A Baltimore police officer who was fired in 2016 is spending at least the weekend in jail after being charged with first-degree assault, court records show.
Fabien Laronde, 42, was ordered held without bail by a District Court commissioner after being served with a warrant Friday that charges him with first- and second-degree assault and reckless endangerment, records show.
In charging documents, a woman alleged she and Laronde got into a fight and that he choked, slapped and punched her, then picked her up and threw her onto the ground outside. She said a bystander called 911, and alleged that she was “covered in bruises.”
The woman pressed charges with a District Court commissioner, who approved the warrant on Feb. 26. Laronde did not have a defense attorney listed in court records Saturday.
On the state’s online court database, it was not clear whether police had arrested Laronde or whether the charges were filed by a citizen, because the Maryland Judiciary has stripped plaintiffs from the online court records database. The rules committee said the move was made for officer safety, but it also removes the names of citizens who press charges. Transparency groups, defense attorneys and public officials have denounced the move, while police in Anne Arundel County who requested a change to how officers’ names are displayed said the move went too far.
Laronde was fired by then-Police Commissioner Kevin Davis in February 2016 after a long history of misconduct allegations.
He was terminated after an internal trial board found him guilty of leaving his weapon within reach of a detainee, The Sun reported. At the time, he had been suspended after an off-duty incident and was prohibited from entering the city courthouse after a separate incident in November.
He has been accused of illegally strip-searching a man in a civil case the city settled for $155,000 and of accosting a court clerk in another case in which a jury awarded $40,000 in damages.