Injustice system

Last week, a Baltimore City homicide sergeant, who lives in Baltimore County, was arrested and refused bail. Allegedly, he extorted money, kidnapped, and threatened to arrest a home contractor.

He had paid a guy money to build a patio at his house. He was unhappy that some of the paver stones were crumbling, and said that the patio should have been larger per the original agreement.  When the contractor showed up to discuss it all, he said he wanted more money to do more work.

The sergeant then is alleged to have demanded money back, and then showed the man printouts of his driving record, threatening to arrest him for driving on a suspended license.  He then put the man in a police car and drove him to a bank in Anne Arundel County, according to the charges, and made the man get a cashier's check for half the money paid.

Also, at one time during all this, three other homicide detectives were involved in pressuring the man to come up with the money, and the city says all four of the detectives were on duty at the time.

Here's how the sergeant put it to the contractor: “You are going to give me my money back, and I’m going to give you freedom.”

He was cooling his heels in the county lockup over the weekend, and his attorney claimed that this was all a civil matter, a contractual dispute over some supposedly shoddy work.

Except that civil matters don't usually involve flashing guns and badges and forced rides to Glen Burnie to withdraw money.

So I'm throwing the penalty flag on the attorney for mischaracterizing a crime as a civil suit, and I'm also pointing out that these matters should be handled on one's personal time, instead of on-duty time. The news is full of stories of unsolved homicides in the city. Perhaps they could spend time working on them?

I have plenty of support for police, but the problem is that these few shady cops throw unfair shade on the many good ones.