Two Baltimore police homicide detectives are facing an internal investigation after they refused to help evict a 78-year-old woman before the holidays.
Baltimore police union president Bob Cherry said detectives Marvin Sydnor and Kenneth Norris did the right thing — and should not be facing an internal discipline.
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“They felt like, ‘Leave this poor woman alone,’ Cherry said. “It’s right before Christmas.”
The case stems from the 2006 shooting of Officer Dante Hemingway, for which Jobrea Lodge, 23, was convicted of attempted first-degree murder and sentenced to 20 years behind bars.
When Lodge was arrested, he listed his grandmother’s address in a Westport public housing complex — prompting housing officials to try to evict her, based on the belief that she was living with someone involved in criminal activity, Cherry said.
Last week, Sydnor and Norris refused to help prosecutors as they tried to evict the grandmother, causing the prosecutor to send an e-mail complaining about the detectives to Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld, according to Cherry.
The detectives, who know the case inside and out, believe the woman had nothing to do with the shooting, Cherry said.
“If we had a house of drugs, or house with guns, they would have happily been involved,” Cherry said. “But this is a case where they felt it’s not that kind of situation.”
