BALTIMORE (WSVN) — Shocking body camera footage appears to show a Baltimore police officer planting drugs at the scene of a crime, Fox 45 reports.
The video from January 2017 shows what looks like an officer placing drugs inside a can. The clip shows the cop walking back to the same spot and pulling the drugs from the can he had just handled seconds earlier. Officers then submitted the drugs as evidence, charging a man with the crime.
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According to Fox 45, a public defender reviewed the footage in preparation for the defendant’s trial and contacted the prosecutor handling the case.
“I’ve passed it up and we are all appalled,” the prosecutor replied in an email. “Something is going to happen because of this revelation.”
Charges against the defendant were dropped the next day. But several days later, the same officer in the video was then called by prosecutors to testify in another case.
“They had knowledge. They watched it and were appalled by what was on the video, and then for whatever reason made the choice to continue to call him as a witness,” Public Defender Debbie Katz Levi told Fox 45.
Baltimore Police issued a statement about their investigation into the body camera video, saying, “We take allegations like this very seriously and that’s why we launched an internal investigation into the accusations. We are fortunate to have Body Worn Cameras which provide a perspective of the events as reported.”
However, it is unclear if the officer in question is still working during the investigation.
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