I was clicking around on the Maryland Judiciary Case Search web site, the public database for Maryland's court system, and saw that Milton Tillman III had been arrested earlier this month. Tillman, you might recall, is part of a bail bonds and real estate empire whose properties were raided by the IRS in late 2008 and which had nearly 30 properties auctioned off in December. But this arrest wasn't for anything connected to that investigation; he was picked up for riding a dirt bike. The officers who made the arrest were Detectives Calvin Moss and Jermaine Cook. Moss and Cook recently avoided having to pay damages in a civil suit brought by the parents of a 7-year-old boy who was arrested for sitting on/riding a dirtbike. Tillman's arrest hardly appears newsworthy, but it's always fascinating to see how unrelated characters from the news intersect sometimes.

The NAACP Baltimore branch is asking for the FBI to review the Gerard Mungo Jr. case following the conclusion of a civil trial in Howard County in which a judge directed the jury to decide damages for the family against three of the six officers, with the jury deciding to award nothing. Marvin "Doc" Cheatham, president of the local NAACP, equivocates the judge's decision to a guilty finding and says that federal authorities need to step in since the police department and city prosecutors cleared the officers of wrongdoing (See both "updates" after the link). He also calls media coverage of the case "less than thorough."

Here's the entire text of Cheatham's email sent to media outlets this afternoon:

"Today the NAACP Baltimore City Branch both faxed and mailed a letter to the FBI requesting an investigation of the Baltimore City Police and the unlawful arrest of Gerard Mungo, Jr.  While much of the media has placed importance on the jury refusing to reward the family money for alleged damages the fact that the judge ruled that the detainment and arrest were unlawful seems to be lost in the less than thorough reporting.
 
Additionally, it was allegedly reported on WJZ-TV, after the trial, that the officers purportedly admitted that they were wrong.  If this be true how did the Police Department, possibly the IAD, substantiate their findings.
 
It is important to note that the judge found the police officers unlawfully arrested and detained, but it has been rumored that the Baltimore City Police Department completed their own investigation and unsurprisingly found the officers arrest lawful.  As usual, there is still no tranparency with the Baltimore City Police Department.
 
The concern of the NAACP is the fact that the judge found the arrest unlawful and unless outside pressures is asserted is it unlikely that the Baltimore City Police and the City of Baltimore will do anything regarding the judge's decision.
 
This is, by the way, not a new position by the NAACP for it is the same position of questioning the actions of the officers on the morning that we did the rally in March 2007 hours before the arrest of Gerard's mother."

The Sun's Don Markus is reporting that a Howard County Circuit Court jury rejected a civil lawsuit against six Baltimore police officers brought by the mother of a 7-year-old boy arrested for illegally riding a dirt bike and who was later handcuffed to a bench at police headquarters.

Judge Diane Leasure sent the case to the jury Thursday morning after determining that two of the officers acted unlawfully in arresting the boy because they didn’t witness the incident. Nonetheless, Lakisha Dinkins’ suit for more than $700,000 in compensatory damages was soundly denied. The jury said the family did not deserve any money.

Check tomorrow's Sun for more details.  Scratch that - online now,

UPDATE: With Leasure determining that two of the officers acted unlawfully, Marvin "Doc" Cheatham, president of the Baltimore chapter of the NAACP, is asking what will happen to the officers. In an email to the Mayor and City Council, Cheatham said, "We cannot and must not just go on as though nothing happened or go on with business as usual. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

I'm checking with the police department, but I believe that whatever punishment the officers were going to receive was likely long ago meted out. When officers are charged criminally, Internal Affairs waits until those charges have been adjudicated before moving forward with internal discipline. But since these officers were only sued in civil court, Internal Affairs did not have to wait and likely has closed the three-year-old case. All of the officers continue to work for the police department, though some have changed assignments. The two officers found culpable have moved on to detective and operations work.

UPDATE NO. 2: As I suspected, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi tells me that the officers were cleared of wrongdoing by internal affairs years ago.

