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Description: Baltimore, Maryland criminal defense lawyer represented defendant charged with conspiracy to deprive civil rights, in connection with planting evidence at a crime scene.

Keith Allen Gladstone, age 32, a former Baltimore Police Sergeant, from New Park, Pennsylvania, joined the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) as an officer on November 20, 1992, and was promoted to Sergeant on December 16, 2011. Gladstone retired from the BPD on December 25, 2012, but was subsequently reinstated as a Sergeant on December 9, 2013. In March 2014, Gladstone was the officer-in-charge of a Special Enforcement Section (SES) unit assigned to BPD’s Western District. Gladstone retired from the BPD for a second time on May 1, 2017.

On the evening of March 26, 2014, Gladstone, who was on duty, was having dinner with Detective Carmine Vignola when he received a call on his cell phone from Wayne Jenkins, another sergeant in the BPD, who was in a panic because he had just run over an arrestee, D.S., in the front yard of a home in Northeast Baltimore. Gladstone obtained a BB gun from another BPD Officer, Detective Robert Hankard, then drove with Vignola to the site of D.S.’s arrest on Anntana Avenue and Belair Road in Northeast Baltimore City. Gladstone admitted that he dropped the BB gun near a pickup truck where D.S. had laid injured on the ground although by the time Gladstone arrived D.S. had been taken to the hospital. Gladstone told Jenkins, “it’s over by the truck,” or words to that effect. The BB gun was then seen by another BPD officer and ultimately recovered by the BPD’s crime lab unit. Based on a false statement of probable cause written by Jenkins in another officer’s name, D.S. was subsequently charged in Maryland state court with possession, use, and discharge of a gas or pellet gun, for the BB gun that Gladstone planted at the scene of D.S.’s arrest, and a number of drug offenses. D.S. was detained on those charges and related charges for 10 months. On January 16, 2015, the charges were disposed of by nolle prosequi, which is a form of dismissal.

As a result of his actions, Gladstone conspired to deprive D.S. of his liberty without the due process of law.
After Jenkins and six other officers who had been members of the BPD’s Gun Trace Task Force were arrested on federal racketeering charges, Gladstone and Vignola arranged to meet in person. Gladstone arranged for the meeting to take place in a swimming pool, to ensure that Vignola was not wearing a recording device. Gladstone admitted that during the meeting, he told Vignola that if questioned by federal law enforcement about the events on March 26, 2014, Vignola should tell federal investigators that Gladstone and Vignola were at the crime scene for “scene security,” which Vignola knew was not true. Gladstone also told Vignola to tell law enforcement that Gladstone had gotten the BB gun from his trunk, which was also not true, since Gladstone and Vignola had obtained the gun from Hankard.

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended the FBI for its work in the investigation. Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Leo J. Wise, who prosecuted the case.

Outcome: Defendant was sentenced to 21 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

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