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Cops Stinging Cops
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Absent With Cause
Second article in a series by Van Smith, Baltimore City Paper
5/11/2005
Absent With Cause
Retired Police Officer Sues Commissioner, Faces Termination for Corruption
Retired Police Officer Sues Commissioner, Faces Termination for Corruption
| Uli Loskot |
TELL IT TO THE JUDGE: Former Baltimore
police officer Jacqueline Folio has asked the
courts to settle her dispute with the city.
police officer Jacqueline Folio has asked the
courts to settle her dispute with the city.
By Van Smith
Jacqueline Folio believes she is no longer a cop, having filed
retirement papers on March 17 under orders from Baltimore
Police Department Commissioner Leonard Hamm (“Cop Out,”
April 6). BPD, though, believes she is still on the force because
Hamm later rescinded his retirement order—though not until after
Folio filed for retirement. So, in a lawsuit filed April 29, Folio
asked the U.S. District Court to settle the dispute. Named as
defendants are Hamm and two former BPD lawyers: Sean
Malone, now the city’s labor commissioner, and Karen Kruger,
who works as an attorney for the Harford County government.
retirement papers on March 17 under orders from Baltimore
Police Department Commissioner Leonard Hamm (“Cop Out,”
April 6). BPD, though, believes she is still on the force because
Hamm later rescinded his retirement order—though not until after
Folio filed for retirement. So, in a lawsuit filed April 29, Folio
asked the U.S. District Court to settle the dispute. Named as
defendants are Hamm and two former BPD lawyers: Sean
Malone, now the city’s labor commissioner, and Karen Kruger,
who works as an attorney for the Harford County government.
On May 2, one business day after Folio sued, BPD held an administrative hearing on corruption charges against
Folio, after months of delay. Folio claims in her lawsuit that one such delay, prompted by Hamm’s order for her
to retire one business day before a scheduled March 14 hearing, was designed to deprive her of the opportunity
to present a strong defense. This time, though, the hearing went on without Folio or her lawyer there to mount a
defense. Thus, BPD’s lawyer—Kruger, on loan from Harford County and fresh from being served as a
defendant in Folio’s lawsuit—made her case without opposition.
Thus, Folio—who spent 15 of her 43 years at BPD—finds herself in the unusual position of facing termination
after she retired. She’s now busy preparing for a second career as a house painter. “I’m in the process of getting
my own business started,” she says. “I’m done with law enforcement.”
BPD spokesman Matt Jablow says that during the hearing Kruger told the three-member hearing board that Folio
perjured herself in order to falsely arrest a suspect, Leon Burgess, during a March 2003 police-corruption sting.
The accusations were the same Folio had been acquitted of in Baltimore City Circuit Court in December 2003.
Jablow says the trial board ruled that Folio is not retired, upheld 15 of the 18 charges against her, and
recommended termination for 12 of them. As of press time, Hamm had not yet taken the board’s advice, though
Folio expects him to fire her.
“I was told that they put the trial board on today without us there,” Folio said in a phone message to City Paper
shortly after the May 2 hearing. “The hits just keep on coming,” she added. Two days later, when CP contacted
her for comment about the outcome, she hadn’t yet been notified by BPD that charges were sustained for
termination.
“I can’t believe they went through with it,” she said. “And I’m surprised they didn’t find me guilty on all of
them. I’m sure [Hamm] is going to sign off on it. I mean, it’s what they all wanted.”
The dispute arose from a police integrity sting conducted on March 27, 2003. The operation, designed by the
police Internal Affairs Division, was intended to catch an officer failing to properly turn in abandoned
contraband—in this case, suspected drugs and money. The items were placed in a bag under a bush next to
Patterson Park, and an Internal Affairs detective called Baltimore City 911 to report a felony in progress: In the
call, he said that a person matching a detailed description was in the area, dealing drugs and keeping the stash
under the bush.
Folio responded to the scene and spotted a young man leaving the area who fit the description given by the
dispatcher. She recovered the bag from under the bush while her colleagues collared the suspect, Burgess, for
possession with intent to distribute drugs. Folio proceeded to follow standard procedure, doing the requisite
paperwork on the arrest and submitting the contraband to evidence control. But in her sworn statement of
probable cause to arrest Burgess, Folio wrote that she saw him “place” the bag under the bush. Since Internal
Affairs, not Burgess, had stashed the bag there, Folio’s dubious statement was the basis for immediately
suspending her on suspicion of perjury and misconduct.
The falsely arrested suspect, Leon Burgess, spent more than eight hours in police custody for a crime that was
faked by the Internal Affairs Division, whose detectives purposefully called in a description matching his. In the
wee hours of the morning on March 28, 2003, after being reread his Miranda rights as if he were still charged
with a felony, Burgess was interrogated by Sean Malone, then BPD’s chief of special projects, and Internal
Affairs detectives—all of whom knew Burgess was innocent. After Burgess’ release that morning, and before he
testified against Folio during the December 2003 trial when she was acquitted, he was arrested for several
crimes, including violent ones. The Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, which was pursuing the charges
against Folio, declined to prosecute Burgess for any of the alleged crimes.
