By Colin Campbell
The Baltimore Sun
August 8, 2016
BALTIMORE -- Almost two weeks after claiming the Baltimore Police Department was too biased to investigate its own officers, city State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby stood beside Police Commissioner Kevin Davis Monday and praised the department and two officers who spoke up about a fellow officer's misconduct.
Officers Keven Leary and Isiah Smith testified against Officer Wesley Cagle, who was convicted by a jury last week of first-degree assault and a handgun charge in a December 2014 police shooting.
Cagle, 46, shot Michael Johansen in the groin as he lay in the doorway of an East Baltimore corner store after two other officers had already shot him, prosecutors said. Cagle, a 15-year veteran of the police force, was acquitted of more serious charges of attempted first- and second-degree murder, but he faces at least five years in prison.
"Today I stand alongside of Commissioner Kevin Davis to give special thanks to two Baltimore police officers, Officer Keven Leary and Officer Isaiah Smith, who acted and did the right thing by testifying against their fellow officer who did the wrong thing," Mosby said at a news conference at police headquarters.
"The vast majority of police officers in this city are good officers, and I'm gratified that in this case the good officers testified against the bad officer," she said.
The Cagle trial began the same week that Mosby dropped charges in the remaining three officers' trials in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray. In a news conference near the Gilmor Homes where Gray, 25, was arrested last year, she blasted the Police Department, saying it and the criminal justice system needed radical reform.
"We've all borne witness to an inherent bias that is a direct result of when police investigate themselves," she said at the time.
On Monday, Mosby said she was heartened by the two officers standing up for justice -- and she credited Davis for helping create better police-prosecutor relations.
"We believe under this police commissioner, this will become the rule rather than the exception, and this case highlights our commitment together to work with one another," she said. "Commissioner Davis and his staff are working extraordinarily hard to create the kind of police department that Baltimore residents deserve, and I thank him and all of the men and women that uphold that sacred oath."
Davis also praised the officers and said he was "not surprised one bit" that the Police Department and prosecutors were able to work together to convict Cagle.
"Reporting misconduct, now absolutely required by our new use-of-force policy, is something that the community has a right to expect from all police officers in Baltimore," he said. "My team and the State's Attorney's team are here today to support the vast majority of police officers who routinely do the right thing day after day, and call after call."
"There's nothing more a good cop hates," he said, "than a bad cop."
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