Baltimore prosecutors charged two city police officers on Friday with bribery and conspiracy in connection with a towing scandal that has involved more than a dozen officers.
Prosecutors say Baltimore police officers Jose Arroyo and Charles Grimes were involved in a scheme where Majestic Auto Body Repair shop in Rosedale bribed officers to funnel tow and repair jobs to the business rather than a city-authorized company.
"They're due their constitutional right, their day in court, their due process," Baltimore police union president Gene Ryan said. "If they're wrong they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. … Police officers are held to a higher standard. If they did what they are accused of, they make us all look bad."
The scheme was busted up in February 2011 when U.S. prosecutors filed federal charges against 17 officers they said were getting kickbacks from Majestic owners. More than 50 officers were implicated overall, according to court records and statements from prosecutors at the time.
Over the past few years, 15 of the officers have been sentenced to prison in federal court. Another officer pleaded guilty to theft in state court. Two Majestic owners were also convicted on federal charges and sentenced to prison.
Prosecutors say they are charging Arroyo and Grimes now, nearly three years after the initial investigation, because they have completed their probe into the scandal. No more officers are expected to be charged, State's Attorney's Office spokesman Tony Savage said.
"We have now completed what has been a lengthy and complex investigation, which has resulted in the charges that were issued today," he said in an email.
In 2007, Grimes was among six Baltimore officers involved in the arrest of a 7-year-old boy for sitting on a dirt bike, which are illegal in Baltimore. The boy was taken into custody and handcuffed to a bench at police headquarters. Then-Mayor Sheila Dixon and then-Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm publicly rebuked the officers.
About 10 days later, police launched what they said was a drug investigation that resulted in the arrest of the boy's mother.
The boy's family believed the arrest came in retaliation to the criticism the officers had faced.
The family filed a $40 million civil suit against the officers in 2010 but a jury rejected the claims.
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