BALTIMORE — In a forum earlier this week, Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced she has identified hundreds of Baltimore police officers suspected of misconduct and cannot be called to testify in state cases.
Ms. Mosby says she has sent that list to the police department, but area defense attorneys say, they need to see it too.
"The state's attorney's office should release the names of the officers or dig into the credibility issues, or else there is no use for this information at all," defense attorney Jeremy Eldridge said. "By not telling us the names or the credibility issues, there is absolutely nothing any of us can do with this information, its completely meaningless and it shifts the burden to the police department which is exactly how we got into this problem with the Gun Trace Task Force."
The Deputy District Public Defender for Baltimore Natasha Dartigue says her office will be affected too and that Ms. Mosby must furnish the list by law so public defenders can start combing through cases.
"We are going to have to look at the list of officers and see how it impacts,” Dartigue said. “It can impact those who have guilty findings, those who may have violations of probation findings as well as pending cases."
For its part, the Baltimore Police Department says it has received the list from Mosby's office, but a spokesperson for the department says many names involve very minor infractions or -- in some cases -- allegations of wrong-doing that were not sustained...at all.
Jason Johnson was a former deputy commissioner under Kevin Davis, he says if this list includes officers with minor infractions, it is only going to further erode an already strained relationship.
"Appearing to be uncovering major misconduct, its disingenuous at least and it's really disappointing," Johnson said.
Ms. Mosby declined to speak about this issue on camera today -- but did tell WMAR 2-news she believes there are credibility issues with all the officers she's identified.
