Baltimore prosecutors came to indicted police Officer Jemini Jones on Monday morning with a last-minute offer: Plead guilty to a charge of nonsexual conduct unbecoming an officer and you can get off with probation.
Jones, 29, listened to the offer and immediately refused.
“Why would I take a plea on something I didn?t do?” he said.
After hearing that, prosecutors came back later Monday afternoon and dropped the rape charges against Jones. It was the second time this year Jones was exonerated of rape charges.
“They wasted about a year and a half of my life on some ridiculous charges,” Jones said. “I?m upset. … They took me to trial off mere accusations, not substantiated through corroboration, facts or any type of evidence.”
City prosecutors didn?t say why they dropped the charges.
“Because this is still a pending matter and ongoing investigation, we decline to comment,” said Margaret Burns, spokeswoman for the State?s Attorney?s Office.
The accuser in the latest rape case has been previously found guilty of giving a false statement to an officer, court records show.
In the most recent case, Jones was accused of raping a woman in October 2005 at a Monastery Avenue apartment.
In January, a jury found Jones not guilty of raping a drug suspect in exchange for her freedom, and charges against his two Southwestern District partners that they didn?t do anything to stop the alleged attack were dropped.
Jones? “flex squad” unit was dissolved more than a year ago and accused of wrongdoing, which caused prosecutors to drop nearly 400 cases involving the unit.
Jones, who was suspended without pay from the force in January 2006, said he wants his job on the police force ? and that he?s glad to finally be able to speak out.
“I?m going back,” Jones said. “This won?t happen to nobody else if I?ve got anything to do with it. I?ll make sure of that. They made me suffer in silence but it won?t be no more. I suffered a whole year without being able to say a word.”
Baltimore police union President Paul Blair said the case was nothing more than a politically driven indictment aimed at embarrassing the police department ? and then-Mayor Martin O?Malley ? during an election year.
“All the charges are gone,” Blair said. “They?ve been convicted of nothing and all those defendants [whom the flex squad charged with crimes] got a free walk. This was a political case in the middle of an election. I really believe they ran right away to indict these officers within four days of receiving the complaint. That was because the State?s Attorney?s Office was trying to embarrass the police department.”
Both the Baltimore PoliceDepartment and the Baltimore branch of the FBI said they continue to investigate Jones? conduct.
“We have a pending and ongoing investigation of Detective Jones through internal affairs and we cannot comment,” Baltimore police spokesman Detective Donny Moses said.
“We do have an open investigation involving Jemini Jones and the flex squad,” said Baltimore FBI spokeswoman Michelle Crnkovich.
Jones also has an illegal gun charge pending in court, and until that case is resolved, Jones? status with the police department will not change, Moses said.
Baltimore attorney Kenneth Ravenell, who represents both of Jones? accusers in civil suits, said he doesn?t think the criminal matters will affect his suits. Jones said he blames Ravenell for orchestrating the charges against him.
“I?ll be happy to meet Jemini Jones in a court of law at any day at any time,” Ravenell said. “I think the evidence is overwhelming that he?s guilty as sin.”
Accused officer reacts to latest acquittal
Baltimore police Officer Jemini Jones gave his first interview after having the second rape charge against him dropped Monday. In January, a Baltimore City Circuit Court jury found Jones not guilty of rape charges from a different accuser.
Here are some of Jones? immediate reactions.
» “The cards were stacked against myself and my whole unit. They came after me. I mean the prosecutor, the city of Baltimore and just the way certain factions of the police department handled things. They didn?t really stand behind me. They didn?t really stand behind my co-workers. They just threw us under the bus. Now that these serious charges are dropped, what?s going to be said now? What can you say now?”
» “I?m quoting my commissioner: We ?were an embarrassment? to the police department. I remember [Mayor] Sheila Dixon saying that I was a renegade cop, that I costthe city hundreds of thousands of dollars off of things they decided to settle in court. I?ve never been found sustained of any wrongdoings in any investigations they had against me. I?ve never been found guilty of anything. Four-hundred cases, 400 good cases got thrown out, where murderers were let out on the street, and people who shoot people were let out, all off of an accusation. With all the happiness I feel with being exonerated, I?m upset. … I want to celebrate, but the people who pull the strings in this city, they didn?t care about my family. They didn?t care about the fact that it cost me $50,000 just to be out on the street, just to sustain myself this last year. … “I?m appreciative it ended the way it ended, but at the same time this weighs heavy on my heart. I ask God to help me remain professional and help me forgive these people for what they did to me. They tried to snatch my life away from me.”
» “They never had an actual real case against me, my co-workers, the flex squad. They made a lot of unsubstantiated claims about us being involved in drug activity where they had no evidence to suggest that. They find drugs and they allow certain officers in Internal Affairs to start searching before they had a search warrant, but nobody spoke about that. Nobody spoke about how Internal Affairs had it out to get us. They had several investigations to try to set us up. This case was a kangaroo court.”
» “We were the best unit out there between the districts. We made the most arrests. We made the most impact. We were out there doing our jobs, but we didn?t break bread with the right people or talk to the right people or have the right people back us.”
» “Anybody can say I did anything to them. Two weeks ago, the city paid a guy $30,000 just off the inference of me being there.”
» “If another guy gets accused of something similar, they show me on TV. [Police Commissioner Leonard] Hamm didn?t get on TV and make a response to that.”
» “Within the city, they needed somebody to blame for the problems they had with this policing situation. They needed somebody to say, ?Put it on them. Yeah, we prosecuted a cop. Throw him under the bus.? We?ll forget about all the other problems going on, like the backups in Central Booking and the issues as to why a lot of cases are being thrown out or not being prosecuted. I feel like my whole unit was really targeted as being a scapegoat. There were other units all this year that were accused of things. All that was swept under the rug. It?s just the Southwest flex squad.”