Folio believes that Internal Affairs’ police work, not hers, was reprehensible, and that the accusations against her
were made in an effort to distract attention from the real crime: that Internal Affairs’ sting was designed to result
in the false arrest of an innocent civilian. In asking the U.S. District Court to determine whether or not she is
retired, Folio’s lawsuit accuses Hamm, Malone, and Kruger of conspiring to remove her from her job “without
due process of law”—that is, without a trial-board hearing, where Folio and her attorney, Clarke Ahlers, would
have aired publicly the department’s culpability in Burgess’ arrest.
Jablow says BPD has no comment about the lawsuit. Folio, though, is adamant that she’s retired, not fired. “If I
was still a police officer,” she asks, “then why the hell wasn’t I . . . charged with being absent without leave? I
haven’t been to work since the commissioner ordered me to retire in March.”
Email Van Smith
Folio, after months of delay. Folio claims in her lawsuit that one such delay, prompted by Hamm’s order for her
to retire one business day before a scheduled March 14 hearing, was designed to deprive her of the opportunity
to present a strong defense. This time, though, the hearing went on without Folio or her lawyer there to mount a
defense. Thus, BPD’s lawyer—Kruger, on loan from Harford County and fresh from being served as a
defendant in Folio’s lawsuit—made her case without opposition.
Thus, Folio—who spent 15 of her 43 years at BPD—finds herself in the unusual position of facing termination
after she retired. She’s now busy preparing for a second career as a house painter. “I’m in the process of getting
my own business started,” she says. “I’m done with law enforcement.”
BPD spokesman Matt Jablow says that during the hearing Kruger told the three-member hearing board that Folio
perjured herself in order to falsely arrest a suspect, Leon Burgess, during a March 2003 police-corruption sting.
The accusations were the same Folio had been acquitted of in Baltimore City Circuit Court in December 2003.
Jablow says the trial board ruled that Folio is not retired, upheld 15 of the 18 charges against her, and
recommended termination for 12 of them. As of press time, Hamm had not yet taken the board’s advice, though
Folio expects him to fire her.
“I was told that they put the trial board on today without us there,” Folio said in a phone message to City Paper
shortly after the May 2 hearing. “The hits just keep on coming,” she added. Two days later, when CP contacted
her for comment about the outcome, she hadn’t yet been notified by BPD that charges were sustained for
termination.
“I can’t believe they went through with it,” she said. “And I’m surprised they didn’t find me guilty on all of
them. I’m sure [Hamm] is going to sign off on it. I mean, it’s what they all wanted.”
The dispute arose from a police integrity sting conducted on March 27, 2003. The operation, designed by the
police Internal Affairs Division, was intended to catch an officer failing to properly turn in abandoned
contraband—in this case, suspected drugs and money. The items were placed in a bag under a bush next to
Patterson Park, and an Internal Affairs detective called Baltimore City 911 to report a felony in progress: In the
call, he said that a person matching a detailed description was in the area, dealing drugs and keeping the stash
under the bush.
Folio responded to the scene and spotted a young man leaving the area who fit the description given by the
dispatcher. She recovered the bag from under the bush while her colleagues collared the suspect, Burgess, for
possession with intent to distribute drugs. Folio proceeded to follow standard procedure, doing the requisite
paperwork on the arrest and submitting the contraband to evidence control. But in her sworn statement of
probable cause to arrest Burgess, Folio wrote that she saw him “place” the bag under the bush. Since Internal
Affairs, not Burgess, had stashed the bag there, Folio’s dubious statement was the basis for immediately
suspending her on suspicion of perjury and misconduct.
The falsely arrested suspect, Leon Burgess, spent more than eight hours in police custody for a crime that was
faked by the Internal Affairs Division, whose detectives purposefully called in a description matching his. In the
wee hours of the morning on March 28, 2003, after being reread his Miranda rights as if he were still charged
with a felony, Burgess was interrogated by Sean Malone, then BPD’s chief of special projects, and Internal
Affairs detectives—all of whom knew Burgess was innocent. After Burgess’ release that morning, and before he
testified against Folio during the December 2003 trial when she was acquitted, he was arrested for several
crimes, including violent ones. The Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, which was pursuing the charges
against Folio, declined to prosecute Burgess for any of the alleged crimes.
Folio believes that Internal Affairs’ police work, not hers, was reprehensible, and that the accusations against her
were made in an effort to distract attention from the real crime: that Internal Affairs’ sting was designed to result
in the false arrest of an innocent civilian. In asking the U.S. District Court to determine whether or not she is
retired, Folio’s lawsuit accuses Hamm, Malone, and Kruger of conspiring to remove her from her job “without
due process of law”—that is, without a trial-board hearing, where Folio and her attorney, Clarke Ahlers, would
have aired publicly the department’s culpability in Burgess’ arrest.
Jablow says BPD has no comment about the lawsuit. Folio, though, is adamant that she’s retired, not fired. “If I
was still a police officer,” she asks, “then why the hell wasn’t I . . . charged with being absent without leave? I
haven’t been to work since the commissioner ordered me to retire in March.”
Email Van Smith
| Reprinted with permission - © 2006 Baltimore City Paper |
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