arrest warrant for the son of his pastor, according to sources familiar with the case. The major, Stephen Davis of the Northeastern District, declined to comment this week. But last month, the commander said he did nothing more than orchestrate the surrender of the suspect. Police sources and others familiar with the investigation say internal affairs detectives are examining whether Davis, a 15-year veteran, improperly approached a prosecutor last month and asked her to recall the warrant for Kenneth L. Barney Jr., 32, of the 3000 block of Druid Park Lake Drive.