Former Baltimore Police Officer Sentenced To 21 Months In Prison For Planting A BB Gun On An Innocent Man

A retired Baltimore cop has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for his part in planting a BB gun on a man in 2014.

Sgt. Keith Gladstone pleaded guilty in 2019 on conspiracy to deprive someone of their civil rights charges.

In March of 2014, GTTF leader Wayne Jenkins ran over Demetric Simon in Northeast Baltimore. He told Gladstone and another officer, Det. Carmine Vignola he had just run over a suspect needed their help. Gladstone obtained a BB gun from another officer, Det. Robert Hankard and placed it at the scene to give Jenkins a justification for hitting the suspect.

This made Simon spend 317 days in jail on gun charges.

Four years later Gladstone met up with Vignola and said he should lie to federal law enforcement officials if he was brought in for questioning in the case.

In February of 2019, Vignola told a grand jury he was investigating allegations that the gun was planted by an officer.

Vignola was sentenced 18 months in prison in 2020 after pleading guilty to lying to a grand jury about the circumstances of the incident.

Hankard was convicted of falsely testifying to a federal grand jury about his role in planting the BB gun. Also, of falsifying an application for a search warrant and falsifying an arrest report in a second incident where drugs were planted on a suspect.

Jenkins the “ringleader” of the unit and his officers were convicted of racketeering, armed robbery, selling drugs, falsifying overtime. Also, planting evidence on suspects they arrested. They were sentenced in 2018 to 25 years in prison.