WATCH: Baltimore Cop Apparently Caught on Body Cam Planting Drugs
Footage shows officer placing drugs in trash; goes out to street, turns on camera, returns. Cams save 30 sec prior to activation, w/o sound pic.twitter.com/5ZW128lWFM
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) July 19, 2017
Footage released of a Baltimore police officer’s body camera appears to show the officer planting drugs in an alleyway that reportedly led to the arrest of a man in January still held on drug charges.
In the video, three officers are standing in an alleyway, before the one filming appears to place a plastic bag containing pills on the ground. He and the two other officers then return to the street, where he turns his body camera on.
According to a series of tweets from Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton, body cameras record and save 30 seconds of video before activation, which explains why we have footage of the officer planting the evidence.
After activating his camera, the officer can be heard saying “I’m gonna check here,” before returning to the alley, where he rummages around some garbage and finds the bag of pills in a can — which he holds up to the other two.
Per Fenton, the man charged as a result of the alleged drug planting has been held since January, unable to pay a $50k bail:
Man held on drug charges related to this vid since Jan on $50k bail he couldnt pay; @BaltimoreSAO called officer in another case days later
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) July 19, 2017
Fenton notes that while a public defender is alleging the video shows drugs being planted, it could demonstrate a recreation of the drug discovery:
Whether drugs planted as public defender asserts, or drug discovery recreated, vid shows officers aware of how to manipulate body cams…
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) July 19, 2017
He also writes that the Baltimore State’s Attorney offered the man a 3-year plea deal after reviewing the video, and the case was eventually dropped:
(Case was instead dropped after going up the chain of command)
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) July 19, 2017
