City housing officials say they were only following the law when they tried to evict a cop shooter’s 78-year-old grandmother — and then reported two veteran homicide detectives for refusing to cooperate.
“There were two grounds for eviction — two fairly serious grounds for eviction,” said Cheron Porter, the city housing spokeswoman. “The grandmother harbored a person who shot a cop. That’s grounds for eviction. He was also an illegal occupant. That’s grounds for eviction.”
The president of Baltimore’s police union, Bob Cherry, has said he’s upset that the detectives are facing an internal investigation after they refused to help evict Catherine Williams just before the holidays.
Cherry said detectives Marvin Sydnor and Kenneth Norris did the right thing.
“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, Jon Offley, 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.”
But Porter said Williams admitted to housing Lodge.
“This is the federal lease, and everyone must follow the rules and the law,” she said. “It is unfortunate, but she did harbor someone who shot a cop. And then the cops don’t want to stand up for the cop who was shot. Personal feeling aside, facts are facts. Our hands were tied with this. Everyone knows the rules.”
Even so, Porter said the city ended up settling with Williams and relocating her out of Westport.
“She’s not evicted,” Porter said. “She’s not an 80-year-old grandmother out on the street before Christmas. She has a warm place to rest her head.”
