BALTIMORE, Md. — A federal grand jury has indicted a former Baltimore Police Sergeant for allegedly helping a Gun Trace Task Force member plant evidence at a scene and telling a witness to lie.
According to the indictment, 51-year-old Keith Allen Gladstone received a call from a GTTF member who was in a panic after deliberately running over an arrestee in front of a home in Northeast Baltimore in March 2014.
They say Gladstone grabbed a BB gun from the trunk of the BPD car that he was driving and drove to the scene with an officer. He then planted the gun near a pick-up truck where the arrestee layed injured on the ground and was unable to use his legs. When Gladstone left the scene, the GTTF member instructed an officer to move the gun under the truck closer to the arrestee.
A false statement written by the GTTF member in another officer's name, led the arrestee to be charged with several offenses including a discharge of a gas or pellet gun, for the BB gun that Gladstone planted at the scene during his arrest.
The indictment also says that after members of the GTTF were arrested on federal racketeering charges, Gladstone told the officer that rode with him to the scene that if questioned by federal law enforcement about the incident, he should lie and say they were at the crime scene for "scene security."
A spokeswoman with U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland says Gladstone was arraigned on Tuesday, and plead not guilty. He was released under the supervision of U.S. Pretrial Services.
Acting Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison released a statement on Gladstone's indictment, saying three officers mentioned in the indictment have been suspended, pending the outcome of an internal investigation:
The allegations outlined today in court are beyond disturbing, and speak to a culture that I am here to change. We are working with our federal partners on this ongoing investigation. Based on today’s indictment and other information provided to me, I am suspending three current Baltimore Police officers pending the outcome of an Internal Affairs investigation. A fourth officer listed in today’s indicted had already been suspended and will also be investigated by our Internal Affairs section.
Gladstone faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for conspiracy to violate civil rights, a maximum of five years in prison for conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, and a maximum of 20 years in prison for witness tampering.
