The city of Baltimore has settled a lawsuit with a Black man who was incarcerated for a year-and-a-half after a corrupt officer reportedly planted a firearm on him. Sources say the officers involved in his case set up others and have cost the municipality upwards of $15 million in payouts.
On Wednesday, Sept. 7, the Board of Estimates, a five-member committee, voted unanimously to settle with Darnell Earl, ending his lawsuit against the City of Baltimore, the Baltimore Police Department and three detectives of the Gun Trace Task Force who set him up for a gun crime, the Baltimore Sun reports.
Earl will now walk away from the complaint with $575,000 and an agreement to drop all charges against the three officers.
Ebony Thomas, the deputy city solicitor, encouraged the city to settle in an effort to avoid trial.
“We have transformed and continue to improve our police department, including the training, the policy, and protocols to eliminate these types of lawsuits,” Thomas said, according to FOX Baltimore. “These lawsuits exemplify the need for us to continue this administration’s efforts and rebuild the trust of our police department.”
The official said because of the corrupt task force the city has already paid out $15.48 million to more than 30 victims with lawsuits connected to those being erroneously locked up or targeted by this group of crooked cops. In 2020, Umar Burley and Brent Matthews, who were victims of the task force, received $7.9 million, almost half of what the city paid out.
And there are more settlements to be made by the city. Thomas shared there are “four remaining active cases” and of them, two “pose a serious financial risk.”
On Sunday, Oct. 18, 2015, Earl was driving in the city when he was stopped by three members of the Gun Trace Task Force: officers Marcus Taylor, Evodio Hendrix and Wayne Jenkins. At the time of the stop, the officers claimed they found a weapon underneath Earl’s passenger seat – playing up his criminal record that consisted of prior convictions for illegal possession of guns – making him particularly vulnerable to the charges associated with the nefarious traffic stop.
As a result, Earl felt he had to plead guilty to one of the charges, and thus was sent to prison.
Two years later, the Gun Trace Task Force was exposed for its history of criminal misconduct, dating back almost 10 years. A federal probe showed the force abused the privilege afforded them by their badge, robbed people during traffic stops, stole drugs and money, and planted evidence on innocent people.
Some officers in the unit connected to the crimes that included racketeering, robbery, extortion, and overtime fraud, pled guilty and others were convicted in a court of law.
In 2017, Earl’s conviction was vacated by Baltimore’s state attorney’s officer, after all three of the officers plead guilty to federal RICO violations.
In 2020, Earl filed a lawsuit alleging his civil rights were violated when he was stopped with no probable cause, and officers planted the firearm in his vehicle.
That same year in April, Maryland’s high court refused to allow the city to curb similar payouts by arguing that officers acted outside the scope of their employment with the police department when they committed the crimes.
