Baltimore Police officer mistakenly records himself with body cam planting drugs at crime scene

[Democrat Cops]

The city of Baltimore has launched an investigation after body
cam footage from a city police officer appearing to plant drugs
at an arrest location.

The video, from a January arrest, is from the body camera of
Baltimore Police Officer Richard Pinheiro, who is seen planting
a bag of pills in a tin can while two other officers look on.
The footage was evidence in a case that was scheduled for last
week, but prosecutors wound up droping the case after being
contacted by a public defender who was reviewing the footage in
preparation for court.

Baltimore’s Office of the Public Defender is now demanding that
dozens of cases, where Pinheiro and his two colleagues were the
arresting officers, be dropped by the Prosecutor's Office.

“The officers involved are still witnesses in other active cases
that are currently being pursued for prosecution in Baltimore
City Circuit Court. The officer whose camera shows him planting
the drugs, Officer Richard Pinheiro, is a witness in
approximately 53 active cases,” reads a statement released by
the Office of the Public Defender. “The prosecutor claimed to be
‘appalled’ by the video and dropped the charges in that case,
but no clear policy has been taken in other cases involving
these officers.”

The release also points out that Pinheiro was called to testify
in another case the following week without any disclosure of
this videotape.

“Officer misconduct has been a pervasive issue at the Baltimore
Police Department, which is exacerbated by the lack of
accountability.” Debbie Katz Levi, head of the Baltimore Public
Defender’s Special Litigation Section said in a statement. “We
have long supported the use of police body cameras to help
identify police misconduct, but such footage is meaningless if
prosecutors continue to rely on these officers, especially if
they do so without disclosing their bad acts.”

In the video, it appears that Pinheiro attempts to turn off the
camera but only mutes it before he plants the bag of drugs in
among a trash pile in a back alleyway. The officer and his two
colleagues then walk back out to the street, where he is seen
flipping a switch which brings the sound back on. Pinheiro then
walks back to the alley where he “discovers” the narcotics. He
then brings his find back to his partners before the video ends.

“Officers should not be able to decide when to turn the cameras
on and off, and footage like what was presented here needs to
result in immediate action by the State’s Attorney and the
Police Department,” Levi said.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/07/20/baltimore-police-officer-
mistakenly-records-himself-with-body-cam-planting-drugs-at-crime-
scene.html