Testimony continued today in Howard County Circuit Court in the $40 million civil lawsuit brought against six city police officers by the parents of Gerard Mungo Jr., who was 7 years old when he was arrested, handcuffed and fingerprinted for sitting/riding a dirtbike in 2007. Officers who have testified said that they were within the department's protocols to arrest a child, though one officer testified that he told internal investigators that his supervisor told him to arrest the boy if his mother called in a complaint about police seizing the dirt bike, which is illegal to operate in the city. Three other officers who later arrested Gerard's mother, Lakisa Dinkins, vehemently deny that they knew anything about the case or that it influenced their decision to arrest her for impeding a police investigation. Overall, the defense argues that regardless of the plaintiff's allegations, the officers did not break the rules.

Stricken from evidence was a conversation between one of the officers and a dispatcher, in which they appeared to be joking about arresting the boy. The Sun's media partner WJZ reported on the conversation in 2008, when the suit was filed.

One of the more intriguing aspects of the case was that attorneys for the plaintiff had planned to call former Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm as an expert witness, but that idea was shelved a few days into trial.  

We're told that testimony could wrap up as earlier as today, with closing arguments and then jury deliberations Thursday (The court is taking a break Wednesday). Check back then for updates.

Attorneys for the family of Gerard Mungo Jr., the 7-year-old boy who was arrested in 2007 for sitting on a dirt bike, have apparently abandoned plans to call former Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm to testify as an expert witness for the plaintiffs. When the story hit the news nearly three years ago, Hamm said the officers could have acted differently and "had other options," a comment that the defendants in the suit believe is inaccurate. Attorneys had planned to call Hamm to testify at the civil trial, being heard this week in Howard County Circuit Court after a change of venue motion was granted, but that apparently will not happen, attorney A. Dwight Pettit told me. Hamm has made few public appearances since being replaced as police commissioner later that year.  We'll update if that changes.

During today's proceedings, two of the officers involved in the arrest 11 days later of Gerard's mother, Lakisa Dinkins, said they had no idea who she was and that the arrest had nothing to do with a rally for the family that occurred earlier that day. Detectives Calvin Moss and Jermaine Cook, members of the plainclothes Violent Crimes Impact Division, testified that they saw two men engage in what appeared to be a drug transaction and then take off running after seeing the officers in an unmarked patrol car. One of the men ran into a home, and the detectives pushed open the door and followed him inside.

Dinkins and one of her sons have testified that the officers did not identify themselves, and that they believed the men were "robbers." The officers did not end up searching or arresting the man they chased into the home, but instead Dinkins, who they said created a disturbance, calling the officers "white [expletives]" and impeding the investigation.

"Let me get this straight: you chase him, apprehend him, don't ask him any question and don't search him?" Pettit asked.

"Ms. Dinkins wouldn't allow us to do our job," Moss said.

Pettit was also incredulous that the detectives could end up in a home with Dinkins the same day as a protest held by the NAACP in the neighborhood to condemn Gerard's arrest.

"Of all the houses in Baltimore, you're telling me it was a coincidence that you went into the same home as Ms. Dinkins?" Petit asked.

"I seem to be a very lucky fellow," Moss joked. "Yeah, it was a coincidence."

One of the attorneys for the officers, James Fields, said the officers were just doing their job. "If the suspect had run into [the house next door], would you have run into that house?" Fields asked. "Absolutely," Moss responded.

The boy arrested sitting atop a dirtbike back in 2007 is back -- his family's lawsuit against the Baltimore Police Department is underway in Howard County Circuit Court.

Justin Fenton of the Baltimore Sun reports that the officer who slapped on the cuffs and caused such a stir testified that he not only followed proper procedure, but he got advice from a prosecutor and he denied arresting the boy to retaliate against his mother for filing an earlier complaint against the department.

The arrest drew criticism from Mayor Shelia Dixon and the police commissioner at the time, Leonard Hamm, and sparked a community debate over how to deal with misbehaving children. Wednesday was the first time we've heard from the cops involved in the arrest of Gerard Mungo Jr.

Justin writes:

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