Criminal gang running the Baltimore City Jail

OCD_OCD: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bal-black-guerrilla-family-tavon-white-prison-corruption-20130425,0,7483161.htmlstory

Corrections officers at the Baltimore City Detention Center were preparing for a middle-of-the-night search of jail cells, aimed at rooting out drugs, cellphones, weapons and any other contraband inmates had stashed away. But the officers weren’t the only ones getting ready.

Hours before the planned checks in January, an FBI affidavit says, word reached Tavon White, an inmate who prosecutors say reigned as the jailhouse leader of a violent gang called the Black Guerrilla Family.

The advance warning vividly illustrates the success with which federal authorities believe the BGF turned the downtown Baltimore detention center into a gang "stronghold."

Authorities around the country have struggled for years to dislodge gangs from jails and prisons. In Maryland for example, a 2009 investigation revealed widespread BGF activity at other corrections facilities. But the scale and scope of the allegations laid out this week in a federal indictment — 25 people, including corrections officers, were accused in a smuggling scheme — has astounded even longtime observers.

After getting the tip, White allegedly announced: "I just got message saying that they going to pull a shakedown tonight. Let me call all these dudes in my phone and let them know."

Prosecutors say White relayed the news to two gang deputies, who in turn sounded the alarm to other inmates — fellow BGF members with nicknames like Fatboy, Ack and Flatline.

With White as its alleged leader behind the jail’s walls, the gang dealt marijuana, cigarettes, painkillers and cellphones that it smuggled in with help from corrections officers, several of whom were having sex with gang members, according to a federal indictment unsealed this week.

OCD_OCD: The gang’s so-called "Minister of Finance" also collected dues from members and levies from non-member inmates, funneling money to gang leaders on the outside, the indictment alleges.

Court filings paint gang members as highly organized, with an eye on the long term at a facility intended to temporarily hold suspects before trial. Prosecutors say they methodically went about co-opting corrections officers and had a command structure that jail authorities believed would determine succession if a member was set free or sent to prison.

Federal authorities charge that Tavon White (left), an inmate known as "Bulldog," took control of the Black Guerrilla Family gang at the Baltimore City Detention Center soon after his arrival in 2009 on an attempted-murder charge. Fellow inmate Derius Duncan (right) was a trusted lieutenant, according to the FBI.

Corrections department investigators discovered BGF documents outlining that new recruits are trained to target female officers with "low self-esteem, insecurities and certain physical attributes," according to the affidavit. Gang members believe such officers can be easily manipulated, investigators wrote.

Previous federal investigations targeting the BGF suppressed the gang in Maryland’s prisons and on the streets, prosecutors say. But the new indictment says it became deeply entrenched inside the jail — establishing the 36-year-old White in power while he awaited trial for more than three years on an attempted-murder charge.

Arnett Gaston, a clinical psychologist and prison gang expert who rose to the top ranks of the New York and Maryland corrections systems, said he was shocked by the alleged level of involvement by corrections officers. Thirteen were charged, and four officers were impregnated by White, prosecutors say.

"Quite frankly, I have never come across this level of voluntary participation. That’s what really surprised me," said Gaston, who in the late 1980s and early 1990s commanded New York City’s main jail complex on Rikers Island, considered one of the largest detention facilities in the world.

From roots in California prisons during the 1960s, the BGF has spread its influence to the streets of Baltimore, investigators say, setting in motion a wave of violence around the city late last year.

White, who held the relatively senior rank of Bushman, felt supreme inside the jail, according to an affidavit filed in connection with the case. But investigators also intercepted conversations between him and more senior leaders outside in which he asked for instructions.

In Maryland, prosecutors say, the BGF rose to prominence after federal authorities took on another gang, the Bloods, in the middle of the last decade. The Black Guerrilla Family might even have directly benefited from those cases, U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said Friday.

OCD_OCD: FOUR of the female prison guards were pregnant with White's children.

Talk about letting the fox run the hen house.

OCD_OCD: Maybe if he's lucky they'll get a change in venue and go before the judge who was stealing cocaine from the cases he presided over. Oh, wait. That judge suddenly resigned. I wonder why that judge isn't in jail.

OCD_OCD: ST. LOUIS (AP) — A southwestern Illinois judge whose colleague died of a cocaine overdose while the two were on a hunting trip together has been charged with possession of heroin and guns.

St. Clair County Circuit Judge Michael Cook pleaded not guilty during a court appearance Friday in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis.

A criminal complaint accuses Cook of using a controlled substance while in possession of firearms.

A judge ordered him freed on his own recognizance.

Authorities say Cook and newly appointed St. Clair County Judge Joe Christ were staying at the Cook family’s hunting lodge in western Illinois’ Pike County on March 10 when Christ was found dead. A coroner said Friday that Christ died of a cocaine overdose.

Cook has not been charged in Christ’s death.

http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2013/05/24/news/doc519fae58f1959776917177.txt

OCD_OCD: Having guns on a hunting trip wouldn't raise a red flag for me, but having enough cocaine to induce an overdose would. These people are JUDGES, fergawdsakes.

Criminals running the jails and criminals sitting on the benches. Amazing.

davidk14: .

How about the criminals in this administration? Benghazi.

.

OCD_OCD:

harlett anathema: don't progressive liberals... believe..folks ought too be able to do as they so choose.. with little to no consequences for their actions...
wasn't there a moment when being a liberal democrat.. just wasn't hip & or educated enough of a stance... for progressive liberalism...

<--wonders what "Farrakhan" & Middle eastern Islam thinks of progressive Liberalism...then wonders...if "Farrakhan" would ever tolerate the ways of Middle eastern Islam..over His Own views of....or give up His stature in His American Islamic doctrines.....in any case.... "careful of what you wished for... either way..personal freedom of choice is at stake....& then some...freedom is at stake...

sebtheanimal: Wasn't me!

harlett anathema: OCD..did a piece on "Farrakhan" visiting a Christian church ..???...giving the usual type of Sunday sermon given in those so called churches...and apparently spewed all kinds of racist,anti-Semitic,and american

there are several wars going on.. folks just aren't tuning into are in fact being waged at us...

Serabi:

"Corrections officers at the Baltimore City Detention Center were preparing for a middle-of-the-night search of jail cells, aimed at rooting out drugs, cellphones, weapons and any other contraband inmates had stashed away."

Please don't tell me that the USA is infringing on these inmates' human rights! It is their RIGHT to carry cell phones, weapons, the best medical care in Private Clinics, to vote and run their businesses on the Internet!

harlett anathema: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

RadicalRedRadish: I photographed a county sheriff raping and murdering an infant girl in 1990, and the FBI still hasn't bothered to prosecute him. *sigh* It was before Photoshop, and the photo was taken on a film camera. Impossible to forge a photo back then.