Two former Baltimore police officers pleaded guilty Friday to federal racketeering charges, admitting that they committed armed robberies, made fraudulent overtime claims and filed false affidavits.
Detectives Maurice Ward and Evodio Hendrix were among seven Baltimore officers indicted in March as part of an alleged conspiracy involving those and other crimes. The seven officers, members of Baltimore’s Gun Trace Task Force, were accused of stopping people — some of whom were not suspected of any crimes — seizing their money, and pocketing it.
In one instance, Hendrix and Ward, allegedly with another officer, stole $17,000 in cash from a suspect’s house following a SWAT raid.
In another instance, several officers stopped a nursing home maintenance supervisor and stole $1,500 that he was planning to use to pay his rent, according to the indictment.
The stolen amounts range from $200 to $200,000, authorities said.
“These are really robberies by people who are wearing police uniforms,” said then-Maryland US Attorney Rod Rosenstein in March.
Attorneys for Ward and Hendrix did not respond to requests for comment on Friday. A spokesperson for the Baltimore Police Department said the men are no longer employed with the department.
The other five officers included in the indictment are awaiting trial, scheduled for January 2018.
The indictment said the seven officers schemed to steal money, property and narcotics by detaining people, entering residences, conducting traffic stops and swearing out false search warrant affidavits.
The investigation began a year ago and included electronic surveillance of the officers.
Hendrix and Ward committed “large-scale time and attendance fraud,” according to prosecutors, a charged leveled at their five co-defendants as well.
In one instance, Ward, Hendrix and another officer were paid for two days of work while on vacation in the Dominican Republic, according to the indictment.
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